From its hesitant colonial origins to its undisputed superpower status, the United States’ ascent as a global empire is a story of expansion, ideology, and conflict. Join hosts Lucas and Luna as they dissect the key turning points: the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny, the Spanish-American War that planted the flag in the Philippines and Puerto Rico, the Wilsonian internationalism that remade the world after World War I, and the Cold War decades that saw the U.S. build a network of alliances, military bases, and economic dominance. They explore the darker chapters — the Philippine-American War, CIA interventions in Latin America, the Vietnam War’s scars, and the moral quandaries of a republic with imperial reach. The podcast examines how American power has been projected through trade (the dollar, Bretton Woods, globalization), culture (Hollywood, Coca-Cola, jazz), and technology (the Manhattan Project, Silicon Valley). It also looks at how the United States has grappled with the contradictions of being a democracy that commands an empire, from the Bush Doctrine to the post-9/11 wars and the rise of China. This is not a triumphalist narrative; it is a rigorous exploration of how a nation transformed itself — and the world — in its own image. Why does the debate over ‘American empire’ still rage? Because the choices made in the 20th century continue to shape the 21st.
