Why does it seem like this country just erupted out of the blue in the last century?
Obviously America was English people stealing land from the natives and fighting off the Spainards.
South America was the same but where the exiled Spainards retreated.
Canada came about of the French claiming what wasn't already taken.
Inland Europe were a hodgepodge of hunter-gatherer tribes that spun off Mesopatoamia and I'm guessing refugees of the Mongol empires.
Asia is the land left over after the fall of the Mongol empire to the Crusades.
Italy, Portugal, and Greek are the more developed Caucasian countries because they lived near the coast and blessed by prosperity. But they still fought each other anyway.
Africa and Japan both isolated themselves from the rest of the world and demonstrate my coastal-prosperity axiom.
Ok, I get that. But what I don't get is how Russia just POOFED into existence, or why there seems to be this disparity when it comes to learning about their history in American education. They're the second most powerful nation in the world and yet all you ever hear about is Germany this, that, or the other. What's more, per their location and as I understand harsh temperament you would believe they'd be no more developed than Canada, if not worse. I suppose being the closest country to Japan does have its perks, but I doubt Japan is somehow responsible for them being the superpower that they are.