The Death of Empire

The UK could be following America down its Trumpian path – but the land of its former colonies could learn a lesson or two from the collapse of the British Empire, writes Rick Wilson

Few nations that survive an empire’s collapse manage to bequeath the world a useful lesson in resilience. The British Empire’s rescission taught lessons about overreach and hubris. But America’s dissolution will be different and more terrible.

Not because we will pass along some secret wisdom that will allow others to endure, but because of what we are losing, how we are losing it, and the sheer dumb tragedy of having been granted so much grace and bounty, only to burn it down in a mere decade.

The American empire was built in part on an almost ludicrous economic dominance, and on a military capacity yoked to that industrial might. But the deepest source of American power was never our factories or our carrier battle groups.