• ☂️-@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    17 hours ago

    i think they haven’t been an empire for just as long as it had existed?

    they were settlers first, right? with the indigenous genocide and all.

    • arctanthrope@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 hours ago

      so you’re saying going to war against a neighboring nation to expand your territory is not what an empire does?

      • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        47 minutes ago

        i forgot they invaded mexico pretty soon in, but that wasn’t global domination like they do today just yet.

        • arctanthrope@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 minutes ago

          the “neighboring nation” I was referring to were the indigenous people. North America was not a blank slate before Europeans arrived. “manifest destiny” was imperialism

      • orc_princess@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 hour ago

        The US was very unremarkable globally compared to Britain or France for example, people thinking it wasn’t dominant enough to be an empire doesn’t mean they think it wasn’t cruel or expansive

    • Dirt_Possum [she/her, undecided]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      15 hours ago

      Right, the US wasn’t a superpower until around WWII, so we’re less than 100 years into it really being an empire. But it can also be said that in some ways it became an empire because it inherited the imperial tendrils of the British empire.