The Four Empires

But for now, all Silas saw on the internet were party tricks that passed as Magic in this world.

He will need to gather more information about these paths. Still, the priority was understanding his current environment, and nothing spoke more about the environment than the power struggles of the people at the very top.

There are four major powers on this planet. They are as follows in order of their power: 

The White Crescent Empire controls most of North Africa, the Far East, the Arabian Peninsula, and South Asia. It is like a straight line stretched across the world.

The second most powerful empire is the Britannic Trans-Oceanic Commonwealth that controls the North American continent, some of the Central American Islands, the British mainland, and most of the Far East.

It seems that in this world, the influence of capital on the Empire was minimal; as such, it survived the last century by undergoing a complete overhaul of its existing technology.

In Silas's past life, the British Empire. While deeply problematic in many aspects, it had one particular cancer that led directly to its death.

This cancer was Laissez-Faire, a market economy system that was, for the most part, free from the control of the government. This principle was responsible, for the most part, for the rise and fall of Britain.

The lack of government intervention was what led to the true rise of capitalism as a global economic system. When the world saw how well the market performed when left to its own devices, they followed the same golden system.

However, what Britain and France, in particular, realized too late was an inherent flaw of capitalism.

Capitalistic systems, especially ones like Laissez-Faire that demanded a completely free market, assumed that the market is infinite. 

Above a street market is a city market, above that is a state market, above that is a country market, and so on and so on.

But with the rise of globalism, the markets finally stopped at the world market level.

With a closed market, the rules of capitalism changed. In such a market, the possibility of monopolism came into existence.

When the market is growing, there is space for new ideas and products to emerge, while existing, large corporations built on these ideas either grow or die off.

But what if the big corporations do everything right and keep growing? In such conditions, what if the market growth can't compete with corporate growth? 

If that happens, the corporations will continue to grow until they acquire a significant portion of the market share. 

With this market share, the corporation is able to influence the market in its favor. If the corporation continues to grow, it will eventually reach a point where it becomes a trust.

When that happens, there is a change in the relationship between the market and the corporation. Now, the corporation is no longer led by the market; it is the other way around.

Now, no matter what new ideas come forward in the market, the corporation will have the leeway to either crush or acquire these new ideas.

At this stage, the corporation gets pseudo-immortality; it becomes untouchable in the market. To prevent the corporation from negatively affecting the market for its benefit, there is generally a need for outside intervention.

This point was where the British failed. By the time, the British crown and nobility noticed the problem, the influence of the bourgeois that led these corporations had already seeped into politics.

This was why, when the Second Industrial Revolution came, the British industries could not keep up.

The bourgeoisie refused to make a major investment when they didn't feel the need to, and the government lacked the confidence to compel them. 

It wasn't that the capitalists were stupid; they were aware of the growing trend in new technology. But they believed that the government would protect their interests.

At the stage of monopolism, Britain was at. The interests of the corporation became the interests of the state. The corporations believed that even if they didn't change, Britain would use military and political might to shelter them.

Of course, this gamble paid off. But by the time everybody realized that Britain couldn't stop the growing trend of technology, it was already too late. The corporations and, subsequently, the empire had already begun to become irrelevant.

The British economy had begun lagging behind Germany's. But even after the destruction of the German Empire, the United States took its place as the fastest-growing economy, leaving the British behind.

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Coming out of his reverie, Silas continues organizing the information...

In this universe, Britain had survived even while using a system as flawed as colonialism. The reason was, of course, the reduced significance of the economy.

Britannic empire had relied on its military might to remain relevant. It was the same for the White Crescent Empire. 

This empire shared its origin with the first Islamic empire in his previous world. Except there was no religious element involved.

Even so, the reason this empire became the most dominant empire in the world was because of one man. 

A superhuman born in the Arabian Continent in the seventh century, this superhuman had two powers, One for all and All for one. 

He could recreate any superpower he had seen in action and even pass it on. This was the reason nobody contested the position of the Crescent Empire as the strongest empire.

The All for one superpower, after centuries, had become so strong that it was capable of easily annihilating the planet.

The only downside was the increased burden. Anyone in possession of this power had to bear the weight of millions of superpowers constantly, and as such, it was incredibly taxing.

According to research by the Britannic Empire, the optimal number of abilities for All for One was 12, yet the actual abilities it holds are countless. An estimate showed that the abilities had reached 11 million by now.

This was partly because the holder's control was needed to turn off the copy ability of All for One. Yet at the same time, the weight of All for One made it an impossibility.