The downfall of "Empire" is biting us all in the ass these days.

[SoCalDem]

Look at all the places that "used to be" part of the British Empire,French-occupied countries, Dutch-occupied countries, etc... and places that resulted from the break-ups... There are not many successful/peaceful ones around. So many of them have just managed to keep a lid on troubles, and all it takes is a little provocation, and the pots boil over.. again and again..

Cultural memory is a hard thing to overcome, and even though a plot of land can be occupied (sometimes for centuries), the "before" time is never forgotten by the indigenous people, and at every opportunity, they will rise up in defiance..

It's human nature..

Look at our own country.. as hard as our leaders and thinkers try, slavery just will NOT "go away". The common mantra is "That happened 400 years ago..get over it".. All the creative writing cannot change facts.. A person alive today could have actually talked to a person born into slavery.. It's NOT that far back in our history.

How can we expect countries more recently occupied, and then "freed", to just forgive and forget? The boundary lines that created a lot of these countries were drawn by outsiders/former-occupiers...The people who did not move (the imaginary lines "moved" them), might have actually preferred to set their own boundaries. Is anyone really surprised that the "old wars" flare up constantly?

India/Pakistan/Kashmir....still simmering
former Ottoman Empire (every "country")...HIGH Heat
Afghanistan....Med-High
Africa....boil
Indonesia...med-high

Empire has long-lasting consequences. Just bestowing a grudging freedom, does not erase the injustices of the occupation. The downtrodden will still be downtrodden, only poorer and angrier once the occupiers leave. (Oddly, base-closures here in the US provide a small scale glimpse...towns gripe about the base and its soldiers, but scream like banshees when the base gets closed...)

[redqueen]

1. indigenous poeple/slavery

?

[SoCalDem]

2. Indigenous people in occupied lands..slavery in OUR country

I did not mean to imply that they were indigenous to our country.. just to remind people that it was NOT 400 years ago..

The Balfour deal was in 1919(I think)
Israel was created in 1947 (I think)
France only left Algeria in the 60's
Afghanistan has been invaded many times (destroyed but never really conquered)

This tranformational "nation-building" is recent, by historical terms

[redqueen]

3. ah i get it now... thanks n/t

[Deja Q]

6. Even if they don't realize they're being paid slave wages...

?

[cliss]

4. Yes good post & thanks for sharing.

I think a lot about Empire these days. I would say, in 100 years we can look back and say that the U.S. was the world's biggest and most far-reaching empire. Rome? Forget it. It just jerked people around in the Mediterranean. Portugal? Now they were a little more successful. They had the world's longest empire (600 years) they controlled the Phillipines and had direct shipping lanes between the Philippines & Mexico. The ships stopped there & picked up gold which the poor natives had to mine.

But the U.S.......man, whew. We have our fingers in EVERY COUNTRY ON EARTH. No kidding. Even little tiny Madagascar has some foreign policy analyst sitting there, bossing them around.

WE will be considered the most pervasive, far-reaching Empire on Earth.

But our finish will come all the same.

Why? Because we are overextended. After studying Empires, I've discovered that in the initial stages of occupation, Empires are hugely profitable. And therein lies the danger. Because the Colony will suck in the Empire, force it to become entrenched, spending more & more money to maintain the colony (look at Iraq). At one point, Portugal was the richest country in Europe. OMG....they had so much Mexican gold it was unbelievable. But it was still not enough to save them.

The Empire, desperate for more funds to maintain its survival, goes into a downward spiral. The US is currently deeply on its way down. We just don't see it yet...it's coming.

[SoCalDem]

5. and when they leave, the people are ill-prepared to govern themselves

or even maintain the structures left behind.. and yet they are "blamed" for not prospering..

Modern communications make it easy for them to see how others live, and it only makes them more angry to have been duped and left behind in the dust.