Is the United States An Empire(Not in the way you are thinking)?

Question

I am not here to debate if the u.s. is an imperial power. That is not what i want to know.

If you look up the definition of an empire, it is two or more countries under one government. The u.s. has 50 states. The word state is another word for country. All 50 states are under the power of the same national government. So is the United States, with its 50 states under one centralized government, considered an empire?

Answer 1

Feels like you are trying to stretch the definition of empire.

Most states were territories or colonies prior to being granted statehood.

Hawaii and Texas ,I think, are the only two Soveriegn independant nations absorbed into the USA.

So, sure The USA is an Empire, just not in the same league as some of the early mega empires.

Answer 2

And so ur have heard (some of ) the answers;

And another point; try not to beat-urself-up over this type of
question and answer; For the answers can be very clever and
intricate-and more and more complex.
What the scholar Sir
karl Popper called,i think, the minutae of our current(mass
societal) world. A question you may prefer is, Is the United
States too Big?(as a powerful force for good). Someone may
answer that any democratic force-for-good can never be too
large; And we can agree, but whilst investigating why the force-
for-good Romans of old, were not able to bring the worthwhile
goals of stability,law and order, peace,accountable and economic government, etc. Its as if the largest country and
empire, the western world had known, could not do any better
than they had done.
And i dont need to remind you that your
present government pays homage,at least, to that empire, in
their structure-of-government and even in the type of buildings-
guessing that (some of) both government buildings were and
are built to last!
So try to remember; Dont get bogged-down by
clever or complex trivialities- the United States could well still have the problems that other empires or large countries had;even ones that they tried to overcome,but failed.

Answer 3

Of course. It is an empire after the pattern of the old Russian empire, that is it is one continuous land mass.
When the USA became independent it consisted of only 13 states .
Since then it has expanded through a policy of ethnic cleansing ( destroying the civilisation of the Plains Indians) and purchase from other colonial powers ( the Louisiana Purchase and Alaska).
The State of New York is called the Empire State and contains the Empire State Building. This is a bit of a clue.

Answer 4

Of course it’s an empire. It may now be one country, ruled within a federally structured government and under one constitution but it was not always thus. The lands were colonised and formed 13 separate states that effectively were governed from the UK. These may have declared their independence and then submitted themselves to a federal government but the presence of Natives needs to be taken into account.

They were ignored, marginalised and brutalised. They were then ignored throughout the US western expansion. Land was purchased (Louisiana purchase, Alaska) and colonised without any thought of these people! Empires have many forms of coercion and military might is only one aspect of this: economic coercion, population subversion/ethnic cleansing (i.e. the Russian actions during their Eastern expansion and the Chinese are currently doing in Tibet) to name but a few.

The US, from it’s very beginning, has been, and continues to be, an imperial venture. And no, by definition, you don’t need to have an Emperor/Empress to be an Empire: Britain had a constitutional monarch with little real power and no emperor during her imperial days, (although Queen Victoria took the title of Empress of India later in her reign) and the Senate, at times, ruled Rome during their Imperial period. Which brings me to the next point: America may be a Republic but so was Rome at the start and at intermittent periods during its imperial heyday.

Answer 5

you're playing on an ambiguity in the definition of the word "state".
all countries are "states" in one sense, but not all states are countries.
the "states" here, are not countries and never were. the 13 original ones were, at most, in the past, colonies. which subsequenly voluntarily subordinated themselves in a federal relationship to produce the "country" called the united states (of america) . people went forth from the original 13 and created more "colonies" (called 'territories' back then) which were voluntarily added to the original corpus, until there were 50 of them.
the united states cannot be considered an empire.

Answer 6

The US is not an Empire, because the US is one country and has one collective government, under one constitution. You can use the same logic when compounding it with the county and city governments.

Answer 7

All true, but these 50 states have VOLUNTEERED to join the Union; they were not taken over by aggression (such as how the British expanded its growth in the early 20th century.) That's what mark's the difference.

Answer 8

a million out of each and every 4 Christians interior the international are Catholic. however the Catholic Church has replaced via the years, in basic terms like the numbers have. some Catholic churches are previous trend, and a few are extra present day and lenient. it fairly is why maximum human beings brake off into Protestant churches. As for the "no faith" human beings, some people who have faith in God choose for to not call it a "faith". have you ever heard the asserting "Jesus is my savior. not my faith." It especially lots potential worship God the way the bible says to, not the way guy-made non secular communities inform you to. As for the atheist, extra human beings have become too clever, and questioning technology is the biggest to each thing.

Answer 9

Doesn't an empire by definition need an emperor? Emperor Bush sounds kinda catchy

Answer 10

no, because the States in the United states are not the same type of states as the "City states" or the Independently run states that you are thinking of...

that's my opinion anyway.. and that and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee.