Throughout history, empires have risen to great heights only to eventually decline and collapse, from the British Empire to RadioShack. The United States has risen over the past century to become the dominant global superpower. However, there are now signs that America may be going down a similar path of decline. In this article, we will examine the history of empire declines, compare the trajectory of the U.S. to past empires, analyze the root causes driving America’s deterioration, and assess whether we are truly witnessing the end of the American empire.
When examining empire declines, the Roman Empire is an instructive example to analyze. At its height, Rome matched and even exceeded the U.S. in several areas:
Insatiable expansionist drive
Extreme economic inequality
Global network of influence
Military dominance
Decadent displays of wealth
However, Rome did not experience one sudden cataclysmic event that marked its end. Instead, it underwent a gradual multi-century decline fueled by internal contradictions the empire proved unable to resolve. Much like in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, Rome weathered many crises over time that collectively sealed its fate.
The end of an empire is thus better understood as a slow deterioration rather than an abrupt collapse. The turning points are often only clear in hindsight. However, looking back we can identify contributory factors that depleted Rome’s resilience:
Crumbling infrastructure
Rampant corruption
Severe inequality
Dwindling institutional trust
Humiliating military defeats
Resource-sapping endless wars
The Parallels Between Rome and America
When comparing the trajectory of the U.S. today to past empires, in many ways it mirrors Rome most strikingly.
The two empires share foundational aspects like capitalist economic systems that concentrate wealth in the hands of an elite few while exploiting the lower classes. They also exhibit similar flaws in their responses to major crises that have tested their resilience:
The Great Depression
Little reform to prevent future economic disasters
COVID-19 Pandemic
Prioritized markets over protecting public health
Over 1 million deaths
Infrastructure Failures
Crumbling roads, bridges, railways
Environmental disasters like Flint water crisis
Financial Crashes
Minimal accountability for criminal executives
Ordinary people bear the costs
Endless Wars
Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria…the list goes on
Trillions spent on military excursions instead of domestic needs
In all these cases, the empires proved unable to meaningfully respond to and recover from major shocks to their systems.
The Key Role of Economic Systems
What makes the difference between empires that endure crisis and those that fall? In large part, it comes down to the underlying economic system and whether it prioritizes resilience.
Capitalism drives the endless pursuit of profit above all else. That means cutting every possible corner and stripping workers’ rights and benefits to reduce costs. It means running on extremely lean operations with no safeguards or shock absorbers built into the system.
When crisis hits, the drive to protect capital accumulation at the expense of ordinary people continues no matter the scale of catastrophe. COVID demonstrated this starkly. As the death toll mounted, the predominant concern amongst American leadership was getting people back to work to restart economic engines again.
In contrast, China’s socialist system permitted a swift, coordinated response that contained the outbreak and prevented the vast scale of deaths seen in the U.S.
The Rigidity of Ideology
Another critical factor is the ability of empires to adapt their ideological frameworks to changing geopolitical realities. Here too, capitalism and its intransigent defenders have put the U.S. in a weakened position.
In the aftermath of WWII, America enjoyed mostly uncontested global influence. But since then, China has risen rapidly as an economic powerhouse. It now offers developing nations a preferable alternative for investment and development aid free of the usual exploitative strings attached.
Faced with this threat to its dominance, the U.S. has reacted aggressively by expanding sanctions, initiating trade wars, and renewing its military interventionism. However, this rigidity continues accelerating its loss of global authority.
Meanwhile, most Americans remain blindly indoctrinated in the myth of American exceptionalism and refuse to acknowledge imperial decline.
Are We Living Through the End Stages of Empire?
When looking at all these signals in totality – the diminished international standing, the failures to address domestic crises, the rapidly expanding wealth gap – it is difficult to escape the conclusion we are witnessing the American empire in a state of advanced decay.
Major empires can take generations to fully unravel, but the U.S. shows all the hallmarks of an empire in decline:
Sharp internal contradictions
Mounting foreign policy humiliations
Loss of economic preeminence
Severe infrastructure failings
Inability to respond effectively to crises
The American empire has already begun its downward trajectory. Its collapse may take decades more to fully play out, but this ultimate destination now appears inescapable. The only question that remains is how violently the U.S. will thrash against the dying of its light.
Conclusion
Like all empires before it, time is catching up to America’s moment as global hegemon. An objective analysis of the state of the nation today makes it evident that the U.S. is falling into the familiar arc of imperial decay. Domestic dysfunction and failures on virtually every front suggest American power has entered its twilight phase. Exactly when the curtain will finally fall is unknowable, but the ultimate solvency of the current order has likely already expired.
