Typically, the
American empire is assumed to refer to the hegemony of the U.S. in the
world. “Imperialism,” in other words, is thought to refer to a major power imposing on lesser ones around the
world—the influence being directed externally.
I contend that the United States of America is itself an empire, even apart from its external influence, as the
Union is composed of republics having distinctive cultures and on the scale of
early-modern European kingdoms (e.g., United Kingdom, Switzerland, the
Netherlands—which had been “international” in medieval times).
