The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Should the US have become an empire?
No of course not, because that would have been in direct opposition to the elevated ideas expressed by the United States Founding fathers when they created the US Constitution and established the new form of government during the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1787.
Nevertheless, as it happens in the history of the nations, there were Presidents that under the idea of the Manifested Destiny tried to expand the US territory waging war, invading, and supporting imperialistic ideals, as was the case of President James Polk. It was the time of the Mexican-American War when the United States got the territories of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, Other Presidents had similar foreign policies.
How long could the US have maintained an isolationist policy toward the world?
Basically, the US developed the concept of isolationism during two important times in modern history. First, at the beginning of World War I. US President Woodrow Wilson tried to maint the foreign policy of neutrality. Years later, at the beginning of World War II, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to do the same. In both cases, after terrible events, both presidents decided to enter the war.
The Red Summer refers to the summer and early autumn of 1919, which was marked by hundreds of deaths and higher casualties across the United States, as a result of racial riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities and one rural county. In most instances, whites attacked African Americans.
The dissolution of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) "reduced the number of Communist nations in the world" and "<span>changed boundaries in Europe," since the USSR had overseen a number of "satellite states". </span><span />
In the wake of the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, Chandragupta (or Chandragupta Maurya), founder of the Mauryan dynasty, carved out the majority of an empire that encompassed most of the Indian subcontinent, except for the Tamil-speaking south. The Mauryan empire was an efficient and highly organized autocracy with a standing army and civil service. That bureaucracy and its operation were the model for the Artha-shastra (“The Science of Material Gain”), a work of political economy similar in tone and scope to Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince.
Chandragupta
Chandragupta
Chandragupta, from an Indian postage stamp.
PHG
Much is known of the reign of the Buddhist Mauryan emperor Ashoka (reigned c. 265–238 BCE or c. 273–232 BCE) from the edicts inscribed on exquisitely executed stone pillars that he had erected throughout his realm. Those edicts constitute some of the oldest deciphered original texts of India. Ashoka campaigned little to expand the realm; rather, his conquest consisted of sending many Buddhist emissaries throughout Asia and commissioning some of the finest works of ancient Indian art.
Ashokan pillar
Ashokan pillar
Inscription on Ashokan pillar, Lauriya Nandangarh, Bihar state, India.
Frederick M. Asher
After Ashoka’s death the empire shrank because of invasions, defections by southern princes, and quarrels over ascension. The last ruler, Brihadratha, was killed in 185 BCE by his Brahman commander in chief, Pushyamitra, who then founded the Shunga dynasty, which ruled in central India for about a century.
