Look at a map. Seriously, just pull up the standard map of the United States. You see the "lower 48" sitting there like a big, familiar puzzle piece, with Alaska and Hawaii tucked away in little boxes in the corner. It feels complete. It feels like that's the whole story. But it isn't. Not even close. If you want to know how to hide an empire, you don't use secret bunkers or invisible ink. You use a map that ignores millions of your own citizens.
Daniel Immerwahr, a historian at Northwestern University, wrote a book that basically blew the lid off this whole concept. He argues that we’ve been looking at a "logo map"—that silhouette of the US we see on t-shirts and news broadcasts—which conveniently crops out the parts that don't fit the narrative of a neat, continental republic. It’s a trick of perspective.
Most people think of "Empire" as something the British did with tea and redcoats, or something the Romans did with sandals and swords. We don't think of the US that way. Yet, at the dawn of the 20th century, the United States was a massive, sprawling collection of islands and territories. We’re talking about the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and even the Panama Canal Zone.
The Great Geographic Disappearing Act
Ever heard of the Insular Cases? Probably not. They don't exactly get a lot of airtime in high school history classes. These Supreme Court decisions from the early 1900s basically decided that the Constitution doesn't necessarily "follow the flag." This meant the US could hold territory without actually making it part of the United States in a legal or political sense. It created a "separate but unequal" status for millions of people.
That is how you hide an empire. You create a legal grey zone.
Puerto Rico is the most obvious example today. It’s a "commonwealth," which is a fancy word that sounds nice but keeps its residents in a state of limbo. They are US citizens. They use the US dollar. They serve in the military at incredibly high rates. But they can’t vote for the President. They don't have a voting representative in Congress. If you live in San Juan, you’re part of the empire, but you’re hidden from the political process that governs your life.
It’s wild when you think about it.
Why Technology Changed the Game
In the 19th century, empire was about land. You wanted rubber? You needed to own the trees in the ground. You wanted guano—which was a huge deal for fertilizer and gunpowder back then—you had to physically claim the rocks where the birds pooped. The US actually passed the Guano Islands Act of 1856 just to grab these tiny specks of land in the Pacific and Caribbean.
But then things shifted.
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We moved from a "colonial empire" to a "pointillist empire." This is a key part of how to hide an empire in the modern age. Instead of occupying entire countries with millions of people who might rebel, you just take the points. You take a tiny island for a landing strip. You take a harbor for a refueling station. You take a patch of desert for a drone base.
Think about the "Greater United States." If you plotted every US military base on a map today, the world would look like it has a bad case of the measles. We have roughly 750 bases in about 80 countries. These aren't colonies in the traditional sense. We don't "own" Germany or Japan. But we have a presence there that project power 24/7. It’s an empire of dots.
It's way easier to manage. You don't have to worry about the local population voting in your elections or demanding social services. You just want the runway.
The Language of Denial
Honestly, the way we talk about this stuff is a masterpiece of marketing. We use words like "territories," "possessions," or "overseas departments." We call bases "Forward Operating Sites." We avoid the "E-word" at all costs.
Even the way we treat the Philippines is a massive lesson in historical amnesia. After the Spanish-American War in 1898, the US didn't just "liberate" the Philippines. We fought a brutal, bloody war against Filipino revolutionaries who wanted actual independence. It lasted years. Hundreds of thousands of people died. Yet, in the American consciousness, that whole era is often reduced to a few paragraphs about "Manifest Destiny" or "helping" our "little brown brothers," as William Howard Taft patronizingly put it.
The empire is hidden because we chose to forget it.
Living in the Shadows of the Logo Map
There’s a real human cost to this invisibility. During World War II, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they also attacked the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island. But the "Infamy" speech by FDR focused almost entirely on Hawaii. Why? Because the American public saw Hawaii as "ours" in a way they didn't see the Philippines, even though the Philippines was a US territory with a much larger population.
This happens today with medical supplies and disaster relief. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, the federal response was criticized for being sluggish and inadequate compared to how Florida or Texas would have been treated. There was a genuine sense that many people on the mainland didn't even realize Puerto Ricans were US citizens.
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That’s the ultimate success of hiding an empire. You make the people in it invisible to their own fellow citizens.
How to Recognize the Empire Around You
If you want to spot the hidden empire, you have to look for the "seams" in the law and the map.
- Look at your passport. It says "United States of America," but it doesn't specify which part.
- Check the zip codes. Places like Guam or the Northern Mariana Islands have US zip codes and use the USPS, yet they are thousands of miles away from the "logo map."
- Standardization. The real power of the modern American empire isn't just soldiers; it's standards. It's the fact that the world uses GPS (run by the US Air Force). It's the fact that English is the lingua franca of aviation and the internet. It's the "hidden" infrastructure that makes the world run on American tracks.
We don't need to plant flags in every capital city when we own the code the world runs on.
The Shift to "Globalism"
Basically, we traded territory for influence. After 1945, the US realized that running colonies was a headache. It’s expensive. It looks bad on the news. People fight back. So, we helped dismantle the old European empires (like the British and French) and replaced them with a system of free trade and international organizations.
But guess who wrote the rules for those organizations?
By controlling the World Bank, the IMF, and the global financial system, you can exert imperial-level pressure without ever firing a shot or "occupying" a single inch of dirt. It’s a much more efficient way to run the world. It’s empire 2.0.
Actionable Insights for the Curious
If you’re trying to wrap your head around this, don’t just take the textbook's word for it. The real history is in the margins.
First, stop using the "logo map" in your head. When you think of the US, try to visualize the entire "Greater United States." Include the territories. Include the bases. It changes how you see our role in global events.
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Second, pay attention to the legal status of the territories. There are active movements in Puerto Rico and Guam regarding statehood vs. independence. These aren't just local issues; they are the unfinished business of the American empire.
Third, look at the infrastructure of power. Power today isn't just about who has the most tanks. It's about who controls the satellites, the fiber optic cables under the ocean, and the currency that everyone uses to buy oil.
The empire is only hidden if you refuse to look at the whole map. Once you see the dots, you can't unsee them. You realize that the United States isn't just a country; it's a global network that has mastered the art of being everywhere while pretending to be nowhere.
To truly understand how to hide an empire, you have to understand that the best hiding place is right in plain sight, disguised as "the way things are." It's in the standards we use, the language we speak, and the maps we choose to draw.
Start by looking at the Census data for "Overseas Populations." Compare the rights of a citizen in Washington D.C. (who also lacks a voting representative) to a citizen in American Samoa. Look for the "Unincorporated Territories" on official government websites. The information is there, buried under layers of administrative jargon. Digging it up is the only way to see the full picture of the world we actually live in.
By acknowledging the full extent of the American footprint, we can have a more honest conversation about what it means to be a republic in a world that still operates on the mechanics of empire. It’s about accountability. It’s about recognizing that "domestic" and "foreign" policy are often just two sides of the same coin.
Stop looking at the silhouette. Start looking at the dots.