The Conquest of Siberia

[Gaztelu]

Great.

Joe has instigated the second Cold War.

Let's all try and stay on topic.

[Joe McCarthy]

Great.

Joe has instigated the second Cold War.

This is an internet forum dude. You give me far too much credit here.

[Gaztelu]

This is an internet forum dude. You give me far too much credit here.

Understand the context Joe.

[BeerBaron]

Well, lots of Canada and Australia are deserts. Ice deserts or sand deserts, they aren't being used very much, just as Siberia isn't. All these vast expanses of inhospitable land serve for is resource extraction.

LOL, you know Canada only has a population of 35 million right? And that the arctic circle does no encompass all of Canada. There are mines all over the canadian shield. Just stfu

[Joe McCarthy]

Needless to say Canada and Australia are very sparsely populated and have little need to settle people in remote, inhospitable regions. Resource extraction is not wanting though.

By contrast I think few may realize that for much of its history the Soviet Union and Russia had a larger population than even the US, and though Soviet commissars attempted to settle Siberia they neglected to build adequate infrastructure for transportation, thus mismanaging the enterprise. One of Russia's great failings has been an inefficient transportation network. This cost them the Russo-Japanese War. Given the advanced nature of railroads and transportation infrastructure in the US and British Empire, it's implausible that Anglo-Saxons would have experienced the same record of failure as Soviet Marxist commissars or corrupt Russian nobles.