Revelation 18:3

‘For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen, and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wanton luxurious living.'

Her love of idolatry, sexual deviancy and the occult have brought on her the wrath of God and their participation in this, with its consequences, is depicted as wine drunk by the nations. The rulers of the earth sought to please her and gain her favours and the merchants of the earth prospered by reason of her propensities. All sought to benefit from her evil ways. This applied to Rome in John's day and it applies to many centres of ‘civilisation' in our own. The people to whom John wrote would see the woman as Rome. We may see it as many cities, centres of great empires, for men always tend to establish their own empires. Then it was done by blatant conquest, now it is done by assimilation. They may pay lip service to God but at heart they oppose all He stands for.