America: An Empire in Decline?
Yes, a very annoying debate if I must say so myself. Why compare modern United States to ancient civilizations, connect weak material and then claim the same circumstances will cause its fall? The decline of any country can only be through external force - conquest or destruction of their culture, with internal problems only adding pressure. In the 21st century, this is very unlikely without major conflicts and world interference. I also disagree with the common belief of "empires" still existing. That term was abandoned long ago. America as a nation is prosperous and rich in resources, authority and power. They boast the most advanced armed forces worldwide and control the economy, as we've seen through this second great depression. It may lose its superpower title, however I doubt China, India or Russia will claim it. Chinese society is experiencing rapid technological and economic growth, but their professional army need attention plus re-construction for them to prove successful and efficient. Russia is lacking in the latest firepower for vehicles and jets, as the Georgia-Russia confrontation proved. There will need to be a total reform and alteration of government spending to lift them to superpower status. As for India, they may have large forces, but I highly doubt their capabilities. Being a very poor country, it is surprising to note that they have access to nuclear missiles and has one of the biggest fleets in the Indian ocean. Anything is possible, and it's hard to predict who would inherit America's title. Perhaps Britain again, Germany or Australia? It depends on many factors and only time will tell. Glad to help =)
Do you believe America is an imperialist nation?
Liberation and nation building are not imperialism, someone mentioned Puerto Rico, they are are protectorate they are free to leave any time they like, Guam, Samoa, maybe you should go ask them if they would rather be on their own, let us know what answer you get, that's imperialism?, they also mentioned the Philippines, which we were given by Spain after losing the Spanish American war, we had a couple of bases there, we didn't run the place, they asked us to leave and we did, that's imperialism?, Iraq, we're in the process of leaving Iraq, I think some of you people are in serious need of a new dictionary
Are we witnessing the decline of the American empire?
Sadly its not an empire but the country that is in decline, largely, due to:The grotesque rip off that is US health (17% of GDP, double anywhere else with outcomes not quite as good as leading countries spending half the amount. This has arisen only over the last 30 years, before then the US was comparable to others)The lunatic waste of money that is US defence (5% of GDP, as much as the next 10 largest defence budgets put together)The fantastic socialist waste on agriculture (variably quoted but, in total, I believe around US$770bn)The appalling waste and injustice of the world’s largest prison population (double anywhere else per head)The achievement of mass addiction and a wildly profitable illegal drugs businessAll this amounts to wasting more than one dollar in five spent in the US on non-productive or counter-productive stuff.Even that rich and well-educated country is staggering a little under this level of waste, which seems irreversibly to get worse.Sadly, congress is neutered and is no more capable of addressing these than it is of reforming gun law, sought by over 60% of the US population. All the difficult decisions are shuffled off onto the Supreme Court which has become politicised as a result.The US constitution has now become completely perverted. The President, who was supposed to be a non-political Commander-in Chief, has become what the founders were determined to avoid: the elected King (and elected by 26% of voters, fewer than his opponent), the lawmakers are too hamstrung by their electorate to do anything other than vote in favor of motherhood and apple pie and the Supreme Court has become the unaccountable source of political decision making.The Constitution of the USA is dead and it drifts towards the rocks with no one able to face the waste and agree the compromises needed to steer away from ruin. I am deeply saddened to see this great country - a country that defeated the Nazis and Japan and outfaced the USSR, so brought down. I fear the floundering around as people try ever more extreme measure without recognising the real problems.
When will america's empire decline and which nation will emerge?
history tells us no empire or great world power lasts. america fully emerged as the world power only after ww2. how soon will a new power overtake america? china? is america consciously fighting to prevent another power from supplanting it? will it go to war to keep its empire?
How will history remember the American empire?
Because of the Internet, that’s their single most notable contribution that everyone will remember, the rest will just be swept away as most of it was built on propaganda or by manipulation of the truth.An example; WW2 for a fact was won mostly by the Russians yet after years of propaganda efforts, most believe it was US. Do you think that will hold when there is no more money for propaganda?Other example, the space race? Russia won that one, they just didn't go to the moon but other than that and despite all efforts to misguide, history knows that the biggest contributions to space travel come from Russians.Other example, the most streamed song in history is in Spanish, who would’ve thought that was possible 10 years ago when English ruled on all the charts?Other example; Look at the medals from last robotics Olympics. Wasn't Mexico a 3rd world country? What are they doing in second place? My point is that technology used to be US’s top strength but not any more, now everyone has access to it and everyone is competing at almost the same level as US.Another example, Mexico used to buy most of their cars from US, now they buy everything from Asia and their starting to build their own, 20 years ago no one in Mexico would thought that an American car was bad, today everyone thinks they are crap in 20 years no one will ever remember that there used to be American cars in Mexico.This is Mexico’s first electric car, it sells for less than one tenth of what a Tesla is worth.
Does American imperialism exist?
If you live outside of the USA territory specially in the regions of strongest influence (e.g. Middle-East and Latin America) I can assure you it is quite easy to perceive the existence of American imperialism. I am just going to provide some examples of American imperialism in the XIX century:- The Manifest Destiny ("America for the Americans") implying the whole continent and not only the USA territory.- The multiple invasions of the USA to Mexico in XIX where Mexico was forced to sell half of its territory. - The Spanish-USA war when some newspapers pushed the american government to war and to control Cuba, Puerto Rico and Phillipines. In our times it is a little bit more difficult to speak about imperialism in terms of war. But in geopolitical terms American influence is completely impossible to ignore. I am just going to provide some examples of the most famous cases in the XX in Latin America:- Condor Operation- Iran–Contra affairAmerican Imperalism refflects also in terms of commerce: In Mexico a great deal of the popullation believes that the NAFTA agreement was forced by the USA leaders and companies to our very corrupt and undemocratic politicians.
How did the Americans view British imperialism following WW2?
It was wrath of the American government rained over Britain during the Suez Crisis late October early November 1956, which was a joint attempt by British and French empires to be active in global affairs again, together with a young State of Israel, agreeing to be their hand in the invasion. They acted without informing their US partner, or rather the leader. Reaction of America can be interpreted as “I thought we had an understanding your empire was no more”.A humiliated British Empire had to pull its forces back in the middle of the military invasion of Egypt within weeks or else its economy would to be destroyed by the Eisenhower presidency. France was surprised that Britain so easily abandoned the operation and had to pull back itself, too. In fact the Pound was already falling sharp through speculators. Prime minister Sir Anthony Eden, an orientalist, eventually resigned and retired from British politics as the price of disobedience.So much a heavy reaction it was that the German chancellor called within days the French president on the telephone and convinced him that the Anglo-French alliance was meaningless as Britain would always go together with their American cousins across the pond. The two continental Europeans, after a thousand years of competition, decided to form a new alliance, which is now called the European Union.Also having seen there is no chance for their empires in the bipolar world, Britain and France started decolonisation of what is left and completed the process within two decades.So the Suez operation and crisis 60 years ago late October broughtsacking of a British government by Washington,the definitive end of British and French empires,breaking of the Anglo-French alliance and start of Franco-German one,the European Union’s precursor, coal and steel community,start of Israeli expansion in the Middle East,end of traditional Soviet support for Israel, which targeted now USA as its ally.Picture: Eden resigned on 9 January 1957, a month after Britain withdrew its invasion forces from Suez on capitulation to US government.