The Decline Of Empires In The 21st Century

Rome, one of the most enormous and powerful empires to ever exist also eventually crumbled. There are many beliefs to why this happened, such as the increasingly weak boundaries, lack of assurance on the emperor's, an increasingly horrible economics system, and a backlash on the new origin of Christianity to name a few. What was known as one of the biggest empires known to date also eventually came to it’s unfortunate end.

Throughout post-WWII history, the United States has taken on the role of the world’s police. They feel the obligation to ensure the spread of their ideals for selfish and self-righteous reasons. John Mueller and Odd Arne Westad share their arguments as to what the United States’ actions have produced during the Cold War in Eastern Europe, Korea, and Vietnam and during the post-9/11 period in the Afghanistan and Iraq. While some of their arguments are valid, others are flawed.

Every important empire to ever conquer a part of the world started small. They were just simple villages with a population of maybe ten. Eventually, a leader or ruler comes along and sees that village as an opportunity, so he begins to work on it. Years later, this village that was once known as being miniscule and inferior has a strong military unit, a great emperor, and has taken over many other villages; it is now an empire. This, however, may not always mean that the village will stand forever. Every empire must fall back down in order for others to rise. The city of Rome is an example of an empire that fell drastically after reaching the height of its power. One major cause to Rome’s decline was the city’s overexpansion and military overspending.

The colonies were similar to each other in certain ways. They were all part of the British Empire at the time. They had to run in the mercantile system. The goal was to make more money for merchants and their government. They were linked together because they had to become partners. According to the Encyclopedia 2017, “It will examine what difference the end of formal empires in the mid-twentieth century made to the economic relations between metropolitan powers and former colonies.” According to usembassy 2017, “And while government involvement in the economy has been a consistent theme, the extent of that involvement generally has increased.”

From 600 BCE to 600 BC, many empires across the globe saw expansive and explosive growth. Many other empires collapsed during this time.What separated those that were on the way up and those on the way down was their ability to control their empires. While there are many examples of collapsing empires being unable to exert control of their territories, the examples center around 3 general reasons. These 3 reasons of collapse are economic, political and environmental.

I will forever owe a great debt of gratitude to my 5th grade science and math teacher, Mrs. Donna Lindley, for introducing me to the STEM world. Mrs. Lindley is a truly exceptional teacher who somehow managed to stimulated a desire for learning in the mind of a 10 year old boy who's primary goal in life was to pre-order the upcoming version of "Pokemon" to play on his Gameboy. Mrs. Lindley organized and supervised the St. Thomas Episcopal Grammar School's robotics team and made sure my older brother and I were involved with this extracurricular program. I began to build robots with Mrs. Lindley in the "Junior FIRST Lego League" (Jr. FLL) where small, computer programmable, robots were re-designed each year to accomplish new and different tasks.

What happened to all of the great empires that we heard of? Why don't they exist any more? Three reasons why empires may have fallen are natural disasters, weak military, and internal rebellion. Many empires have fallen from these causes but here are three major empires that fell from them:

The Western Roman Empire was marked by its vast territorial supremacy, as it conquering its neighbors to absorb their energy surpluses whether in agricultural outputs, mineral resources, or human capital. With the rapid growth of the Empire, the cost of maintaining order, production, and other logistical elements grew as well. This cost grew to the point there simply weren’t enough resources to defend against invasion especially when disgruntled peasants welcomed the removal of Roman control. The Maya empire failed due to the burdens of competitive warfare between the various city-states of the region. This was unsustainable especially given the population was already weakened by crop failure and drought. The Chaco Empire failed due to the communities coming to the conclusion that the costs paid to the central faction to be redistributed outweighed the benefits gained so they departed one after another. (Chippindale 1)

With all of the major empires had ended to it reign. The United States are coming close to the end of its power. But with many empires, most of the empires have fallen to invaders, and disease. With empires struggling to survive after anything can conquer their empire or destroy it. Three most problems that are facing the United States that could lead to its collapse as a world power are political corruption, welfare, and public health.

Throughout history, civilizations have risen to and fallen from power. The accomplishments of these peoples are not important only because of their place in history, but they are also important because of the impact that they had on the world. Some of these groups of people were only able to create small, but still important settlements. Others were able to establish large empires that controlled vast areas and directly changed the lives of many who were under their rule. The Roman civilization was one of these massive empires that lasted for over a thousand years, and it has had a powerful influence on the world ever since. The impact of the Romans is not just the hegemony that they had over the people groups

As with every turning point in any society, changes occur because of multiple dynamics that were occurring during a point in history. Through a chain reaction to many dynamics the Roman Empire divided and eventually the Western Empire collapsed. The collapse of the Western Empire allowed for one type of governing to developed in that region. And different form of authority, had been developing since Constantine had moved the Eastern empire capital into Byzantine. These two halves of the once Roman Empire held very different ideals on how authority should be viewed and how a government should be formed. These difference lead an increasing sharp tension between the East and West that to some regards can be seen in today’s society still.

1) What enabled Europeans to carve out huge empires an ocean away from their homelands?

Chau’s thesis that the rise and fall of empires was due to tolerance, inclusion, difference, and diversity is shown to be true of the Roman Empire because of the way that tolerance allowed and caused the empire to rise, enter its golden age, and fall. The Roman Empire was a “hyperpower” that lasted from 44 BCE to 476 CE. The empire contained Western, Southern, and Eastern Europe, along with North Africa; thus, there was an abundance of culture from many different conquered groups. Romans wanted to make these conquered nations provinces of Rome. The Roman Empire began (and the Roman Republic ended) with the assassination of Julius Caesar, who wanted to be a dictator. No longer a republic, the lands already ruled by Rome became part of an empire. The government became centralized with a single ruler, the emperor. However, even before the empire, during the Republic, there was also the similar feeling of wanting to conquer other nations was there.

“America was conducting business as usual, but others were joining the game.” (Zakaria, 221). All this time we thought we were on top, we were actually slowly becoming less and less of leader and more a bystander as the rest of the world is slowly rising around us. Zakaria shows in that quote that as America has been continuing business like always, and because of this we have failed to realize our standing with the world around us. In the book The Post-American World, Zakaria shows us the challenges that America faces today. I believe the United States is most affected by our ignorance, competition, and worldly participation.

As you can see, can rise in many different ways. The cause for an empire’s rise can be because of technology, a great leader,or the desire to become an empire. But empires can also fall. The cause for an empire to fall could be invaders, the loss of a leader, or a civil war. Empires rise and fall, but a good question is, if you know that you will eventually fall, then why