Let’s define “Empire”. This one from Merriam Webster:
A major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority especially : one having an emperor as chief of state.
Sadly, the fifty sovereign states are perilously close to being subjugated by a single sovereign authority.
So, that 250-year countdown may be started soon.
The empire is two years old.
Before that we has a republic.