Britian was called the world greatest empire, the had troops everywhere protecting their interests, waged war on any threats, and was a large consumer of resources . Let's look at America, we have troops in many places protecting our interests (oil in the middle east), we wage war on threats (Saddam Hussein) all though that is understandable, and we are the single largest consumer of resources. I think its clear the similarities Britain and America have but are we effectively and empire?
First the Resources. We aren't stopping at anything to provide power, no matter what it fuels. Britain got what it needed no matter what, they didn't even stop when they saw that still buying resources from Colonists was fueling a rebelion. Same with America, if we could just stop buying oil from the middle east we could cut off a big flow of money to terrorists but our oil is far to precious to do that. Also not as much a problem for the British but we are destroying our planet with our consumption of resources and we continue, just to power our precious nation, giving not a thought to the rest of the world.
Although it is understandable and has been done thorugh history, we continue to wage war on threats. It is not that big of a deal because it needed to be done but as soon as we see a threat and they dont cooperate we send out troops. Britain did the same thing like in America and India and Africa, that was too keep territory. America does it for self protection, which although it is a good reason, is a indication to bigger similarity. Everybody hates us. With a few exceptions, Britain and Ameica are widely hated because of how we are handling things. This wouldn't be as big of a deal if Britain had been a democracy, but it was an empire, so we are obviously doing something the same.
The Last and biggest reason is that America has troops spread over the world protecting out interests. In the middle east is the largest concentration of troops, and this is all about oil. If we let terrorist go freely, they will either attack our supplies of oil or somehow shut it off and if that happens it's the end of the world, at least thats what are actions say we think. Britain had troops in Africa, India and America all to protect their interests like territory, saltpeter and more territory.
If you look at the similarities it's pretty ahrd to deny that America isn't an Empire. Even if you can deny it you can't say we're not headed in that direction.
