But that came with a myriad of problems
The plebs in the country you’re invading would retaliate and not comply
You’d lose some of your own troops
Today, other global superpowers like Russia could rebel to protect their allies
You’d build animosity with everyone you ruled over
Invading countries you want to capture isn’t a good public relations move

In today’s world, we needed a different strategy where’d we get the same outcome: control over another country to expand our empire, make more money, get access to their natural resources, etc
But without all the negatives that come with an all out invasion.

Enter - debt

Debt is the most subtle and effective form of imperialism the world has ever known
Let’s say you’ve got a huge construction company or engineering company that specializes in massive power plants, hydroelectric plants, civil engineering infrastructure
Or you’re a powerful politician with a stake in big private companies like these

You all want the same thing - more money.

But there are only so many giant new infrastructure projects first world countries need
So if you can’t get new business domestically, how are you suppose to grow your business and profits?
Third world countries

it’s pretty easy to justify that, “hey, if we build this stuff for you, your people and your economy would be a lot better off and would love you for it”

You almost have a multi-billion dollar strategy - but we’re not quite there yet
They don’t have much money to pay you for these expensive projects

That's where the magic of debt in the form of foreign aid comes in
Countries that previously couldn’t afford your services, all of a sudden can
Even if just one of these projects goes through banks approving a giant loan, that’s a good few billion dollars

As a politician, the more entrenched a country is in your debt, the more power and money you have

As a bank, you’d be getting a ton of interest on these giant loans

To convince them, instead of door to door salespeople, we send economists, engineers, analysts

These people’s jobs are to study the economy of the nation and make economic projections and studies of where the country might be in 10, 20 years if they had a shiny new hydroelectric plant built

This kind of thing has been happening since around the 1970’sit’s been effective so far - developing countries still have a growing $7.8 trillion dollars in debt