How to pronounce “empire”(verb) in English

being seen as a really challenge to the previous existing powers. So the United States from the 1870s to the 1930s. Prior to that the empires, the British Empire and the FrenchEmpire these were the major powers in the world. London and Paris were the leading cities in the world. The United States cities were rising up and one of the ways they were risingup and challenging those cities place in the world was by hosting world's fairs. The descendents of which are World's Expo, Shanghai is just hosting one.