The five forces framework explains historical and contemporary cycles: (1) credit-debt-money economy cycles driven by debt creation and repayment that generate market cycles, (2) internal order and disorder driven by wealth and values differences creating irreconcilable conflict between populist and extremist movements, (3) great power competition between rising powers challenging existing powers' rules and order, (4) acts of nature like droughts, floods, pandemics, and climate change that have killed more people and toppled more orders than wars, and (5) technological innovation and human learning as the most powerful force in evolution.