Pretending a maritime empire is relevant in an age of ICBMs and jet travel is just foolish. All these "lessons from history" always fail to take into account the serious, radical differences in technological capability.
Re:The decline of US power?
by mattmanser on Friday July 10, 2015 @08:11AM
(#9863428)
You can't project power with ICBMs like you can with an aircraft carrier.
A lot of American might is still inextricably linked with maritime power, purely because of those aircraft carriers and the support fleet that accompanies it.
Re:The decline of US power?
by gurkendoktor on Friday July 10, 2015 @08:18AM
(#9863468)
I'd say submarines and aircraft carriers do still make a difference in the South China Sea (or any potential conflict with the PRC), and the US are bound by treaty to defend the Philippines and Japan.
Unless we start having Mexican sectarian unrest in the southwest, the US has the resiliency of Russia + the global reach of Old Britain. If we're in decline, it's a very very long arc for the US in the imperial-like sense.
In terms of the republic, I think that we're in a dangerous time. But we've been there before and came out ok.
But I think there's a very substantial difference between empires past and the american one: Cheap, ubiquitous, high speed communications and ditto + safe travel.
Managing far-flung territories in the British and Spanish empires caused major, major friction, in a way that just isn't the case in the present day. Back then, colonial service was a life career, and you'd spend years at a time deployed overseas. Letters took weeks to turn around. Today, if you need the help of a specialist, you pick up the phone, or you could even easily fly one out and he'll be there tomorrow or the day after, and he'll be back home a few days later still.