One thing I’ve always forgotten to mention in this thread is my personal head-canon about the creation of the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe.

In my head-canon, the Tunguska event of 1908 occurred over Washington, D.C. instead of Siberia. Since the explosion destroyed the entire city and wiped out the government, the United States fell into chaos. Seeing an opportunity, the U.S. military, backed by the biggest corporations, staged a coup and suspended the Constitution in order to “restore order.” Eventually, they transformed the United States into a corporatist and hyper-militaristic dictatorship fueled by paranoia, terror, and expansionism. Over the following decades, the American Empire used its resources to wage wars against other nations until it united the entire planet. The Terran Empire was proclaimed in 1950, with Douglas MacArthur as its first Emperor.