but, when they gave cuba fake independence, was it not because they didn't want to deal with the dependency? imperialism is hierarchical, but it's not hobbesian - the hegemon isn't a leviathan, it's defined by it's decadence and laziness, at the top of the class hierarchy. it's not there to colonize, it's just there to extract - and that's the difference between the romans and the greeks, isn't it? history repeats itself: if the brits were neo-grecian colonists, america is a neo-roman imperialist.

just another point, though - nowadays, they call neo-imperialism something else: neo-liberalism. because neo-liberalism is actually neo-mercantilism...