(I'm not a Leninist, but in so much as I am an amateur historian, it is a Marxist/materialist understanding of history that informs my studies. I could literally spend the next month providing examples of why the extraction of wealth and resources are the critical factors in the vast majority of events in human history. Just because capitalists scoff at the idea they're all greedbags and our leaders always have been, doesn't make it wrong; consider the source - yeah, people motivated by money.)