Forgotten Lessons from past Empires

For the last 500 years western empires have dominated the world, but by the end of WW1 they were but merely shadows of their former selfs but still managed to control much of Earth. By the end of WW2 they simply were empty shells and within a few decades their colonial dominions collapsed.

It hasn't been an easy Imperium since the U.S. became a true world power after wining WW2. On the heels of Hitler and Imperial Japan came the worldwide struggle against Soviet and Chinese Communism and countless nationalist wars and revolts that threatened at one time or another U.S. strategic concerns. Against the soviet menace it won swiftly after almost 50 yrs and now the major threats are in the form of Islamic terrorism and Asian, mainly Chinese, growing economic, political and military clout. Russia too has become stronger and more menacing of late but is not the concern it was under the soviets. And the nuisance of Chavez, Fidel and Morales in Latin America are no major threats but only pesky inconveniences. Of these, Chinese growing shadow around the world is of the major concern since is happening very fast at a time when the U.S. is embroiled in a war in Iraq losing huge amounts of money, goodwill and military readiness by the day.

There is simply no solution on the horizon to the Iraq fiasco and no will left within the American public to engage Iran militarily with all the costs that would entail including exorbitant gas prices. On this, America faces perhaps the most inextricable strategic disaster of its entire history.
These are precisely the kind of circumstances that usually give foreign powers the chance to gather strength and close the gap separating them from the dominant nation. China, Iran and Russia are obviously doing precisely that and they have the cooperation of other lesser powers such as Hugo Chavez's Venezuela in bringing about their stated desire for a "multipolar" world.

The U.S. has grown increasingly dependent on resources and goods from China and the Middle East. Also, we depend on foreign investors and foreign national banks to finance our deficits while at the same time our trade imbalance grows ever larger. As many historians have argued our situation is reminiscent of Imperial Spain during the 16th century. Spain mounted impressive military feats throughout continental Europe against France, its main continental enemy, and the rebel province of Holland (think Iraq), tried to conquer England several times while colonizing the new world. But the gold and silver that was getting from its colonies was going directly into the coffers of its creditors in order to pay for more wars and was not being reinvested into the country. By the 1640's mighty Spain was no more...