The colonial empires gave birth to two world wars,although that cause for the hyper imperialism aka facism rarely makes it into the history books.
I also venture to say that colonialism is dead and we will not see empires in the 20th century sense of the word. The troubles Russia has in the Ukraine seem to indicate vast land grabs belong to the history books.
I don't agree. Russia was successful in it's land grab of Chechnya and Georgia. Russia was convinced it's invasion of Ukraine would be a 3 day cake walk, and reportedly their followup step would be to use their blitzkrieg of Ukraine to annex the Baltic nations and Moldova, and force NATO to abandon both Poland and Romania, thus destroying NATO.
In the meantime, China is preparing to invade Taiwan.
Just because Russia failed miserably in it's invasion of Ukraine that doesn't mean land grabs belong to history books.
cough* USA cough*. Has colonized Europe, Australia and New Zeeland and is fighting hard to extend its influence in Latin America and Asia
Well, not for lack of trying. If Russia's military were actually competent and not a clusterfuck of corruption and lies, the world might look different now. And it's not like they haven't done the exact same thing to weaker countries without western support in the recent past. If Russia were successful this time, China might also feel emboldened on the whole Taiwan thing. And who knows how far Trump and Netanyahu will go with their ideas for the middle east.
Trump likes to do deals- maybe he would just do an even swap.
.. but it didn't survive.