The Fall of the American Empire: History is Doomed to Repeat Itself

History is chock-full of empires: British, Roman, Ottoman, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Byzantine… the list goes on and on. According to the interwebs, there have been almost two hundred empires throughout human history, some small and localized, some aimed at global domination.

The one thing they all have in common, however, is that they all fell!

All empires topple at some point, usually due to unchecked arrogance, extreme greed, and power dynamics, sometimes at the hands of one megalomaniac.

The British Empire

For almost four hundred years, the British Empire tore through the globe, collecting colonies along its destructive path. Shortly after the Second World War, a mass exodus of colonies began, with nationalist movements in African and Asian colonies leading the charge. Most of the British Empire’s wealth was tied to the exploitation of resources and labour in its colonies, so as they began to gain independence, Britain began to lose its primary sources of income.

With the increase in Germany’s naval power, Britain’s control of the seas weakened. While many factors contributed to the fall of the British Empire, including the loss of resources, slave labour, and trade exploitation of the now independent colonies, it was the devastating financial impact of World War II from which they could not bounce back.

The Roman Empire

A plague, natural climate change, religious divisions, and massive political instability contributed greatly to the toppling of the Roman Empire. Although the military might of the once-great empire allowed its rise, military overspending and government corruption by the appointment of a dictator instead of elected public officials signalled the beginning of the downfall.

Political instability took center stage, and the inability to recruit soldiers led to the hiring of barbarians, thus weakening the system. Constant engagement in war, oppressive taxation and inflation widening the gap between rich and poor, and an agricultural labour deficit were significant factors leading to the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire

One of the major factors leading to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire was the division of its people. Illiteracy and under-education also played a role in the empire’s demise. Shortages of well-trained military officers, engineers, clerks, doctors and other professionals were rife, causing the realm to lag behind its European competitors. Other nations deliberately weakened the stronghold, eager to exploit the territory controlled by the empire.

The most significant factor in the fall of the Ottoman Empire, however, may have been in choosing the wrong side in World War I, continuing the pattern of military failures. Coupled with ethnic cleansing and genocide, the empire was doomed to fail.

Project 2025

Project 2025, a terrifying and empire-like initiative currently being rolled out in the United States of America, aims to consolidate executive power in support of the right-wing agenda.

In an article written by Jason Kottke, Project 2025, in a nutshell, aims to:

• Remove all individuals from government agencies who are more loyal to the constitution than to the president.
• Discontinue the separation of church and state by allowing right-wing fundamentalists what they desire, including the dissolution of diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives.
• The removal of all human rights not in line with perceived Biblical teachings.
• Mass arrests and removal of immigrants.
• Denial of climate change, plus continued drilling, termination of clean energy incentives and fossil fuel regulations.
• Providing large corporations and uber-wealthy individuals with massive tax cuts.
• Punishment of those who prosecuted and opposed the president’s illegal acts and authoritarian rule.

In other words, the establishment of an autocratic state led by a megalomaniac dictatorship.

The Fall of Empires

If history has taught us anything, it is that empires fall primarily through authoritarian greed, arrogance, and the exploitation of people.

Let’s break down the current actions being taken by the US government and see how they measure up against their imperial predecessors.

• Illegally arresting, detaining, and deporting workers, residents, and citizens who were born in other countries, using unqualified ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents.

✅ Inability to recruit soldiers, leading to the hiring of barbarians.

✅ Workers imprisoned and deported, thus creating an agricultural labour deficit.

✅ Ethnic cleansing and genocide.

✅ Religious divisions.

• Harassing universities and places of higher education by targeting student protests, IRS threats, and public smear campaigns, as well as dismantling the Department of Education.

✅ Illiteracy and under-education

✅ Shortages of well-trained engineers, clerks, doctors and other professionals.

• Imposing international trade tariffs on more than eighty countries, thereby severely impacting US industries, plus cuts to small business grants, including black- and women-owned businesses, as well as the closure of USAID, and removing the United States from WHO (World Health Organization).

✅ Trade exploitation

✅ Mass exodus of colonies (countries and trade deals)

✅ Creating enemies, thus causing other nations to deliberately weaken their stronghold

✅ Choosing the wrong side

✅ Oppressive taxation and inflation, widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

• Targeting Federal agencies, prominent law firms, and independent regulatory agencies, aiming to keep checks and balances, plus allowing DOGE access to government payment systems and freezing federal grant funding, as well as the rollback of healthcare regulations and affordable drug pricing policies.

✅ Exploitation of resources and labour

• Exploitation of military forces.

✅ Military overspending (historical)

✅ Constant engagement in war (historical)

• Rollback of EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) regulations, withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, and cuts to clean energy and sustainability programs.

✅ Ignoring Climate Change factors

• The election of Trump.

✅ Government corruption by the appointment of a dictator.

✅ Massive political instability.

✅ The division of its people.

As they say, everything is bigger in America, so rolling centuries of imperial failures into one big collapse seems apropos.

American Entitlement

Before I continue, I wish to add a small caveat here. I have many wonderful, amazing, and beautiful American friends whom I love and miss, and I understand their frustration and sadness over the turn of events in the US. While, I don’t want suffering for anyone, karma is karma, and governments that bully find themselves on the wrong side of history.

What has perhaps astounded me the most during the fall of the American Empire is the blatant entitlement coming from the people. The total astonishment that this could happen to their country!

Why? Why is the US above history? Why are they above a collapse?

“What is happening to our country?” comes the cry from many Americans on social media. The trials and tribulations of other nations have been met with a total lack of interest, and in some cases, cheered on by these same folks - people who can’t believe that the corruption and criminal activity seen in other nations could play itself out in their world.

As a South African, I have had a fair amount of judgment and accusation levelled at me for the Apartheid regime. I’m used to it by now, and although I wasn’t responsible for creating the racist system, I did benefit from it immensely. I did nothing to change it or protest it; I lived a privileged existence within it. As such, it is something I am aware of and make sure that I understand the pain that was caused by it.

Three years ago, I spent five weeks in Germany with an old friend and her family. She had four teenage kids, and I was able to chat with one of them about living under the shadow of German history. She was very aware of the stain left by the Nazi regime and knew that many of her countryfolk were making sure that they lived lives of compassion and care to ensure their nation’s tainted history would never be repeated.

I have noticed that many Americans throw around the terms Apartheid and Nazi carelessly, and without any deeper understanding of what they mean, and without any concern for who they may be talking to. Many feel justified in denigrating South African and German citizens for the bullying tactics of their former regimes without any self-awareness of the horrific and brutal history of their own nation.

If anyone casts aspersions on the United States’ global bullying tactics or the current administration’s insanity, defensive responses run amok, often coupled with the “We protect you” retort. Protect us from who? Nations you angered? As an aside, I have noticed that the countries they are willing to “protect” are those that provide significant benefits to them, economically, as trade partners, or in terms of resources.

Until the recent bout of nationwide fascism in the US, Germany was denigrated for their bullying tactics in Europe, and South Africa was demonized for Apartheid and their treatment of the country’s black population. While I totally agree that both nations were rightfully ostracized for their tyrannical behaviours, it amazes me that Americans don’t see the correlation, don’t see why they are being vilified for theirs.

Accountability is accountability!

While there has been no collective mercy or empathy for other nations’ journeys to pay the piper, why should there be a global outcry for the collapse of the American Empire?

Taking a stand

I hear Americans talking about boycotting Israel to topple it. Bragging that when THEY boycotted South Africa, it brought about change. Sorry to burst your bubble, chaps, but I watched a LOT of American TV and movies during the Apartheid years, so someone was selling us something. I also played with, ate, and listened to American products, and while the US was late to the sanction party, South Africa survived very well for over a decade under international sanctions due to the country's self-sustainability.

I’m not saying that sanctions didn’t contribute to the end of Apartheid, but it wasn’t the Americans who did it. It took a collective global effort.

I have watched Americans talking about boycotts of other nations without any irony they they, themselves, should be boycotted for the human rights violations of their current regime. While Canadians are choosing to buy Canadian products and many are boycotting American goods, the government here hasn’t officially laid sanctions on their southern neighbour - no one has.

The invasions of Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan were cheered on, and the wars in Vietnam and Korea are still fodder for American hero stories. There is very little consideration given to the millions and millions of innocent lives lost in those military invasions, and yet the three thousand lives lost in 9/11 are mourned year after year.

American damage to other nations is extreme. From wars they had no right to be in to trade deals that benefitted them while disadvantaging other nations. From meddling in the affairs of other countries to the purposeful grab of other nations’ resources, the United States government has terrorized and bullied the world for a long time.

Americans are very proud of their revolution against the British, which started with an unwillingness to pay tariffs on tea, but are shocked that the rest of the world refuses to do business with them after the recent tariff war with other global nations.

The American Empire’s reign is coming to an end. It has not happened overnight with the autocratic establishment of their new dictator; it has been coming for decades. Mass exoduses, loss of trade controls, emigration of the educated, military overspending, ignorance of climate change and pandemics, political instability, autocracy, religious division, oppressive taxation, constant war, agricultural labour shortages, division of the people, ethnic cleansing and genocide, and the collective opposition of other nations cause empires to fall.

History is riddled with fallen strongholds exhibiting differing combinations of these factors, but the current empire seems to be immersing itself in all of them. Every empire engages in atrocities, and the fall of one is simply a karmic response to those atrocities.

The thing is, there is nothing personal in the failure of an empire, although it may feel so to those living within the regime; it’s energetic, karmic. If you build an empire, it will ultimately collapse; it’s archetypal.

Imperial regimes do not stand the test of time.

Please feel free to buy me a coffee if you like what you read.