Is America an Empire?

What makes something an empire and is America one?

I recently got into a Twitter discussion that got me thinking about how people view the notion of empire, colonialism, and America’s role in the world. I noticed that many people balk at the idea that America is or has ever been an empire. Thus, I think it is useful to reflect a bit on this notion of empire as I think people tend to have a very caricatured idea of what constitutes an empire.

From pop culture such as Star Wars, we have become accustomed to thinking about Empires as evil. People don’t like to see their own country as evil. It may then appear ironic that the evil Empire of Star Wars was in part modeled on the US itself. George Lucas was heavily influenced by the Vietnam War.

George Lucas in a 2004 audio commentary said that:

The Viet Cong served as his inspiration for the furry forest-dwelling Ewoks, who were able to defeat a vastly superior opponent in spite of their primitive weapons. As William J. Astore writes in “Star Wars and History,” both the Viet Cong and Ewoks were well-served by their “superior knowledge of the local terrain and an ability to blend into that terrain.”

Of course, Star Wars has lots of clear inspirations from Roman history as well as Nazi Germany. However, Emperor Palpatine was actually inspired by Richard M. Nixon. Lucas said:

“It was really about the Vietnam War, and that was the period where Nixon was trying to run for a…