Empires!

[Scorpiоn]

In a nutshell, the Alamo was an isolated garrison for the Mexican Army during Texas' revolution.  The Texans invaded and took it (Woot!  Go team!).  Despite having just exploited it's weaknesses, which were glaringly inherent in the design, the Texans then decided they would use it as a garrison as well.  Needless to say, they were defeated (see: slaughter) by the Mexican army.  And so the saying went...

Remember the Alamo!

Much of the story is shrouded in legend and folklore tho'.

[Scorpiоn]

America had very little to do with Texas.  Americans were allowed to settle in Texas for very cheap and on the agreement that they farm the land.  Once they crossed the border (Haha!  Imagine that!  Americans escaping into Mexico!), they were pretty much under Mexican jurisdiction, and on their own, granted the Mexican government was quite lenient for a while.  The Texans started to demand more, and as neither the settlers nor the government would back down, the war ensued, and finally concluded at the Battle of San Jacinto and thanks to Sam Houston.

Texas, after being it's own independent republic for some time, finally requested for stateship in the U.S.  Since we were our own country, and not just a territory, we were able to negotiate our terms of entry a bit more than other states.  For example, the Texan and American flag may fly at equal stances.  To my knowledge, all other state flags must fly in inferior positions.

[Woodlouse2002]

So let me get this right? Are you saying that the American Empire is Texas?

[Scorpiоn]

Not quite.  ;) Just correcting this:

Word of this great land reached generals and the populous and the US decided to take it.

[Craig.]

I just read a fascinating book about great empires of the world.

The old french empire and the British empire of old.

But the greatest one is the American empire

Without being insulting to our American friends i must disagree. While well established the American empire just doesnt compair to real empires like the greeks, Romans British and so on. America never truely had an international hold like the empires of old. On the other hand, what they have done within their own boundries is certainly turn it into one of the greatest countries of all times, in such a short time the settlers caught up with and soon surpassed the technological advancements of the rest of the world.

[Woodlouse2002]

 in such a short time the settlers caught up with and soon surpassed the technological advancements of the rest of the world.

They took the technology with them. It's different from catching up. And as for surpassing the rest of the world, well, it's pretty much all British and German technology.

[Craig.]

they took as much as they could, they still had to develop it and that wasnt easy when you consider they didnt exactly have the factories and work force like there was in the UK

[Woodlouse2002]

The factories were quickly built and the workforce came very quickly with immigration. And again, they didn't develop it. It was european developments that got taken over to America.

Basically, preWWII America didn't surpass many western nations technologically. And they only went ahead after WWII because they'd been given all the British inventions in the war, they'd got hold of a few german scientists and most importantly they could afford to throw the money about.

[Felix/FFDS]

No Empire is "pure" if it wants to expand.

Whereas that US may not be a colonial empire - as was the British Empire, Roman etc., it can be considered an economic empire influencing far beyond its borders.  To that extent, you can also consider Japan to be a resurgent (economic) Empire.  Land grabbing empires of old are pass