Over the past few weeks, new US President Donald Trump has repeatedly argued that the US should “recover” the Panama Canal and that it should somehow envision control of Greenland. He talks about Canada becoming America’s 51st state, and now he’s even hoping to “take over” the Gaza Strip and convert it into the “riviera” of the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
It’s as if the US president believes his country should be an empire. In this, Trump appears to be emulating Russian Chinese Chinese Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, who praised him, saying that he has shown some clear empire trends in recent years.
Under Putin, Russia supported separatist regions such as Transnistria and Abkhazia, fought wars in Georgia and Ukraine, and actively interfered in the issues of Syria and African countries. In 2022, Russia even announced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, claiming that Ukraine historically is inseparable from Russia, but hostile Western influences are trying to destroy its unity.
Meanwhile, China militarized many small, uninhabited islands in the South China Sea. It has built 27 installations on conflict islands of the Spratley and Paracel Island Group, which are also claimed by other countries, including Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia. This prompted a surge in development as other countries in the region competed, but competed to establish their own foothold in highly resource-rich regions.
Beijing also maintains its claims against Taiwan. It says it is an inviolable part of China, which “want to go home.”
Empire and nation
Most people assumed that the Empire era was relegated to the trash cans of history. However, this is by no means an easy proposition. Until relatively recently, the rise and fall of the empire ruled much of recorded history. Nation-states only appeared at the end of the 18th century. And as those states became prominent, many people also showed imperial trends.
So the US is fresh from abandoning the yokes of the British Empire, and whether it is conquering or purchasing, a large strip of new territory that has effectively transformed small groups of small groups on the East Coast. I wasted a little time gaining and expanding westward. Continental Empire.
Meanwhile, other newly minted nation-states such as Italy and Germany have also achieved overseas empires, involving themselves, and being successful, and being relatively short-lived colonial empires in Africa and elsewhere. I built what turned out.
Meanwhile, most traditional dynasty empires began to adopt various aspects of the nation-state model, including conscription, legal equality, and political participation. The decades after World War II are often seen by historians as a period of colonization through the power of traditional empires such as Britain and France. However, the transition from empire to nation-states was far from smooth. Most Imperial governments wanted to turn the empire into a more egalitarian federation, but they maintained a certain degree of influence.
Argent Archer / London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company -Royal Collection RCIN 2924799
This was done with varying degrees of success, as in Algeria and Vietnam’s France, or under great economic pressures such as the UK and India, and often under extreme obsessions. The actual era of nation-states did not begin until the 1960s.
Return of the Empire?
Today, the world is made up of around 200 countries and an overwhelming majority of nation-states. Nevertheless, it can be argued that empire, or at least imperial tendencies, have never completely disappeared. France, for example, frequently interfered in many of the former African colonies. However, these military interventions were not intended to permanently occupy new territory.
Today, empire trends appear to be resurfaced all over the world. However, the past tends to not repeat itself. A massive war of conquest and attempts to create a new overseas empire are unlikely in the near future. Nowadays, most empire expansions are sought near the home.
What’s impressive is that Putin, XI and Trump all use fierce nationalist rhetoric to justify the design of imperialism. Putin, as we have seen, advocates the indivisibility of Ukraine and Russia, and accusing them of the “Nazis” of trying to turn Russia’s sister states west. He used it as a justification to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
Xi often argues that communist China has ultimately overcome a century of humiliation. They both seem to long for the greatness of past empires. The Russian Federation aims to revoke the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and communist China looks back at the Qing Empire. Interestingly, under the increasingly authoritarian leader of Turkey, Recept Tayip Erdogan (a force in another region with imperial tendencies), we see similar inspiration in the Ottoman Empire.
The US case seems more complicated, but in reality it’s very similar. Therefore, Trump claims that the Panama Canal, which has long been managed by the US, was foolishly returned to Panama by Jimmy Carter and is now controlled by China. He says he will return it to the US.
Trump also mentions America’s “manifesto fate,” a 19th century belief that American settlers are destined to expand to the Pacific coast. Recently, his desires have been heading north rather than west. The president also wants to bring his empire dreams into outer space and plant the US flag on Mars.
International rights-based orders could be at risk if the US joins China and Russia in violation of recognized borders. The signs are not very positive. Taking measures against illegally annexed territory could blow up the entire international building.
