Rapid industrialization historically drives major powers toward expansion and imperialism

Evidence

China’s history, culture, traditions, size, economic dynamism, and self-image all impel it to assume a hegemonic position in East Asia. This goal is a natural result of its rapid economic development. Every other major power, Britain and France, Germany and Japan, the United States and the Soviet Union, has engaged in outward expansion, assertion, and imperialism coincidental with or immediately following the years in which it went through rapid industrialization and economic growth. No reason exists to think that the acquisition of economic and military power will not have comparable effects in China. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 615

Categorization

• XREF: A classic power-transition argument; connects to realism in IR theory and to current debates about China’s rise. — connects to: Post-1850 capitalist globalization proceeded through imperial conquest that reterritorialized world space. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1674; Early geopoliticians rationalized imperial expansion through national destiny ideologies — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1741; American territorial expansion, slavery, and cotton drove the Industrial Revolution symbiotically — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 199
• QUESTION: Is the historical pattern of industrializing powers’ expansion genuinely near-universal, or does Huntington overstate it by picking favorable cases?