[BILLY D.]

it was always a mystery to me why the british, french, dutch, italian and spanish who had such powerful navies and had so many colonies went the way of the dodo.

were the colonies such a drain on their economy they couldn't afford to keep them up or what? it was nothing for those countries to find out about a spice they wanted that was located in another country they would go in kick the crap out of the locals and take what they wanted for as long as they wanted and then leave if they wanted.

ah for the swashbuckling days of old. the only survivors seem to be the spanish, they are flourishing in this hemisphere and multplying like rabbits.