8/2/2019 George Friedmans The Next 100 Years tells the story of what will likely happen to the world over the next century

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The Next 100 Years Essay

Ryan Rego

George Friedmans The Next 100 Years tells the story of what will likely

happen to the world over the next century, based on historical events, current

events, and expert projections of the future. One of the main themes in this

nonfictional work is that by the end of the century, the United States will be so weak

that Mexico will overrun it. Even though I disagree with this statement, I still

believe that the United States will likely be overrun by another country, likely China.

The United States is increasingly becoming more and more like Rome, just before it

fell; Mexico will never be strong enough to overrun the United States; and China is

quickly becoming a rich and powerful nation.

Why did Rome fall? Many factors contributed to the empires demise, these

include a poor government, a division of the country, a poor sense of nationalism, a

army that had many contractors, and a large amount of debt. Now lets look at the

United States. The United States Federal Government cant get anything done, due

to the party system. The country is becoming further divided, not geographically,

but by class, with many members of the lower classes are launching, attacks against

the rich, such as Occupy Wall Street; people in the United States are becoming less

and less nationalistic, with people actively speaking out against the government and

country; and the United States Military is being forced to contract soldiers.

Friedman specifically points to a decreasing sense of nationalism in his work, he

states an annexation movement will arise (241). This quote shows us that the

American population will be so disgruntled with the United States that they would

want to join another country.

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In his work, Friedman states that the Mexico will be a very powerful nation

by the end of the century, and will be able to overrun the United States. He states

that [there will be a] predominance of Mexicans in the south-western U.S. (238).

In saying this, hes telling us that the large number of Mexicans in the United States

will at some point will try to annex the United States to Mexico. I find this

impossible. New York has more Irish then Dublin, but has anyone ever tried to

annex Manhattan to Ireland? No. Over 60% of the United Arab Emirates population

is South Asian1, but has anyone tried to annex the UAE to India, Pakistan, or

Bangladesh? No. The simple reason for this is that if the country youre living in is

superior to the one that you came from, youre not going to annex it back to the

country where you came from. Why else would you have come to this new country?

It does not make sense.

China is quickly becoming one of the worlds super powers. China is

currently ranked second by Gross Domestic Product in the world, right behind the

United States.2 If both the United States and China continue on their current growth

rates, China will soon over take the United States, making it the richest country in

the world. It will be able to develop its military, and it already has a highly

nationalist population, two things needed in world colonisation. In fact, the Peoples

Liberation Navy already has 63 Submarines, and 1 aircraft carrier, very impressive

1 CIA World Factbook, United Arab Emirateshttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ae.html ,

Accessed 02/26/122 International Monetary Fund, 2010

8/2/2019 George Friedmans The Next 100 Years tells the story of what will likely happen to the world over the next century

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The Next 100 Years Essay

Ryan Rego

for a relatively young military. These factors will most certainly lead to Chinas

ability to colonise of the world.

George Friedmans The Next 100 Years tells the story of American doom for

the next century. However, even though his theme of the US being overrun by

another nation is plausible, his stating that that nation would be Mexico was quite

outlandish. China is quickly becoming an extremely powerful nation, and by the

end of the century will likely have the ability to colonise the world. However, the

United States can still become a bigger power. It just has to reverse the path that its

on. It has to restore Lassiez Faire capitalism, increase national unity, and increase

nationalism. If it does, it can look forward to another century. If not, good luck

America.