Quote:
Originally posted by Mike AI
The US is the only Nation to fight a war over slavery, and to abolish it.
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Uhhm... Plenty of nations stopped slavery simply by passing a law banning it, and then ensuring that law was upheld. The US was one of very few nations where so many people depended economically on slave labor that abolishing slavery was met with so much resistance that abolition of slavery ended in military conflict.
I don't exactly think the fact that you had to endure years of civil war to be able to abolish slavery is something to seemingly be proud of.
And remember that even after abolition of slavery, the US benefitted greatly from it economically for decades thanks to segregation and a wide variety of methods used to keep the black population down that ensured that they remained extremely cheap labor.
I don't agree with the post that tried to pin all of the US' success on slavery and "free" land, but slavery DID clearly play a part - it was vital in the economy of the south in particular for a long time.
However, another, often overlooked reason, is that the US have led the way on trade protectionism ever since independence. It's quite interesting, considering that so much of the opposition against British rule was a result of British levies on the colonies, that the US learned the lesson so well and ever since have used trade restrictions, subsidies, import and export duties etc. on an unprecedented scale to ensure domestic companies get preferential treatment.
Interestingly, that is the exact opposite of what the typical US free trade, free market rethoric would indicate.