Great postSome very good posts which I have enjoyed reading.
I learnt my history from years of reading and watching Documentaries, and dont laugh watching films from the period, its funny how much you can learn about a nation by watching the propaganda films of the time, I wish I hadn't left school early at 15 and stayed on, my writing skills and grammar leave a lot to be desired, but I sometimes feel not having an "academic" background can sometimes be an advantage, as your learning what other people think, its important to have the skill set to be able to think for yourself, something which is being lost in current times.
Only way an empire expands imo is Culturally or by force, we see it time and time again all throughout history, People dont really think of the USA as an empire, as it doesn't quite fit the "movie" standard of what we think is an empire, but it is, from the early days of the states coming together due to Culturally being the same, to the civil war where the south and north had completely different values and had moved apart culturally, so the north had to use force in keeping those states in line and in their empire. Now the USA exports their cultures via tech and companies world wide, to make advancements in the culture war world wide, not for the good of there hearts but in their interests, a very clever carrot and stick approach, every once in a while the US flex's its muscles to remind people what it can do.
China has had a colourful past, its history is rich and varied, but we can see the reasons why China would mistrust the west, we haven't over the years played nice, but now China is playing the same game the US does, using money to influence people around the world with the carrot, but at the same time the peoples of china are becoming more westernized its fascinating to say the least, puts the Chinese leadership in a bit of a pickle to be honest as this culture war plays out.
India hardly gets a mention in some quarters and thats a mistake, its a growing power and should not be underestimated, we see the poor people in poverty there and some judge India as a backward nation due to that, but we have to remember our empire was built on the backs of a population in poverty, we looked like India, high pollution, mass poverty with a large gap between the haves and have nots, a bit like China a decade or three ago.
Back on topic, Russia is an empire in decline and is doing what all empires in decline do, lash out trying to hold on to past glories, its in that dangerous phase, look at when western roman empire failed, is scary how much this looks like that, outside forces chipping away at areas, shrinking the land that was in the empire, military a shadow of its past, the glory days long gone. I think this is the end for Russia as we know it, its been long on the cards to be honest, It maybe will take a few years yet but I can see an underlying shift in Russia, is coming back to being much more aligned with the EU , the population at least, the leadership will follow in due course.
think moving forward, we will see the EU as a major player now, it could be argued as a new empire, it ticks all the boxes to be one, remember not all empires come about through force, so we could see in years to come, EU, US, India and China as the new world order of super powers.
History has a funny way of repeating itself, its why I love looking back to get a sense of what may happen moving forward.