The United States IS a 21st Century empire. We have managed to trick ourselves into believing the lie that we are a force for good, that we are the shining beacon of light upon the hill, the example of democracy and republican government that the world should strive to be. We believe these lies because it is easier to stomach than the truth, because no one is ever the villain of their own story. Much like an alcoholic who has yet to hit rock bottom, everyone else is the bad guy, and we are the victim. Many people, too many, think that the world must be looked at in black or white – good or evil. Not enough of them have realized that there are no good guys and bad guys, there are just our guys and their guys.
It is true that we do not have an Emperor leading us and that we do follow (a notional) system of constitutional republicanism, however when you look at what an empire is, you will see the similarities. An empire is a political unit made up of several territories and peoples; usually created through conquest and divided between a dominate center and subordinate peripheries. Within an empire, different populations have different sets of rights and are governed differently.
Thanks for reading Smokey's Fireside Rants! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
If you look through American history, you will see that this is true. Expansion is our lifeblood. One of the major reasons for the revolution was the proclamation line of 1763 that forbid colonial expansion and settlement west of the Appalachians. Following the American Revolution and founding of our nation, we began expanding in the three directions available to us: North, South, and West. To the north there was the disputed territory that is today known as Maine, to the south there was Spanish Florida that when acquired saw three wars from 1816 until 1858 against the Seminole tribes. Then there was the west, which saw the acquisition of land through monetary transactions and military adventurism as it was forcefully attached to the ever-growing tide from the east.
The largest of these was the Louisiana Purchase which saw 827,000 square miles added to the lands of the empire along with the various native Americans that already resided there and numbered between 50,000-100,000 people. The next was the purchase of Alaska which saw 586,000 square miles added. The third largest of these was the Mexican Cession which, following the Mexican-American war, had 529,000 square miles added to the empire. These lands were nominally American but now they had to be conquered. The US would send its military into these newly purchased lands to destroy the native peoples living within them. Through right of conquest the territories (colonies) had its people subjugated, its lands flooded with citizens from the east who then broke the land to its will, the culture of the region was subdued, and the lands were Americanized.
Eventually the Continental US would be swallowed (save for Mexico and Canada) and the United States would begin to look overseas’ for its territorial ambition. Hawaii, Spanish Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, the US interventions in Latin America and eventually the second world war would see the explosion of this empire as it surpassed the British Empire. Following the end of the second world war, the American overseas empire switched to a “soft empire” image where lands were ruled through puppet governments with US support. Examples of this are South Korea and Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Iran, western Europe through NATO, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and lately Ukraine.
As for the different sets of rules for people living within it, we have that covered as well. When we were originally founded, the nation clearly stated that white land-owning males were the citizens who could vote. That slavery was in fact legal at the time, natives were not citizens, and women could not own property. Over time, those rules have changed but there are still differences between us. While we are all subject to the same judicial system (in theory) and have our rights laid out in the US Constitution as well as judicial rulings, there are different rights for citizens and non-citizens.
If you have read Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, you know that he lays out four main reasons for why the Western Roman Empire fell: Universal Domination, Democracy, Militarism, and Religion.
Under the Universal Domination reason, Gibbon states that in its quest for world domination the Roman Empire created a situation that intensified the evils of despotism, lost public freedom, and allowed the Pax Romana to undercut their political values. Rome would offer citizenship to its subjects in a manner that did not require the citizens to fully integrate into the empire thus giving them the name Roman without adoption of the Roman Spirit. This took away what it meant to be Roman.
The Democracy reason was simple, Roman democracy led to anarchy (legitimate periods without government or effective government) and instability. The Roman democratic institutions would come to be dominated by rich individuals who, as we know from history, would culminate with the civil war between Caesar and the Roman Republic where we saw the rise of the first “emperor” and the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Democracy had directly led to this war and the rise of the emperors. Roman imperialism reduced everyone within the lands of Rome to that of a servile class (though at varying levels, everyone was subservient to the emperor). Despotism would weaken the Roman military, see the rise of excess taxation, and the fettering of the mind.
In the early days of the Roman Republic, the legion was a militia. While there were very specific requirements on who could serve and in what capacity in the Roman legion, it was a volunteer force that was established for the defense of the Republic. The legion would undergo various changes based on the various conflicts it found itself in. The most notable of these are the creation of the maniple system that was used to defeat the Carthaginians and saw the establishment of three various ranks of troops within the legion: the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii – each having more training and equipment respectfully than the last.
The Maniple system lasted in the Roman legion until the early 100’s B.C. when the Marian reforms took hold. This eliminated the land-owning requirement for legionaries and saw individual commanders outfitting their troops. The cohort system that we see in Hollywood so often is the Marian system. Don’t get me wrong, the Romans absolutely began their conquest of not only Italy and the surrounding nations (tribes) with the Maniple system, but the Cohort system that Marius established was the system that was used to conquer Rome’s empire.
Marching under the eagle and the cohort system the legions clashed in the first of the civil wars and conquered Greece. The tribes of the Iberian Peninsula were crushed, and the peoples of Gaul were subjugated under the watchful glare of Julius Caesar before he turned his attention to Rome. Egypt was finally brought into the fold as well as most of Turkey, the middle east, southeastern Europe, Britain, and part of Germany. What began under the maniple system was codified in the cohort system and Rome’s defensive militia had become a professional standing army. This standing army, Gibbon believed, was a threatening element to Rome.
It would be proven so later as the Emperor of Rome became whoever had the military supporting him. As the ages went past, the Roman’s stopped expanding and began defending their territory. It was no longer seen as profitable to be in the army, and so recruitment issues sprung up. Rome soon began to recruit barbarians into its ranks to fill the growing void left by reluctant citizens. Soon, these legions were becoming more barbarian than Roman and were clearly becoming paid military forces. There was no more duty, honor, country amongst the legions – it was money, power, and self-interest.
The hiring of mercenary forces to protect the empire was a ruinous financial position for Rome and the quality of its troops quickly deteriorated. In Gibbon’s mind, the last sparks of military greatness for Rome were extinguished when the Roman legions stopped being Roman.
Religion was Gibbon’s final reason for the collapse, and it was simple – the theological differences amongst the Roman’s led to fictionalization and civil strife that caused the Romans to fight amongst themselves. By the time that the empire was unified behind a single religion (for the most part) the other issues of the day had come home to roost.
By needing to hire mercenary troops to fight its growing wars of defense, Rome was forced to tax its subjects heavily. Soon, taxation would not be enough to pay for the defense of the empire (even after abandoning certain provinces like Britain and Dacia to shorten the defensive perimeter), the Romans would begin to sell off entire provinces to mercenary forces (that were tribal entities themselves). This began a rapid downward spiral for the Romans as they more land they “sold off” the less taxable land they had and would have to soon sell off more to stay afloat.
Briefly in the mid 400’s parts of Gaul, and Iberia would be retaken in military campaigns while the Romans held onto Italy and the coastline of the Adriatic. These gains would quickly be ceded in exchange, unsurprisingly, for military support from the various tribes in the area. The last few years of the Western Roman Empire are a sad story of regional players with grand ambitions hiring various mercenary armies to install them in power in Italy. When the newly installed “Roman Emperor” refused to honor land grants to his mercenary army, conflict between the mercenaries and the emperor broke out in northern Italy.
The small force loyal to the boy emperor’s father, who was really in charge, were pushed aside by the Gothic forces in three quick battles before being trapped at the capital city of Ravenna (which had been the capital for some time due to its isolated and defensive nature). Romulus Augustus was forced by the Gothic commander to abdicate on September 4th 476 AD. This is agreed by scholars as the date that the (Western) Roman Empire fell.
Now my friends and I often say that the Empire (American) is dying. We can see it crumbling visibly every time we drive down a street, visit a town, or attempt to purchase anything. But it begs a bigger question – are we witnessing the death of our empire or are we witnessing the transition from republic to empire? Will someone come along as a uniting individual that we all agree is above us as a human and therefore we should become subservient to them? I cannot speak for the entirety of the nation, but I can say that while the Empire is dying, I do not believe it can be saved. Soon, I believe we will witness the abandonment of many of our overseas colonies and we may get to the point where we see the surrendering of some of our continental territories. I support the Texas and New Hampshire and various independence movements that are ongoing within the US today. How Mordor-on-the-Potomac reacts to these movements will set the stage for the next decade of the American empire.
I don’t know if the empire will be here in 10,20, or even 50 years from now. I would be surprised if it is, but stranger things have happened in history. What I believe we must be doing, however, is preparing for the possibility that it is NOT here. We cannot vote our way out of our issues and if you think you can shoot your way out of them, then you are not grounded in modern reality. What we need to do is build collapse proof communities. Build a community that can sustain itself and thrive so the day that the emperor abdicates, and the empire officially falls, its just a blurb in a book and has nothing to do with you.
---
Hello friends. I know I skipped two weeks instead of just the single week that I told you about, however, that is for a good reason. I am doing quiet well in my life. The blog is called Smokeys fireside rants afterall. When I am not bothered by things, I don’t really feel a need to rant. I also think that I would rather put out quality content for you rather than just putting up anything that comes to mind.
Hope y’all are doing well and getting ready for the year ahead. I know we are. Till next time.
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Western Roman America
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The United States IS a 21st Century empire. We have managed to trick ourselves into believing the lie that we are a force for good, that we are the shining beacon of light upon the hill, the example of democracy and republican government that the world should strive to be. We believe these lies because it is easier to stomach than the truth, because no one is ever the villain of their own story. Much like an alcoholic who has yet to hit rock bottom, everyone else is the bad guy, and we are the victim. Many people, too many, think that the world must be looked at in black or white – good or evil. Not enough of them have realized that there are no good guys and bad guys, there are just our guys and their guys.
It is true that we do not have an Emperor leading us and that we do follow (a notional) system of constitutional republicanism, however when you look at what an empire is, you will see the similarities. An empire is a political unit made up of several territories and peoples; usually created through conquest and divided between a dominate center and subordinate peripheries. Within an empire, different populations have different sets of rights and are governed differently.
Thanks for reading Smokey's Fireside Rants! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
If you look through American history, you will see that this is true. Expansion is our lifeblood. One of the major reasons for the revolution was the proclamation line of 1763 that forbid colonial expansion and settlement west of the Appalachians. Following the American Revolution and founding of our nation, we began expanding in the three directions available to us: North, South, and West. To the north there was the disputed territory that is today known as Maine, to the south there was Spanish Florida that when acquired saw three wars from 1816 until 1858 against the Seminole tribes. Then there was the west, which saw the acquisition of land through monetary transactions and military adventurism as it was forcefully attached to the ever-growing tide from the east.
The largest of these was the Louisiana Purchase which saw 827,000 square miles added to the lands of the empire along with the various native Americans that already resided there and numbered between 50,000-100,000 people. The next was the purchase of Alaska which saw 586,000 square miles added. The third largest of these was the Mexican Cession which, following the Mexican-American war, had 529,000 square miles added to the empire. These lands were nominally American but now they had to be conquered. The US would send its military into these newly purchased lands to destroy the native peoples living within them. Through right of conquest the territories (colonies) had its people subjugated, its lands flooded with citizens from the east who then broke the land to its will, the culture of the region was subdued, and the lands were Americanized.
Eventually the Continental US would be swallowed (save for Mexico and Canada) and the United States would begin to look overseas’ for its territorial ambition. Hawaii, Spanish Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, the US interventions in Latin America and eventually the second world war would see the explosion of this empire as it surpassed the British Empire. Following the end of the second world war, the American overseas empire switched to a “soft empire” image where lands were ruled through puppet governments with US support. Examples of this are South Korea and Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Iran, western Europe through NATO, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and lately Ukraine.
As for the different sets of rules for people living within it, we have that covered as well. When we were originally founded, the nation clearly stated that white land-owning males were the citizens who could vote. That slavery was in fact legal at the time, natives were not citizens, and women could not own property. Over time, those rules have changed but there are still differences between us. While we are all subject to the same judicial system (in theory) and have our rights laid out in the US Constitution as well as judicial rulings, there are different rights for citizens and non-citizens.
If you have read Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, you know that he lays out four main reasons for why the Western Roman Empire fell: Universal Domination, Democracy, Militarism, and Religion.
Under the Universal Domination reason, Gibbon states that in its quest for world domination the Roman Empire created a situation that intensified the evils of despotism, lost public freedom, and allowed the Pax Romana to undercut their political values. Rome would offer citizenship to its subjects in a manner that did not require the citizens to fully integrate into the empire thus giving them the name Roman without adoption of the Roman Spirit. This took away what it meant to be Roman.
The Democracy reason was simple, Roman democracy led to anarchy (legitimate periods without government or effective government) and instability. The Roman democratic institutions would come to be dominated by rich individuals who, as we know from history, would culminate with the civil war between Caesar and the Roman Republic where we saw the rise of the first “emperor” and the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Democracy had directly led to this war and the rise of the emperors. Roman imperialism reduced everyone within the lands of Rome to that of a servile class (though at varying levels, everyone was subservient to the emperor). Despotism would weaken the Roman military, see the rise of excess taxation, and the fettering of the mind.
In the early days of the Roman Republic, the legion was a militia. While there were very specific requirements on who could serve and in what capacity in the Roman legion, it was a volunteer force that was established for the defense of the Republic. The legion would undergo various changes based on the various conflicts it found itself in. The most notable of these are the creation of the maniple system that was used to defeat the Carthaginians and saw the establishment of three various ranks of troops within the legion: the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii – each having more training and equipment respectfully than the last.
The Maniple system lasted in the Roman legion until the early 100’s B.C. when the Marian reforms took hold. This eliminated the land-owning requirement for legionaries and saw individual commanders outfitting their troops. The cohort system that we see in Hollywood so often is the Marian system. Don’t get me wrong, the Romans absolutely began their conquest of not only Italy and the surrounding nations (tribes) with the Maniple system, but the Cohort system that Marius established was the system that was used to conquer Rome’s empire.
Marching under the eagle and the cohort system the legions clashed in the first of the civil wars and conquered Greece. The tribes of the Iberian Peninsula were crushed, and the peoples of Gaul were subjugated under the watchful glare of Julius Caesar before he turned his attention to Rome. Egypt was finally brought into the fold as well as most of Turkey, the middle east, southeastern Europe, Britain, and part of Germany. What began under the maniple system was codified in the cohort system and Rome’s defensive militia had become a professional standing army. This standing army, Gibbon believed, was a threatening element to Rome.
It would be proven so later as the Emperor of Rome became whoever had the military supporting him. As the ages went past, the Roman’s stopped expanding and began defending their territory. It was no longer seen as profitable to be in the army, and so recruitment issues sprung up. Rome soon began to recruit barbarians into its ranks to fill the growing void left by reluctant citizens. Soon, these legions were becoming more barbarian than Roman and were clearly becoming paid military forces. There was no more duty, honor, country amongst the legions – it was money, power, and self-interest.
The hiring of mercenary forces to protect the empire was a ruinous financial position for Rome and the quality of its troops quickly deteriorated. In Gibbon’s mind, the last sparks of military greatness for Rome were extinguished when the Roman legions stopped being Roman.
Religion was Gibbon’s final reason for the collapse, and it was simple – the theological differences amongst the Roman’s led to fictionalization and civil strife that caused the Romans to fight amongst themselves. By the time that the empire was unified behind a single religion (for the most part) the other issues of the day had come home to roost.
By needing to hire mercenary troops to fight its growing wars of defense, Rome was forced to tax its subjects heavily. Soon, taxation would not be enough to pay for the defense of the empire (even after abandoning certain provinces like Britain and Dacia to shorten the defensive perimeter), the Romans would begin to sell off entire provinces to mercenary forces (that were tribal entities themselves). This began a rapid downward spiral for the Romans as they more land they “sold off” the less taxable land they had and would have to soon sell off more to stay afloat.
Briefly in the mid 400’s parts of Gaul, and Iberia would be retaken in military campaigns while the Romans held onto Italy and the coastline of the Adriatic. These gains would quickly be ceded in exchange, unsurprisingly, for military support from the various tribes in the area. The last few years of the Western Roman Empire are a sad story of regional players with grand ambitions hiring various mercenary armies to install them in power in Italy. When the newly installed “Roman Emperor” refused to honor land grants to his mercenary army, conflict between the mercenaries and the emperor broke out in northern Italy.
The small force loyal to the boy emperor’s father, who was really in charge, were pushed aside by the Gothic forces in three quick battles before being trapped at the capital city of Ravenna (which had been the capital for some time due to its isolated and defensive nature). Romulus Augustus was forced by the Gothic commander to abdicate on September 4th 476 AD. This is agreed by scholars as the date that the (Western) Roman Empire fell.
Now my friends and I often say that the Empire (American) is dying. We can see it crumbling visibly every time we drive down a street, visit a town, or attempt to purchase anything. But it begs a bigger question – are we witnessing the death of our empire or are we witnessing the transition from republic to empire? Will someone come along as a uniting individual that we all agree is above us as a human and therefore we should become subservient to them? I cannot speak for the entirety of the nation, but I can say that while the Empire is dying, I do not believe it can be saved. Soon, I believe we will witness the abandonment of many of our overseas colonies and we may get to the point where we see the surrendering of some of our continental territories. I support the Texas and New Hampshire and various independence movements that are ongoing within the US today. How Mordor-on-the-Potomac reacts to these movements will set the stage for the next decade of the American empire.
I don’t know if the empire will be here in 10,20, or even 50 years from now. I would be surprised if it is, but stranger things have happened in history. What I believe we must be doing, however, is preparing for the possibility that it is NOT here. We cannot vote our way out of our issues and if you think you can shoot your way out of them, then you are not grounded in modern reality. What we need to do is build collapse proof communities. Build a community that can sustain itself and thrive so the day that the emperor abdicates, and the empire officially falls, its just a blurb in a book and has nothing to do with you.
---
Hello friends. I know I skipped two weeks instead of just the single week that I told you about, however, that is for a good reason. I am doing quiet well in my life. The blog is called Smokeys fireside rants afterall. When I am not bothered by things, I don’t really feel a need to rant. I also think that I would rather put out quality content for you rather than just putting up anything that comes to mind.
Hope y’all are doing well and getting ready for the year ahead. I know we are. Till next time.
-Smokey