The Rise of History's Biggest Empire

The Rise of History's Biggest Empire

2015, Politics  -   38 Comments
8.50
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Ratings: 8.50/10 from 226 users.

The new documentary titled The Rise of History's Biggest Empire explores the origins and current mechanics behind America's forceful dominance on the world stage. According to the views expressed in the film, the United States frequently hides behind the guise of diplomacy and democratic outreach in its quest to force its will upon foreign regions throughout the globe. The wealthiest interests are the primary beneficiaries of these actions while the less fortunate are discarded and marginalized as never before.

Throughout history, the American empire has been established and sustained through episodes of intervention - usually in the form of military might - in places like the Middle East, Latin America, and even within its own borders. The film sets forth a series of examples in support of its thesis, including incendiary actions in Guatemala in 1952, Chile in the 1970's, and the invasion of Iraq in the past decade.

In some of the instances presented in the film, the United States operates in shadow to overthrow democratically elected leaders and to replace them with figures who are more sympathetic to U.S. interests. These interests are often not in step with those of their own people.

Another area of controversy explored in the film regards the countless military bases operated by the United States all over the world. The messages received from the highest levels of governmental authority assure the people that these bases are erected and continue to operate as a means of spreading and maintaining peace throughout each region. "These bases all too often are actually increasing military tensions," claims David Vine, an anthropology professor at American University, author of Base Nation, and a key interview subject in the film. "I think it's worth considering for people in the United States how we would feel with a foreign base on our soil."

The premiere episode of an investigative series from world news organization teleSUR, The Rise of History's Biggest Empire is a compact treatment of a complex history. Nevertheless, as with all worthwhile documentary works, the film presents its provocative material in a manner that inspires valuable thought and discussion.

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enough-is-enough
enough-is-enough
5 months ago

This is a joke .Age restricted by youtube?As if the world was some kind of antiseptic universe google controls

Michael Thompson
Michael Thompson
4 years ago

A better comparison would be the US is the muscle and the UK makes the money
Government is a tool of the powerful to exploit the less so. It has always been this way and it always will be! This is especially true in a Republic or a Democracy.
In a republic, legislators pay NO price for laws they pass. This gives them incentive to use government's exploitive powers to a much more damaging degree then was able to be done in the past.
You can clearly see this when the WORST case scenario for a modern politician is taken into account: He/she does not get re-elected and so gets a lifetime pension + full health care + a book deal explaining how (Fill in the blank scape goat.) was to blame for the ill effects of their law and last, but certainly not least, at $200k-1 mil a year consulting gig for the corporation that used them to pass the law that screwed over the citizens to their benefit in the first place!
This will come as a shock to most people, especially socialists, but this is how the world works. As I always tell people the powerful have always taken advantage of the less so. It is neither good nor evil, it’s simply natures way!
With all of this in mind the solution to all our problems with government is to become powerful yourself! Doesn't matter how you get that way be it by hook or by crook. Once you are powerful than you can make the rules.
If you’re looking for things that you personally can do to scale back the influence/wealth of the powerful (In the US, Russia, China or anywhere else.), AND at the same time increase your own, start with these 9 things:
1) Save at LEAST 10% of all you earn. If you are not saving at least that amount you are no better then a slave living for what your master gives you to eat. (Get yourself a free PDF copy of “The Richest Man in Babylon”: Easiest book you’ll ever read on personal finance and is taught in parable so enjoyable to read as well.)
2) Keep your uninvested money in physical form. Either in Gold, Silver or, more pragmatically, physical currency (Remember in the most recent financial panics in the US (2008), Cyprus (2012), Greece (2015), etc. people were trying to get physical cash, not Gold or Silver.). If you must use the banking system only use Credit Unions or Savings and Loans. Keep only as much currency in it as you need for expenses over the course of a couple of weeks or a month tops (Business owners will need more because of tax and logistical reasons.).
3) If you’re a wage slave paying down a lot of debt talk to an attorney about bankruptcy. You are doing your patriotic duty by not repaying banks. Fractional reserve banking is fraud so don’t lose a single nights sleep if you don’t repay another cent of it!
4) Speaking of being a wage slave, if you’re getting a refund at the end of the year then you need to change your withholding status so you OWE at the end of the year. Why give the government a free loan for a year while you are paying 100+% from a payday lender?!?! Society trains you to be a slave, that doesn’t mean you actually have to be one!
5) When possible use physical cash when you purchase things. This helps by a) making it hard for the powerful to profile you and add you to their metadata. b) allows those so inclined to reduce the power of government by being “tax neutral”. c) supports the poor by making merchants obligated to accept cash through your free market choice to use currency, as opposed to governments tyrannically passing laws forcing merchants to accept it
6) Try keeping your patronage away from large entities, i.e. don't use Google use DuckDuckGo.com or some other small search engine that does not have massive power and also tries not to keep personal search information. You can easily switch out your tablet and cell phone search engines as well. For an Apple product just go to “Settings”>Safari>Search Engine. As I always say, " Whenever you centralize power it always helps the powerful." And yes I realize the irony of saying this on a Google owned platform. :)
7) Vote 3rd party, preferably one that pays lip service to freedom and liberty. Your vote doesn't really count anyway so you might as well make the powerful pay more for the privilege of owning you by adding the number of parties that they have to bribe (Remember action 6 above.)!
8) Copy and paste this list to any future posts that you make on Youtube, or anywhere else for that matter. The only thing better then you doing these things is getting OTHERS to do them as well.
9) Government is a tool of the powerful to exploit the less so. It has always been this way and it always will be. An example of this is how the powerful use the Government to enforce its guilds. The Federal Reserve (A banking cartel.) and the AMA (A medical cartel are two prime examples. ANYTHING that you do that reduces that power helps keep you free!
You can search the internet for other actions that you can take and if you have any good ones feel free to let me know. The first two are hands down the best an individual can do (Least effort and most effective.).

charles coryn
charles coryn
4 years ago

As I watch the unfolding of the global climate situation, a result of the exponential growth of humans, who are turning...... have turned....... the planet into a 'heat' engine, I think, well here is their 'come-uppance' perhaps, as the unfolding of reality seems to be quicker than previously thought....... No matter......

J Miller
J Miller
5 years ago

Duh! Any American who doesn't realize this doesn't want to know. I grew up with Marines and all they care about is Empire right or wrong and a chance to play with guns and bombs. All Empires are like this in all times and places. Actually due to the Roman Catholic Church's influence on the religion of our Empire it would be correct to say that we are just an extension of the Roman Empire. As Philip K. Dick so rightly said in his novel VALIS "The Empire never ended". So sit back and relax because there is nothing going to change any of this until we collapse from within or have a full on World Wide Nuclear war that destroys everything or a big rock from outer space hits us. This is natural human behavior.

corynski
corynski
5 years ago

Whatever her motives and whatever else is said about her, she gets the message across.... What was, is, lacking in our educational system is the study of economics which would inform us regarding our debt situation. Yes, those car and house payments make it difficult to protest and strike against the complete destruction of our money. All currencies eventually go belly-up.... when I was a kid a million was a lot, now I hear of debts in the trillions, numbers so huge we can't even imagine. And history tells us there has never been a national currency that hasn't gone bankrupt....... Read about France in 1790 or Germany in 1922 for some vivid images of currency collapse. And kiss your retirement goodbye...... Domage.....

Adam downs
Adam downs
6 years ago

Like all good things, this too ,will come to an end. What started out (for the most part),as a great nation, has slowly eroded into a well oiled machine of greed ,power and consumption. The corporate mentality is a menace to the natural world and humanity. For decades it's rooted into every faucet of commercial, industrial, military, and government. N as we see now essentially owns the most highest position of government. National leaders are mere puppets to push commercial/economic agenda.the revolving door of ppl from government, to corporations is almost laughable. Whether it's military generals advising arms manufacturers, or from gov't office to big oil or financial sector. The ppl in positions who are supposed to regulate these industry's, are selling out becoming apart of theses megalithic Corporations.

mike m
mike m
7 years ago

Abby is pretty.
And I love her throaty voice
And, as an after thought, .....
shes spot on with the report. Corporate government is what we have.
I would prefer democratic capitalistic socialism like sweden.
lets take away personhood from corporations and get a good start on it.

David Dos Passos
David Dos Passos
7 years ago

Haha this documentary was made by telesur a government financed tv station that was established by hugo chavez to spread his communist ideology. I'm not saying that all of this is wrong however they fail to mention half the fact in order to sell their story

Cassius
Cassius
7 years ago

When she can get through a sentence without stumbling, I'll consider believing her.

Her 'drama' makes me nervous; that is usually a sign to me that I am hearing a load.

Abby Martin talks down to the audience, as if "of course we agree with her". I do not.

bluetortilla
bluetortilla
7 years ago

Abby Martin please do not quit. You're someone we can rally around. You give me hope.

HG
HG
8 years ago

This narrator's voice is absolutely intolerable. The premises of these short documentaries always sound enticing and informative, but the narrator is unable to express an idea without sounding as if she's poorly portraying an overbearing mother scolding a child. Cut out the cheesy high school speech antics and purely express an idea, please.

Hugh Moore
Hugh Moore
8 years ago

Why do people give any credence to a documentary film by Abby Martin? And why should anyone trust RT, TeleSur, or PressTV? They are state owned propaganda networks. Abbey Martin is a hired tool. These reviews on here are probably the same paid Russian trolls that infiltrate the internet.

Roger Andout
Roger Andout
8 years ago

Little new here.
Would life be any better under the empires of Russia or China where dissension /freedom of speech is so widely tolerated and encouraged?
Of course there are abuses, but this doc does nothing to advance a solution. It does a good line in pontification, though.
Or did I miss something?

propaganda
propaganda
8 years ago

Another propaganda piece full of opinion and fluff. You would have to be willfully blind not to understand how US foreign policy works at this point. This film was half-ass in my opinion, and she is a hack propagandist who has developed her career taking pop shots at the US on behalf of Russian Tv.

The things she briefly skimmed over are OLD NEWs. How do we change things? What should we do?

And another important question- who is behind that film and what are their intentions?

bungabunga
bungabunga
8 years ago

The british SAS guy is extremely reasonable and pragmatic. He sees things the right way. Abby was pretty well right on until she referred to America as "the richest country in human history" Does that make Israevil the richest country in inhuman history then?

David
David
8 years ago

KsDeviol - Totally agree. Most people have no faith in their ability to influence politics, so they become apathetic to the political process and succumb to the corporate media. I just want to say to those out there without hope that you can have influence. Your vote does matter. We just need to vote in candidates that will overturn some of the self-serving decisions politicians have made in the past. Not all of the Congressman in Washington are as selfish as we think, they are simply outnumbered. The reason being that too many people let the corporate media dominate. We need to do more to spread word about those candidates who want to fight for the majority and vote for them. Voter turnout in America is so small, which means there is a large gap to fill. Take some time to talk to others, inform, guide, and you might be surprised how far your influence can reach.

wrongbhd
wrongbhd
8 years ago

I saw "Worlds Biggest Empire"
Thought it was about Rome
America isn't an empire. Close.

Gilbert
Gilbert
8 years ago

I agree with Bruce one of the other commenters - where did they get this narrator / presenter ? she sounds like she was rehearsing for a high school play - the voice did not pay credence to the importance and severity of the documentary's subject matter - almost teetering on disrespectful - I simply turned it off

cliff
cliff
8 years ago

valuable documentary but narrator's poor delivery detracts, should have used a pro.

KsDeviol
KsDeviol
8 years ago

One can blame the US empire all day, but in the end, the occupied have agreed, in one form or another, to be occupied.

Michael Drew Prior
Michael Drew Prior
8 years ago

America is and always has been a cruel, cruel nation--wrapped up in only it's own wellbeing.

pete
pete
8 years ago

I think any half educated American knows the truth how America became the power it is today, but our voices have been silenced by our own freedoms to vote for someone to represent us when as a population we do NOT have that strength of control now. A congress and house of few overpaid, selfish, aggrandizing individuals condescending on the population as though we have become Ignorant, impoverished, animals to be controlled and tagged.

Jim
Jim
8 years ago

Nice doc, but personally, it seems more credible that there is an entity above and beyond the U.S. that is calling the shots. This military/economic empire and the havoc and misery that it wreaks is not viewed by those in power as some sort of mistake. They want us at each other's throats, sick, poor and miserable. It's by design. Check out the works of David Icke.

june
june
8 years ago

Thank you Abbey, Now I know. I do not watch TV . Because I can not handle the frequency of Lies nor the commercials all GMO poison non Food . This is eye opening Thank you appreciated the direct to the point Truth . Gave me chills

eddy
eddy
8 years ago

@Watcher.. so true 0.o

eddy
eddy
8 years ago

it is what it is... America keeps the western world on top. With force.With thievery, trickery, and even diplomacy. It sucks that we do what we do. But I feel safe. And lucky Im American.

Zake
Zake
8 years ago

Well presented documentary, and as expected less than 32, 000 view and 122 comments. Wile Kim Kardashian butt and dancing cat both have on average 22,000,000 views. We are more focused on dancing with stars; the house wives of New Jersey, jersey shores and various idiocies rather than the facts of the world we live in, the facts that are slowly and surely eating us alive. I suppose it’s easier to cater to the idiot masses than cater to them.
We are slowly being indoctrinated and herded into the sewage of slavery; thus the statement - when you allow others to shape your destiny, your future becomes theirs to own and manipulate.

Mike R
Mike R
8 years ago

How sooo true this documentary is!!! When U.S. economy goes stagnant, the war machines get fired up, and one country has to loose.

Think about it...

zigfr33
zigfr33
8 years ago

Abby is rather hot

Bruce
Bruce
8 years ago

The presenter is just way too sanctimonious. Possibly good material but unwatchable with her. Get a real reporter and not some pretentious barbi doll.

Shane Ramsey
Shane Ramsey
8 years ago

I appreciate and respect most educated opinions but that guy comparing the United States to Nazi Germany and Abbey just laughing was a little to much.

Rev. G
Rev. G
8 years ago

I stay up every Friday night, to watch The Empire Files with Abby Martin & so far, the first 3 episodes have been excellent! A must watch, for everyone who wants to know, how the U.S. has gotten to this point in history.

Mike
Mike
8 years ago

No matter how much evidence- even proof is exposed of the issues covered in this short film there will be those who will yell, "Conspiracy theory!"

Watcher
Watcher
8 years ago

I've recently enjoyed the History channel series, 'Vikings'. Although some elements of the program are embellished, its fair to say that most elements only begin scratching the surface of the brutality and savagery of such an empire. Fast forward.. ad we have the 'corporation' (look it up) of the united States. Fair to say, we have expressed the same savagery and brutality that any other empire has before us, and its only a matter of time before another rises up, and follows in our foot steps, just as any empirical government and system does. So long as humans (or any other specie for that matter) that lack honor and respect for all species and the planetary resources, and values profit and power above all, those on this planet will see an endless repetition of what countless cultures and civilizations have witnessed, as we are witnessing in our life time. The only solution, unfortunately, is one as brutal and Savage as the actions of those that have taken control, for there has never been, nor will there ever be, a human that has achieved their power and profit by force, that chooses to relinquish that power freely.

morris
morris
8 years ago

"The Rise of The Worlds Biggest Empire", is conformation of what many have been saying for quite sometime now. Nonetheless, a very good summary of why America is so "loud" on the planet.

Francois
Francois
8 years ago

Feed the empire while the people can't afford education or healthcare.

Bfearn
Bfearn
8 years ago

Just a few of the truths that most Americans refuse to believe, don't know about or don't want to know about.