a historical perspective of imperialistic tendencies When Northern America was settled by colonists coming from Europe, there soon was established a division between those who arrived in the southern states and the colonists who settled in the northern parts. In the south already after a few years economic interests were rapidly growing, a development, which was supported by the emerging slave trade. This purely economic thinking demanded on expansion to find new markets, land and resources: "to trade in the world means to rule over the world" (William Henry Seward). In the north most settlers arrived for religious reasons, fleeing from oppression in their home countries. When in 1630 the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded, the settlers there wished nothing more than to "be a city set on a hill" as the first governor of this colony, John Winthrop, wrote, having the old dream of the New Jerusalem in its mind. In this ideological division many of the tensions in between America itself are already set, it is one of the main bases of Americas self-understanding and policy. While the colonies were developing, they pretty fast separated themselves more and more from the old continent, from Europe. The tensions were rising until the War of Independence broke out. For the Americans, their cause was "in a great measure the cause of all mankind", they felt it in their "power to make a world happy" and "to begin the world over again", as it was expressed by Thomas Paines. All their revolutionary ideas the Americans wrote in their Declaration of Independence, which was created and understood to be the sign of a new age. The American people claimed for themselves as "self-evident truths" the "unalienable truths of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". Especially the individualism, which spoke out of these lines, was revolutionary. Never before, all men were seen as equal, never before every individual was granted the right of "pursuit of Happiness". Even the revolutions happening in Europe in the aftermath of the one in America never went so far. The Europeans even when making revolution inspired by America, counted on Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. The American ideal of absolute individualism did not impress the European way of life; a division was made and maintained for years to come. However, this division, realised by the Americans quite soon, did not irritate them too much. They believed in the superiority of their system already from the very beginning, as it can be seen fairly clear in the Federalist Papers. Here also Alexander Hamilton defines the goals of former American foreign policy: "The superiority she [Europe] has long maintained has tempted her to plume herself as the Mistress of the World, and to consider the rest of mankind as created for her benefit. Men admired as profound philosophers have, in direct terms, attributed to her inhabitants a physical superiority, and have gravely asserted that all animals, and with them the human species, degenerate in America - that even dogs cease to bark after having breathed awhile in our atmosphere. Facts have too long supported these arrogant pretensions of the Europeans. It belongs to us to vindicate the honor of the human race, and to teach that assuming brother, moderation. Union will enable us to do it. Disunion will add another victim to his triumphs. Let Americans disdain to be the instruments of European greatness! Let the thirteen States, bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one great American system, superior to the control of all transatlantic force or influence, and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world!" According to Hamilton, this great American system should be founded on a strong economy. But beside this economic party, there still were and are the representatives of a more idealistic policy, which orientated themselves on the American ideals as one can see in a letter, written by Thomas Jefferson to President James Monroe shortly before the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine: "Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own. She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicil of despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom." Both political ideas - the economic based as well as the idealistic one - very strongly believe in the superiority of the American way of life, and they both rely on expansion. Jefferson claims a whole hemisphere for America, and the Monroe Doctrine consequentially declares nothing else than that the USA are the power to protect the whole American continent against intervention from Europe. The USA are not understood to have fixed borders here, their aim is to install a new order, their order. This is a classical imperialistic aim, although it is not about controlling more territory. But it still has all the other aspects which are typical for imperialism: strengthening of ones own economy, of ones power and, of course, of civilising barbarians. All this is admitted, although he of course is not calling the American policy as imperialistic at all, by President McKinley in a speech towards a group of missionaries in 1899, dealing with the annexation of the Philippines: "The truth is I didn't want the Philippines, and when they came to us as a gift from the gods, I did not know what to do with them. [...] And one night late it came to me this way - I don't know how it was, but it came: (1) That we could not give them back to Spain - that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France or Germany - our commercial rivals in the Orient - that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) that we could not leave them to themselves - they were unfit for self-government - and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was; and (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men for whom Christ also died." Here it is said what are the main aims of American policy: First honour, second business and third their civilization and Christianity. This example shows also really well, how less the Americans cared about the people they ruled; because the terms of being able to govern oneself are of course dictated by the Americans (in the aftermath, they even had to oppress a Philippine uprising), who did know nearly nothing about the Philippines, who were christianized centuries ago by the Spanish. But all this was no longer important. On the way to power: American imperialism in the 19th and early 20th century As we have seen, the main political idea behind American expansionism was the strong belief in the superiority of the own nation. This belief was the base for the so-called "Manifest Destiny", which was formulated for the first time by the editor John O'Sullivan in 1845: "the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative development of self government entrusted to us. It is right such as that of the tree to the space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth." Consequently, in 1852 Edward Everett formulated: "The principle of our state institutions is expansion" At that time, the USA did not only control most of the territories which used to belong to the Indians before, they also had won a war against Mexico, where they conquered California, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. They also had started to realize their growing interests in the Caribbean and in Asia. In 1803, they bought Louisiana (an area, which is not to be compared with today's state) from the French and in 1819, they won Florida. But already in 1823 John Quincy Adams pushed this expansion one more time and declared an even bigger U.S. interest in the Caribbean: "These islands (Cuba and Puerto Rico) are natural appendages of the North American continent, and one of them (Cuba) almost within sight of our shores, from a multitude of considerations has become an object of transcendent importance to the commercial and political interests of our Union. [...] These are laws of political as well as physical gravitation." After two attempts to buy Cuba from the Spanish government in the 1850ties, uprisings in Cuba against Spanish rule finally gave the desired reason to annexe not only Cuba but also Puerto Rico in 1898. This policy was to be kept alive by President Theodore Roosevelt, who declared the right of the USA to intervene in the coutries of southern America: "All that this country [the USA] desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power." The States did so not only in 1903 in Columbia, where they gave independence to Panama to build a canal, but also in 1902 in Venezuela and in 1904 in the Dominican Republic where they wanted to prevent European powers from intervention. When Roosevelt left the White House in 1909, the USA controlled the Caribbean nearly completely. In the other area of their interest, the Pacific an Asia, the USA also made rapid progress: in 1854, an expedition led by Commander Perry forced Japan to give up its isolation and to open its market for foreign economy, its culture for foreign influences. In 1867, the Russian Empire sold Alaska for only 7.2 Million Dollar. This changed not only the balance of powers in northern America against Canada, it also granted the USA a bigger control of the northern Pacific. Eight years later, a treaty with Hawaii was signed; this treaty seemed to be a purely economic one, granting both sides advantages in exchanging goods, but it in fact did restrict the possibilities of an independent Hawaiian foreign policy: It is agreed, on the part of His Hawaiian Majesty, that, so long as this Treaty shall remain in force, he will not lease or otherwise dispose of or create any lien upon any port, harbor, or other territory in his dominions, or grant so special privilege or right of use therein, to any other power, state, or government, nor make any treaty by which any other nation shall obtain the same privileges, relative to the admission of any articles free of duty hereby secured to the United States." So this treaty was to be the first step to the annexation of Hawaii, which came after the USA had won the Spanish-American after which they could force Spain to sell the Philippines for 20 Million Dollar. After 1899, when the USA agreed with Germany upon Samoa and gained control of Tutuila Island, they finally controlled the trade routes from America not only to east Asia and China, where they, together with Germany, France and Great Britain suppressed the boxing uprising in 1900, but also to Australia. The USA finally were a leading economic and politic power in the world. ps: imperialism is defined as a "state policy, practice or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by gaining political and economic control of other areas
So... can you tell us who wrote this, include the referenced footnotes and give us YOUR thoughts on its importance? Peace.
goofy dont you know thinking is hard work? http://www.hausarbeiten.de/rd/archiv/geschichte/gesch-text878.shtml threads abound in these forums about usa miltary adventures afganistan, iraq, columbia........... there is speculation as to the real reasons for these adventures (pipelines, oil...) this here article merely seeks to establish the fact that what is happening now is nothing new. it can stand on its own and does not need any qualifiers from me is that satisfactory? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
