The United States was founded in opposition to empire—yet it expanded relentlessly across a continent, built overseas possessions, and later constructed a global system of power without formal colonies.

We examine American expansionism and imperialism as a historical structure rather than a slogan, tracing the arc from Manifest Destiny and territorial conquest to the modern use of alliances, military access, economic pressure, and soft power. The episode then turns to the current Greenland crisis, using it as a contemporary case study in how older territorial instincts can resurface under strategic pressure.

Why does strategic geography still matter in the 21st century?
Why does American power often prefer ownership over access?
And where is the line between leadership, influence, and coercion?

This is a fact-driven, non-dramatic analysis of the American empire—how it formed, how it evolved, and what the Greenland crisis reveals about the limits of the post-World War II order.

Topics include:

• Manifest Destiny and U.S. territorial expansion

• Indigenous dispossession and settlement policy

• Overseas empire after 1898

• American soft power and informal empire

• Alliances, sovereignty, and coercion

• Greenland as a modern stress test of American imperial logic

A clearer framework for understanding American empire—not as rhetoric, but as a long-running strategic pattern that still shapes global politics today.

Lingua Franca https://open.spotify.com/episode/7sSFSftiIPXUlTRH2ufnWO?si=sMdzhD3dRKeceWirOWDoiw

How the US stole series by Johnny Harris https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphcdvnT8lOuGEgnE5_fGh9ZbFkrZDJjm