Does history truly repeat itself? Is the US going to follow the patterns of the Roman Empire?

Question

I am a US Citizen. I see and have read similar patterns. I'm interested in what others think and read.

Answer 1

It's true. In a rather large gathering of Political science pofessors here at the University i attend they gave out the exact example. 99% of these professors agreed that the US will be divided by 2050, and there will be a great war within the states by then as well.... Most likely a war amongst each other with quick in and out invasions by other countries.

23% of these scientists think that South America will rise to power since it is enriched with many natural resources.

Answer 2

US is a little more like the British Empire than the Roman Empire but similar to both. The British Empire was built on a relatively small but effective army, strong navy, better technology, and strong economic ties to it's conquests like India. The British actually started taking over India using a private British company called the East India company.

The downfall of the Roman Empire was partically due to the fact that it's army was overextended (much like the US today) and couldn't defend itself from many foreign attacks. I also recently read that inflation was also a major factor in the fall of the Roman Empire. Once they stopped expanding the empire the Romans lost their gold/silver supplies and that caused hyper-inflation like in Germany in the late 1920s & 30s.

The US empire doesn't need to conquer territory to keep our economy strong but we do need free markets to keep US businesses growing and when most of the world dislikes us that can cause major economic problems for the US empire. The US use to be really just a Economic Empire, we "invaded" countries with multinatioal corporations but they actually helped the countries because they hired those countries people and they paid taxes.

Bush though has changed everything and the US has once again become an Imperial empire and like the Roman empire we are forcing nations to do what Bush thinks is right for them and just like the Jews in Jerusalem in 70 AD against the Romans, they will rebel violently and that is bad for everyone.

But neither the Romans nor the British had nuclear weapons and that is the truly frightening aspect at having Bush at the controls of the US empire. If the Romans had had nukes they would have nuked the barbarians to save their empire and I'm just wondering if Bush is going to act like a Roman when he really doesn't have too?

Answer 3

I don't think the US is any more doomed than any other country on the planet. The US is currently a very powerful nation, but it doesn't mean we'll end up like Rome. A lot of people like to use that analogy, but it's unrealistic, because times have change. Humans are generally more civilized than they were thousands of years ago, there are safety nets in place to protect countries, and this world is no longer a world of sovereign nations that have limited contact with each other. The last powerful nation was Great Britain, and it never collapsed. It just slowly lost it's power as America and the USSR began fighting for the power. Great Britain today is still a significant country, but it is not the most powerful. That's what I think will happen to the US. Perhaps that will be a good thing. Then our government can focus more on our own people and let some other country screw up the planet for a change.

Answer 4

I am afraid we will follow the Holocaust again.
A new president in 2008 elected by people who do not want to have troops in other countries. In the 2 years, we allowed
Hitler to gain strength & millions were slaughtered & when we finally went to help it cost us over 405,000 US soliders. Helping fight Hitler 2 years earlier could have saved millions.
The only Roman Empire pattern, I see is the total selfishness
that everyone has. What is good for me, my party, my country
& to heck with everyone else.

Answer 5

History will repeat itself as long as people are ignorant of the history to begin with. You are absolutely right in comparing the US to the Roman empire, and the same thing that brought Rome down will bring down the US.

Answer 6

NO to both of your questions. I have read and studied the Fall Of The Roman Empire and the United States Of America is NOT
following the same path as the Roman Empire.

Answer 7

Time has shown that no empire can stand the test of time (well, excluding China. But that's a whole new subject). As US citizens, we have to understand this. It's just a question on how long the empire lasts, and not a question of whether it will or not.

Answer 8

History does tend to mimic itself it is true.The rise and fall of the roman empire is a long tedious book but there are some remarkable similarities there.
I am reading that right now.I am also finishing up the 9/11 commission report and "the new pearl harbour" by Griffin.Both books are at better bookstores everywhere.The lies about 9/11 are quite numerous when I compare these 2 texts.Disinformation by government at the xpense of the people that they profess to care about is definitely one of the themes of the crash of Rome.Happy reading

Answer 9

Someone was saying something about Barbarians...
Why do you criticize them if they are your anscestors!!!!

anyways the barbarians weren't uncivliized, and the reason why the Roman empire fell because they were getting tooo big for their boots. They couldn't control, very similar to the US.

Answer 10

Possibly. The Roman Empire died from the inside, mostly because of moral decay. We aren't immune from that.