Usually, when a society collapses, a bunch of warlords seize resources and then fight it out for a while, until everyone left knew people who died in the fighting.

During this period, it’s way easy for a stronger colonial empire to come in and take over, and if there are resources to be had (minerals, good farmland, oil, etc.) they totally will.

The US is an interesting case, since it still has a number of states that are strong self-sustaining economies all their own, and if the US fragmented, we might see those strong states lend aid to the dependent ones, making aid contingent on adopting the host states’ laws and values. Dunno if that will be a bloodless process, though.

“Look at all these nerds who think THEIR ideologies are going to rise from the ashes when it’s clearly MINE.”

This is a political compass meme.