Colonialism & Empire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Colonialism & Empire - Essay Example As the study declares to begin the debate, one first needs to examine what imperialism fundamentally means, both in terms of the American Empire and in general. Generally examined, Imperialism basically refers to the practice of a nation controlling, or seeking to control, another nation, either through military means or otherwise, and whether in terms of geographical influence or political policies. Imperialist expansion in its traditional form and sense aimed mainly to seek a political, geographical or military advantage to benefit the expanding state, or it was viewed as such, but in recent times, these definitions seem to be changing, with the focus more on the benefit towards the influence country, rather than the inverse. Countries that aim to excise this influence may be referred to as an empire as they henceforth shall be. In the modern day world, America and Russia can be considered to be empires, considering their political influence over regions and countries past their bo rders. While the days of kings and queens is generally over, and we don’t seem to have empires as we traditionally imagine when we hear the word, when viewed from a technical standpoint, and in terms of today’s changing world, an empire is basically a geographically extensive dominion controlled by a singular source point. This paper outlines that considering the political influence America has all over the world, and in particular on certain countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan, as well as other countries like the Philippines or Spain in the past – from which the idea of American Imperialism first sprang up – America too can be, and should be, considered an empire as vast as any historical empire, or a nation-empire, that is, a nation extending its influence to a particular nation or region, individually or in alliance with other nations. Therefore, while the United States might not be an empire in the extremely traditional sense of the world, when considering the modern definition and the central role America plays in the world’s politics, including its considerable influence on them, America does indeed fulfill the definition of an Empire, and therefore, it can be said to have a considerable imperialistic influence as well. The United States first demonstrated imperialism and i ts existence as an empire in the Spanish war of 1898, where the Americans aimed to free Cubans from Spanish Atrocities. This is perhaps similar to the influence the Americans had on the Iraqi people in the war on Iraq, where it aimed to free the people of Iraq from the tyrannic rule of their then leaders. Perhaps it should therefore be said that the modern day word for an Empire is a Superpower, with expansion being referenced to as occupation, and policies that imperialism is originally based upon being termed as tools to help build a nation.