History’s Might Have Been

One of many. 

This is interesting. Also, it is not generally known in the west what the rest of the world does when left on their own. I guess we all think they disappear into China cabinets and Matryoshka dolls and Lederhosen. Well, they’re not. China is currently investing huge amounts of money (trillions,) in building an infrastructure that will encompass Europe, Asia, and Africa. And it could have been done a century ago to an even greater extent.

After the Trans-Siberian Railroad was complete, the backers and leaders of the project wanted to continue it across the Barents Sea, across the Aleutian Islands, and into Alaska, where they would continue into Canada and down into the US. They had a concept down. A plan. All the expertise in building a railroad 6000 miles through wilderness that is frozen for over half the year. And they had the backing. On hand. In the bank. They had all they needed. A little jaunt across the north Pacific should be as easy as borsch.

Until a little jaunt called the Bolshevik Revolution banished the borsch. The money disappeared, of course. Just like Napoleon. Just like Hitler. Just like many countries over the centuries, and just like some clueless countries today, they all thought they could just waltz in and loot the vast wealth of Russia. Well, the Bolsheviks succeeded where everyone else had failed. The dreams of connecting five continents together imploded, gone in an instant. All that historic might-have-been visionary varnish vanished. Replaced by the greed of a few men who viewed the rest of humanity as raw material. Fungible. Workable. Disposable. And they are still trying to break Russia up into sweet and savory pieces. It doesn’t seem to be going well. It usually doesn’t.

Imagine if this project had been finished back then? At least the connection with Alaska might have been completed in a reasonable timeframe. Imagine a marker in New York City that read, 32,544 (20,221) indicating kilometers (miles) from Moscow to New York City like the one in Vladivostok that read 9,228? What kind of unfolding of European and Asian history, not to mention America’s contribution to it, might have happened? One of history’s great might-have-beens. Maybe it yet will be, again. That is, if we can stop thrashing around the world like a wounded and very pissed rhinoceros caught in a bog of its own creation and start working with the rest of the world to have a future.  

Maybe? (Click to see post.)