[hcurtiss]

None of those countries stopped those practices. That is, they realized the end of their prominence due to policy positions and factors other than imperialism (or maybe even because of imperialism). That is, imperialism doesn’t necessarily make a country wealthy, and it certainly doesn’t keep it that way. Distant wars are expensive. See Rome. The US’s escapades in the Middle East May break it yet. No, I maintain that those imperialistic tendencies are not at all what’s made the US so prosperous, and they may in fact lead to its demise.