The American Empire (1898- ), also known as the “Free World”, is made up of America and those countries which depend on it in trade and war: North and South America, Western Europe, Oceania, most of the East Asian countries near China, South Africa, Israel, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the small countries of the Persian Gulf, among others. As I write this, it is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
America has more people than any other country in the West and its empire covers most of it. Places where the empire extends beyond the West, as in East Asia, have taken on many Western ways.
It is not an empire of land and direct rule, like the British or Roman empires. It is more like the empire of Athens – one where it is the first among equals, but is far more equal than the rest and tends to get its way.
Many on the left will agree that America has, sadly, become an empire. But most on the right will deny it. So whether there is even such a thing as an American Empire is a matter of debate.
Yet if it is not an empire, it is something very much like one: it keeps the peace in its part of the world and spreads its way of doing things – which it sees as the answer to the world’s troubles.
At the centre of the empire is America and the rich democracies – Britain, France, Germany, Japan and so on. Beyond that are poor countries that serve the centre, vassal states that provide markets, cheap labour and raw materials. Some of these countries are democracies but many are ruled by generals – the so-called banana republics.
Beyond the empire are Russia, China, India, some of the Arab world and much of Africa.
Some countries have done well in the empire. South Korea, for example, has gone from battlefield to banana republic to one of the richest countries in the world.
Some have left (or tried to leave) the empire, like Cuba, Iran, Vietnam, Nicaragua and Iraq, with mixed success.
Most stay, even if they do not always agree with America. The thinking is that they are better off sticking with America than standing alone. Many are near big countries which they fear more than faraway America, like the countries near Russia and China.
During the Second World War much of the wealth of the British Empire came to America to pay for the war against Hitler. After the war, America was the only large, rich country whose homeland was untouched by war.
It soon found itself locked in a cold war against Russia and its empire – then known as the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet empire fell in 1991.
Since 2001 it has been fighting a war against Osama bin Laden and his worldwide network of terror, who are fighting a holy war. The main battlefield is the Middle East where each seeks an empire.
See also:
- YouTube: Abby Martin: The Empire Files
- Notes on the American Empire – alliances, military bases, aid, interventions, covert operations, etc.
- America
- British Empire
- banana republic
- democracy
- guerrilla warfare
- Osama bin Laden
american empire, since when has america had an empire!! you say that some of the richest countries in the world depend on america, it does not mean that it has direct rule over it… an empire is a huge mixture of countries and different populations ruled by one single country or population. the key word in that was RULED! the UK for instant may trade with america but it also trades with france and china, you could easily say that china has an empire because that has HUGE amounts of power in asia, africa and europe… learn the facts
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The empire America has is more like the one Athens had (see Thucydides), not one of direct rule like the one Rome or Britain had. America does not send out governors to rule Pakistan or Nicaragua, for example, but it does expect those governments to listen to Washington and punishes them when they do not. America brought both those countries to near-ruin when they would not listen.
Yet why are leaders of sovereign powers expected to listen to Washington and are punished when they do not? What is going on here? It is empire in all but name.
Another strange thing: the West has been at peace for the last 62 years. We take it for granted because it is all that most of us know, but if you read history you will find that it is strange indeed unless there is an empire keeping the peace. Even Churchill, who had an extremely good sense of history, thought the peace would only last 30 years.
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Love this website. Extremely informative and for the most part balanced. How is it that for Jews that don’t believe in God (of which there are many) still think that Isreal belongs to them. What is the logic here?
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Good question!
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You must really check your facts because America is not the largest country in the west by landmass it is Canada.
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I meant by number of people. Sorry.
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Well-titled and well-written. Merci, Abagond. Et tres bien.
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Interesting take on the States. Stuff like this usually flies over the heads of its citizens.
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You’re correct, “we” have an empire, always have (but many seem either unaware or in denial).
There are a number of books that discuss this openly or come right up to it without mentioning the term. Chalmers Johnson is one author, another is the author of the “Economic Hit Men” books; ;you might take a look at Naomi Klein and “Shock Capitalism”.
Our modern empire has been set up to rule indirectly, as you’ve noted. I’d say we do send people out to rule as well, but the indirect/ unofficial mode of operation means we use a variety of channels for control or discipline as well as getting the message out about local policy. In one country, the US ambassador could be considered point man, while in another a general or admiral may be most important, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
At this point in our history, we have had a number of people argue whether or not this empire will kill of the American democracy or republic, or the human race, or the earth’s environment. While these are all compelling questions, they won’t be seriously considered by those in policy setting positions, for to ask such questions automatically gets one excluded from such positions. But there is a more interesting question, because it is both within their blinders and a very real possibility: will either the current set of basic imperial policies, or the very dynamic of the empire’s growth and survival, bring about the death of the empire itself — or the core culture that has generated it? I do think the current set of basic policies will, and the biggest question of the Obama/ post-Bush era is whether this empire can re-invent itself before it implodes. Some of the Obama agenda could generate or support re-invention.
Unfortunately, the biggest obstacle to this re-invention is the historical success of the post-WW2 empire and the US domestic “consumer” economy. It will be as hard for the ColdWar-freeworld/ Consumerist generation to imagine the next empire as it was for ManifestDestiny family farmers to imagine their successors mentioned above. In fact, most of this re-invention will look like withdrawl, shrinking, passivity and blue-sky dreaming. It will combine sustainable tech, national guarantees of finance of medical care and education with research and development of nanotech, transhumanist technologies, and settlement of both the oceans and space. But dropping domination of other continents for mining and outposts on other planets and on asteroids, and a few choice orbital slots in “free” space will prove as prescient as Secretary Steward’s “purchase” of Alaska from the Russian empire in 1867, but far more lucrative and historic.
I would also suggest, paradoxically, that we all will be better served if the US:
1. gives up any hope of controlling access to space by itself (in fact, encouraging natural rivals like China and Russia to get their own colonies in space), and
2. does not insist on trying to forbid any nationalism by turning all space ventures into “international” or UN ventures; and
3. is not particularly secretive about the technologies developed to do this profitably and efficiently.
In short, we need to foster international or inter-imperial competition in space between the “major powers” (empires), to prevent any one of us from further dominating this planet, while providing the spur of competition to keep us all on our toes. In time, the distances and differing living conditions will probably compell the settlers of such space “colonies” to insist on their own independence, just as we did from the British Empire. And when they do so… we should let them. American culture will be the better for that.
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Some people are just delusional.
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[…] aangirfan Website for this map […]
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I suppose you’re (the author, that is) one of those people that doesn’t understand why every other country thinks Americans are stupid…
I was going to start justifying myself, but no one will take this post seriously anyway so what’s the point?
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