the rise and fall of the 'American Empire'

The Romans and the British had both powerful and massive empires, both of which after time slowly dissolved and collapsed, the same things seemed to be happening to the growing 'American empire' today.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 America was left as the only superpower in a unipolar world, now dubbed a hyperpower able to influence anywhere in the world, and using the USSR as an example oil is a vital resource to keep a massive superpower functioning, Soviet oil production peaked a mere four years before the USSR collapsed.



The United States is divided by two oceans from the Arab oil states, it has 5% of the worlds population and uses 25% of its resources, when push comes to shove I somehow doubt a growing superpower (China) will want to share the energy from Southeast Asia with energy craved America.

There are 191 countries in the world and America has bases in 130 of them, and a strong force in the Middle East, (the US backed Israel is the most powerful country in the Middle East and has around 150 nuclear weapons), including Iraq (after the 2003 shock and awe invasion), but there is only one country that stands in the middle of it all, directly in their way.

Iran.

Around 40% of the worlds oil supplies pass through the Straits of Hormuz, and I'm pretty sure Iran wouldn't take an attack lying down neither.

But if the US control control Iran they can control Eurasia and control the world;
Empire.

Even though this seems to be the path that they're taking reality shows that with their economy and the recession it might even collapse before it becomes a reality.

Although as I mentioned earlier China are rapidly building up their naval and air force doubling the former in size in the last ten years, yes the recession didn't seem to hit the worlds biggest communist country that hard, and we all know that China can economically bring the US and its empire to its knees.

The cost of an empire