i didn't want this to turn into a debate on whether america is an empire or not its just that it should be in its own disputed section an empire is a faction which expands through conquest forcibly places the conquered people under its command and forces the subsequent nation to submit technically though america did expand through conquest the areas which it conquered were admitted as states into its union through democracy empires do nothing of the sort they force the subsequent nation into its empire no democracy involved while oklahoma may become the state of oklahoma say if it was conquered by spain again it would simply be territory of the spanish empire