I was sitting in a diner, one that looked like it had come straight out of Pulp Fiction, eating and watching the TV in the corner. It was June 2004, and the TV was showing a large gathering of people, all dressed in black. I noticed Governor Schwarzenegger in the crowd.

As I later found out, the event was taking place just one valley over from where I was eating that day, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. It was Reagan’s funeral. Of course, I knew who Reagan was, but I only realized much later how consequential his presidency had been for America and the world we live in today.

Beginning of the end of the Roman Republic

Let’s take a quick detour to ancient Rome.

In 133 BC, Tiberius Gracchus resorted to populism to circumvent the centuries-old legislative process and pass his land redistribution bill. His murder by a mob led by senators violated the sacrosanctity traditionally enjoyed by tribunes of the plebs. His younger brother Gaius was murdered as well in 121 BC. Their murders introduced extralegal punishment and violence as political tools.

A few decades later, between 107 and 100 BC, Gaius Marius’s reforms allowed citizens without property to join the Roman army. Over time, these recruits naturally became more loyal to their generals, on whom their fortunes depended, than to the Senate and the Republic.

In 88 BC, Sulla put this loyalty to the test when he first marched on Rome, breaking the taboo against bringing an army into the city except during an authorized triumph. This was an outright military coup. Although he later relinquished power and retired shortly before his death, he had demonstrated that a general could seize political power by force.

And finally, Caesar followed Sulla’s example and effectively ended the Republic after winning the civil war against Gnaeus Pompeius and becoming dictator for life in 44 BC.

Influx of wealth after the Punic Wars

While most scholars trace the beginning of the collapse of the Roman Republic to the time of the Gracchi brothers in the second half of the second century BC, I’m personally convinced it all began much earlier.

The seed of the Republic’s destruction was the rise in inequality fueled by the incredible inflow of plundered wealth after the Punic Wars. Carthage had to pay huge sums of silver in reparations after the 2nd Punic War. And it was not just tangible wealth - the conquests of the 2nd and 3rd Punic Wars also brought the mass enslavement of indigenous populations.

The old Roman elite was virtually slaughtered by Hannibal in the battles at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC and especially Cannae in 216 BC. The new Roman elite that emerged after the 2nd Punic War placed less emphasis on the old virtues and instead built its status on the immense wealth accumulated after the war. This new class of plutocrats started buying smaller farms throughout Italy and consolidating land into large estates. This gradually eliminated the middle class of small landowners who were not only the cornerstone of the Roman army but also the social foundation of the Republic itself.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus

But none of that would have happened if Rome had lost the war. And one man was instrumental in defeating Carthage in the Second Punic War - Publius Cornelius Scipio, later awarded the honorific title Africanus.

His military and political career was exceptional in every way. In 210 BC, he assumed proconsular command in Spain despite never having been a consul or praetor. That had never happened before.

He pushed the Carthaginians out of Spain and became consul in 205 BC, securing the highest political and military office when he was just 30 years old. He persuaded the Senate to grant him authority to invade Africa, which he did in 204 BC as proconsul. That was a huge risk, as Hannibal was still ravaging Italy with his armies, undefeated by the Romans.

This daring move paid off as Scipio’s military campaign in Africa forced the Carthaginian Senate to recall Hannibal from Italy. Then, in 202 BC, Scipio defeated Hannibal in the decisive Battle of Zama, which led to Carthage’s capitulation.

Scipio Africanus achieved many unprecedented “firsts” during his career. He remained loyal to the Republic and never tried to usurp power. Yet, despite never breaking the rules, he certainly bent them to achieve his political and military goals.

Dawn of US imperialism

From FDR to Nixon

The Watergate scandal and the subsequent impeachment proceedings against President Nixon in 1973 marked a psychological milestone in US politics. Although people had questioned presidents’ credibility and integrity in the past, Nixon was the first one publicly caught covering up a criminal scandal. As a result, he became the first US president forced to resign from office. While the consequences for Nixon were immediate, the damage to the presidency was long-lasting.

Was that the moment the US took its first step towards imperialism?

Well, some might argue that the process actually started decades earlier. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was accused of craving power and pushing radical socialist legislation during his time in office. And these accusations were not entirely unfounded. The bills he proposed represented an unprecedented infringement on personal freedoms, especially in the economic sphere. And he broke a tradition more than a hundred years old by running for a third presidential term.

Is there a clearer sign of imperialism than trying to extend one’s rule for as long as possible?

But despite picking a fight with the Supreme Court during his 2nd term and issuing a fair number of executive orders, FDR’s enduring impact on America comes from the laws for which he secured broad support in Congress. Think about the Social Security Act, various labor laws, or the legislation establishing the SEC, all of which remain in effect to this day.

FDR’s critics certainly have a point. However, we must judge him in the context of that era. In the 1930s, extremism was rampant everywhere, and as I noted in an earlier post, by introducing the right amount of socialism, FDR shielded America from communism.

The man who ended the Cold War

No, the real seeds of imperialism were sown much later, with Ronald Reagan’s election as US president. Like Scipio Africanus, his rise to power was only possible because of challenging times - rampant inflation and the weak economy of the 1970s. He did not come from a prominent, wealthy family like JFK. Instead, he was ridiculed for his acting career during the 1966 campaign for governor of California.

Once he became president, he pushed ahead with his economic reforms and defense buildup, determined to confront the Soviet Union. That sometimes meant bending the rules and even acting behind Congress’s back. The most notable example was the Iran-Contra affair. Between 1982 and 1984, Congress passed a series of bills prohibiting the CIA and the Pentagon from arming the Contras - the anti-communist rebels fighting against Nicaragua’s Marxist government. Only Congress has the constitutional mandate to provide funding, so Reagan’s administration got creative and covertly sold missiles to Iran and funneled this cash to the Contras. The scheme was exposed in 1986, prompting congressional investigations. Although Reagan himself was not criminally charged, some members of his administration were forced to resign and were later indicted.

Nevertheless, Reagan’s unwavering commitment to defeating communism paid off. The Soviet Union couldn’t respond to the US military buildup, and falling oil prices broke the back of its economy, resulting in the disintegration of the USSR in 1991.

The decline of the only global power capable of threatening the United States’ existence also meant the removal of the most important unifying factor in US society. As US companies began pursuing profits at any cost, American elites gave their consent to China’s entry into the WTO in 2001, eyeing a lucrative new market and a low-cost production base. That hollowed out US industry, increased inequality, and allowed populists like Obama and Trump to come to power. All of this weakens democratic institutions and raises the specter of imperialism.

The two empires

Both Scipio Africanus and Reagan rose to power because of the extraordinary circumstances of their eras. After the catastrophic defeats at Lake Trasimene and Cannae, Rome’s urgent need to find someone capable of stopping Hannibal enabled the rise of talented individuals like Scipio, who could never have become proconsul and later consul in normal times, at least not so young. And Reagan probably wouldn’t have become president if it hadn’t been for the painful stagflation of the 1970s and Jimmy Carter’s botched handling of the Iranian hostage crisis.

We can debate whether Carthage would have fallen even without Scipio’s victory over Hannibal at Zama, given Hannibal’s missed opportunity to march on Rome after the Battle of Cannae. The Soviet Union would most likely have collapsed even without Reagan. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that both Scipio and Reagan were essential in defeating their homelands’ main geopolitical adversaries. While those victories brought immense wealth and prosperity to their countries, they eventually led to the rise of imperialism and the loss of personal freedoms.

Both were great men, and the long-term consequences of their actions were beyond their control. Rome had to prevail over Carthage, otherwise, it would not have become the dominant Mediterranean power, and we would remember it only as a promising confederation of Italian city-states that faded into irrelevance before the turn of the era. America had to prevail over the USSR to become the undisputed global superpower.

It was inevitable.