I’m sure that if you were a citizen of any of the following empires at the height of their power, you’d have had no idea that it was possible that the empire would one day come to an end.
- Sumerian
- Egyptian
- Assyrian
- Greek
- Roman
- Abbasid
- Mongolian
- British
- you can add all the others I missed
“We are too powerful”.
“There’s no adversary in sight which can match us”.
“We’re too important to fall”.
You can imagine dozens more proclamations like that, I’m sure.
However, they all do fall. Slowly at first, and then suddenly, all at once.
Historians do the job of joining up the dots and fitting the whole jigsaw together, because the people in the ‘here and now’ won’t be able to see (all) the forest for the trees.
Which brings me to today. Now. 4th April 2025. The United States of America…
Over to you historians.