What would it take for the United States...

[Guest Will Scarlet]

I think it will happen eventually. It's inevitable. Of course it will not happen for a number of years, and will probably be gradual. Perhaps through a series of poor leaders or another Great Depression or another Civil War or something. Heck, maybe the US will colonize space, eventually causing a rebellion by one of their colonies, which, after a few hundred years, becomes more powerful than the US. It's hard to really tell. I mean, if you go back 500 years, the United States was just a land that was recently discovered by Europeans that was inhabited by a series of native tribes. I doubt anyone figured that land would one day be the most powerful state in the world.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

See, the thing w/ all the empires that were listed (British, Roman, Spain, etc.), is that their "world power" existed through their conquering of foreign lands, and taking the lands as colonies. They had lands spread out all over, and couldn't effectively rule/control them for too long (relatively speaking). When they lost these colonies/territories, they lost their world power.

 

The USA doesn't have colonies, and our territories extend to the likes of Guam, Puerto Rico, Bahamas. The people rising up in these islands really wouldn't damage the USA to the point where our world power would be significantly diminished.

 

Sure, our world influence may wane, but I can't seriously see the USA "falling" like those other world powers.

 

Just my opinion.

[Guest AlwaysPissedOff]

I think it will happen eventually. It's inevitable. Of course it will not happen for a number of years, and will probably be gradual. Perhaps through a series of poor leaders or another Great Depression or another Civil War or something. Heck, maybe the US will colonize space, eventually causing a rebellion by one of their colonies, which, after a few hundred years, becomes more powerful than the US.

Heh... that's pretty much the basis of the Gundam Universe.

 

I think Spiff said it best. We really can't be compared to those other empires because we aren't as spread out as they were.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I think it will happen eventually.  It's inevitable.  Of course it will not happen for a number of years, and will probably be gradual.  Perhaps through a series of poor leaders or another Great Depression or another Civil War or something. Heck, maybe the US will colonize space, eventually causing a rebellion by one of their colonies, which, after a few hundred years, becomes more powerful than the US.

Heh... that's pretty much the basis of the Gundam Universe.

 

I think Spiff said it best. We really can't be compared to those other empires because we aren't as spread out as they were.

I'm talking about the actual United States itself. It won't happen for a long time, and extremely unlikely in our lifetimes, but it could happen.

 

The US is a big country, with several regional differences. This will bring down the country someday. Perhaps California wants to secede after George Bush VI becomes President, or something like that.

[Guest Vyce]

I think it will happen eventually.  It's inevitable.  Of course it will not happen for a number of years, and will probably be gradual.  Perhaps through a series of poor leaders or another Great Depression or another Civil War or something. Heck, maybe the US will colonize space, eventually causing a rebellion by one of their colonies, which, after a few hundred years, becomes more powerful than the US.

Heh... that's pretty much the basis of the Gundam Universe.

President Treize Kushrenada. I like the sound of that.

[Guest nikowwf]

Its hard, cause the greeks fell and the romans came in and filled the vaccum. If we fell, we'd take a lot of countries down with us I think. Everyone is so interelated now that its hard for nations to just cease exisiting....

 

Maybe someday we'll become THE UNION OF NORTH AMERICA or something like that and the US will cease to exist.

 

niko

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Its hard, cause the greeks fell and the romans came in and filled the vaccum.  If we fell, we'd take a lot of countries down with us I think.  Everyone is so interelated now that its hard for nations to just cease exisiting....

 

Maybe someday we'll become THE UNION OF NORTH AMERICA or something like that and the US will cease to exist.

 

niko

I can't speak for other countries, but it is probable that if the US broke up, Canada would as well.

 

One of the main reasons why Quebec is still a part of Canada, is because they would be absolutely crushed economically by the US. They couldn't stand on their own.

 

If the US is broken up, it divides the power of whatever new countries come out of it. Quebec would be first to break off from Canada, with Atlantic Canada, Western Canada (with BC possibly seperate from it), and Ontario forming there own countries. There is enormous political and ideological differences between these regions. Canada as we know it would not survive the breakup of the US.

 

Outside of North America, I don't see the breakup of the US having big political consequences (in terms of boundaries), but the way things are run will be drastically altered. For one, another power will almost certainly fill the vacuum. If it were to happen today, it would probably be China, although certain portions of the new US (specifically the Northeast if they stay largely together, moreso if they join together with Ontario) will still be quite powerful.

 

This is of course just speculation.

 

EDIT: Just one last thing. Physically, North America is the most powerful and self-sufficient continent in the world, and is relatively underpopulated. Even without the US, the most powerful nation in the world (long term) will probably be located here.

 

EDIT 2: I also forgot. If global warming trends do continue (there is not enough evidence to suggest either way, although it is getting warmer right now, and it will either continue to do so or get cooler, it won't stay the same), North America actually benefits from the warmer winter temps (summer temps will stay roughly the same) and wetter climate. Asia & Europe will be suffering, while North America becomes even more dominant.

[Guest goodhelmet]

See, the thing w/ all the empires that were listed (British, Roman, Spain, etc.), is that their "world power" existed through their conquering of foreign lands, and taking the lands as colonies. They had lands spread out all over, and couldn't effectively rule/control them for too long (relatively speaking). When they lost these colonies/territories, they lost their world power.

 

The USA doesn't have colonies, and our territories extend to the likes of Guam, Puerto Rico, Bahamas. The people rising up in these islands really wouldn't damage the USA to the point where our world power would be significantly diminished.

 

Sure, our world influence may wane, but I can't seriously see the USA "falling" like those other world powers.

 

Just my opinion.

EXACTLY!!!! Those mentioned (might as well throw in the Mongols while you are at it) simply over-extended themselves and couldn't control the territories. Also, in this day and age, the fact that we can transport an entire nation's worth of men (our military forces) to the other side of the globe in a matter of months also changes the playing field. The new "age of information" makes it nearly impossible to compare the U.S. to the other "empires".

 

The only REAL correlation between the U.S. and the old empires is the amount of hubris displayed toward weaker and less advanced civilizations. To sum it up, I think the U.S. would crumble from within before any other nation had a chance in hell of taking over. Then again, I think the entire human race would probably vanish (in a nuclear catastrophe) before the U.S. actually falls.

[Guest The Hamburglar]

But the point is that essentially, the dominance of US-based culture and ideals is what constitutes the US "Empire" as such. The fall of this empire would simply constitute the fall of the US as the primary economic and cultural power of the world. The USA itself would remain untouched, and probably become a richer version of Canada or Australia, a really big, secure, developed country with not much world-wide influence.