America

[Bengalzona]

(04-20-2018, 12:40 AM)bfine32 Wrote: But I don't think we have been a super power for all of those 242 years, just as Italy was a country long before Rome became an Empire. Let's put us as a Super Power after WWII (1945). If we follow that Roman model, we may not be a superpower in 2445 

Actually, Italy didn't become a unified country until 1861.

Before Rome, what we now call Italy was a collection of colonies and city-states owned by Greek states, the Etruscans, Phoenicians and others. Rome was just one of the states. But eventually, over hundreds of years, they were able to conquer neighboring colonies one at a time and assemble an empire. Historians generally recognize 27 BC as being the year it actually became an empire. Before that, they consider it as the Roman Civilization. It reached it's height in 117 AD under Trajan and split in two in 330 AD under Constantine. The Eastern part became the Byzantine Empire while the Western part became a shell of itself and eroded away. The Byzantines made efforts to prop up the Western part, but could not maintain it due to troubles of their own. The Lombards, Germanic peoples, occupied large parts of what is now Italy for several hundred years. Charlemagne captured most of the north and incorporated that into his empire, Francia. Eventually the area broke into small fiefdoms and city states which fought each other and outside powers for centuries. But modern Italy didn't develop until Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel unified it in 1861.

As far as superpowers, they haven't fared very well in modern times. Napoleon's empire only lasted about 10 years. The Third Reich went about 12 years. The British Empire ran for about 200 hundred years or so (depending upon who you talk to). But they were really only super power from about 1814 to 1914, 100 years. Compare those to the Romans who went about 400 years or the Byzantines who went about 1000 years.

Things change at a much more rapid pace now. And other countries generally aren't fond of superpowers.