Okay so reading over the previous posts I've seen several recurring problems.
2. American domestic opposition: This is probably the biggest hurdle, but I don't think an insurmountable one. New England mercantilists wouldn't mind an overseas empire to trade with and dominate economically. Mid-westerners cold see a market for their agricultural products. I think this plan could find a home in the emerging Whig party.
*nods* This is, after all, the time of great eastern forests & the sky-darkening flocks of Passenger Pigeons and Woodland Bison, so food and resources aren't going to be a problem.
3. Military capacity: This poses a problem as the US probably couldn't subdue the vast interior but the US could given popular backing subdue the coastal regions.
*nods* Agreed. and the coastal emirs would keep an eye on the interior for the US.
Hrm.... Thriving on bison and elk. Upper hand? Empire of their own?!? What exactly are you referencing for this discussion, Crazy Horse's diary?
Something published by a reservation press, perhaps?
book "The Commanche Empire" by...and I'm not sure how to spell the guy's name.
EDIT: Pekka Hamalainen
Both were done in the era (1898) of steamships and telegraph which significantly shortened transportation and communication.
Quite significantly different than the Barbary Coast of the 1820s.
...where the US had to build a Navy almost from scratch, just to put a stop to something that was pestering other nations more than the US -- and there wasn't even full agreement in Congress over whether or not to build a fleet to get rid of the Barbary Pirates.