Overseas expansion of the United States

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History of U.S. expansion and influence

American Empire

Foreign relations

List of military actions

Non-interventionism

Opposition to expansion

Overseas expansion

Pax Americana

Territorial acquisitions

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United States overseas expansion follows the expansion of U.S. frontiers on the North American continent (see Mexican-American War, War of 1812, and Territorial acquisitions of the United States). The overseas expansion of the United States into Puerto Rico and the Pacific occurred as a consequence of the Guano Islands Act, Spanish American War, the colonization of the American Samoa, and the annexation of the Republic of Hawaii at the request of the then president of Hawaii, Sanford Dole. The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917.

[edit] Background

Post Spanish-American War U.S. political cartoon from 1898: "Ten Thousand Miles From Tip to Tip" meaning the extension of U.S. domination (symbolized by a bald eagle) from 'Puerto Rico' to the Philippines. The cartoon contrasts this with a map of the smaller United States in 1798.

A variety of factors coincided during this period to bring about an accelerated pace of U.S. expansion:

• Wars such as the Spanish-American War that led to liberation and acquisition of former colonies of foreign states
• The industry and agriculture of the United States had grown beyond its need for consumption. Powerful business and political figures such as James G. Blaine believed that foreign markets were essential to further economic growth, promoting a more aggressive foreign policy.
• The prevalence of racism, notably Ernst Haeckel's "biogenic law," John Fiske's conception of Anglo-Saxon racial superiority, and Josiah Strong's call to "civilize and Christianize" - all manifestations of a growing Social Darwinism and racism in some schools of American political thought.^{[citation needed]}
• The development of Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis," which stated that the American frontier was the wellspring of its creativity and virility as a civilization. As the Western United States was gradually becoming less of a frontier and more of a part of America, many believed that overseas expansion was vital to maintaining the American spirit.

• The publication of Alfred T. Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History in 1890, which advocated three factors crucial to The United States' ascension to the position of "world power": the construction of a canal in South America (later influencing the decision for the construction of the Panama Canal), expansion of the U.S. naval power, and the establishment of a trade/military post in the Pacific, so as to stimulate trade with China. This publication had a strong influence on the idea that a strong navy stimulated trade, and influenced policy makers such as Theodore Roosevelt and other proponents of a large navy.

[edit] U.S. past and present territorial possessions

Main article: Territorial acquisitions of the United States

1899 cartoon. Uncle Sam balances his new possessions, which are depicted as savage children. The figures are identified as Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Philippines, and the Mariana Islands

In the period between the mid-1800s until the mid-1900s the United States annexed a number of overseas islands and territories.

[edit] Overseas interventions

In addition to direct annexation of land, the United States has been involved in a number of covert and overt military interventions that have had the effect of expanding United States influence over the policies of foreign governments.

[edit] Interventions in Latin America

The early decades of the 20th century saw a great number of interventions in Latin America by the U.S. government, often under the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and most often openly in aid of U.S. corporate interests. President William Howard Taft viewed "Dollar Diplomacy" as a way for American corporations to benefit while assisting in the national security goal of preventing European powers, above all the United Kingdom and Germany, from filling any possible financial or power vacuum.

• 1901: Platt Amendment renders Cuba a protectorate of the United States, putting severe restrictions on the Cuban government's financial freedom, granting the U.S. its base at Guantanamo Bay, and reserving the right of the U.S. to intervene in Cuban affairs. Cuba is also pressured to write the provisions of the Platt Amendment into its constitution.
• 1903: US customs receivership in Haiti following collapse of Haitian government and threats by France and Italy to intervene to collect their debts.
• 1903: U.S. backed independence of Panama from Colombia in order to build the Panama Canal; Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty
• 30 March 1903 - 28 March 1905: U.S. occupation of the (former Spanish colony) Dominican Republic
• 1904: Theodore Roosevelt announces his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States would intervene to protect Washington's interests in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.
• 28 March 1905 - 1941: U.S. protectorate of Dominican Republic
• 1906-1909 U.S. reassume military rule over Cuba under Governor Charles Magoon.
• 1909: forced resignation of President José Santos Zelaya after triumph of U.S.-backed rebels in Nicaragua
• 1914 to 1916: Mexico conflict, including U.S. troops occupying northern portion of the country and port city of Veracruz
• 1915 to 1934: United States occupation of Haiti
• 1923 to 1928 (Nicaragua) Marines occupied main cities, Their purpose was to provide stabilization to the government. There was a period of a few months between 1925 and 1926 when the Marines left but were back for the same reason.

[edit] Interventions in Asia

While American intervention had begun earlier with Matthew Perry forcibly opening Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, this period saw the United States expand its presence in Asia. The U.S. pushed through the Open Door Policy that guaranteed equal economic access to China. It also vigorously acquired small islands in the Pacific, mostly to be used as coaling stations.

Throughout the later half of the 19th century, China was divided into "spheres of influence"-areas to which a foreign power (Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia) were given exclusive trading rights or even the territory itself as the result of treaties. The United States, having recently gained the Philippines in the Spanish-American War and thereby becoming a player in East Asia, felt impeded by these "spheres of influence". In an effort to equalize trade, John Hay, Secretary of State at the time (under William McKinley), sent letters to European leaders suggesting an "open door" policy in China, one that would grant equivalent trading rights to all powers inside the spheres of influence. The proposal was gently rejected. Following the Boxer Rebellion, John Hay called again for an expanded "open door" policy effective throughout China, not just within "spheres of influence". The United States and the European powers agreed to preserve Chinese independence and government.

More intense was the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951, during which time the US occupation force, led by General Douglas MacArthur staged a dramatic restructuring of Japanese society in order to prevent the nation from re-emerging as a military threat. (See also Japanese nationalism.) Although the occupation officially ended in the 1950s, American troops remain today in bases in Japan.

[edit] Interventions in Europe

After helping the Allies in defeateating Nazi Germany, the United States occupied the southern portion of the Western sector of Germany (which later became part of West Germany) for ten years (1945 to 1955). During the 1960s and 1970s, it became fashionable to view the Soviet Empire in eastern Europe as comparable to the American/British domination of western Europe. It was frequently argued that, through economic and military pressure, the United States pursued hegemony just as aggressively as the Soviet Union. The post-revisionist school, which, since the fall of the USSR, has come to dominate the study of Cold War history, has rejected this view, arguing that the full extent of Soviet aggression has become apparent as a result of the opening of the Kremlin's archives. (See historiography of the Cold War.)

[edit] Interventions in the Middle East

Main article: American Interventions in the Middle East

After World War II, with the continued rise in the importance of oil to the world economy, the United States increased its interest in intervention in the Middle East. While it had no formal colonies, it had strong influence in several countries including Israel, Iran under the Shah, and various Gulf states. Since 2001, and the September 11 attacks, the U.S. has had a large number of troops in Afghanistan. Since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, it has had an even larger number in Iraq. At least some U.S. war planners were interested in U.S. military domination of the oil-rich Gulf region, the world's top supply of this most important resource, according to U.S. General Jay Garner, who was in charge of planning and administering post-war reconstruction in Iraq, explaining that the U.S. occupation of Iraq was comparable to the Philippine model:

"Look back on the Philippines around the turn of the 20th century: they were a coaling station for the navy, and that allowed us to keep a great presence in the Pacific. That's what Iraq is for the next few decades: our coaling station that gives us great presence in the Middle East."^[1]

Some U.S. war planners are interested in long term bases in Iraq to project American power to the Middle East.

"One of the most important things we can do right now is start getting basing rights with (the Iraqi authorities)", "I hope they're there a long time....And I think we'll have basing rights in the north and basing rights in the south ... we'd want to keep at least a brigade", Garner added.^[1]

Also, a report of the U.S. House of Representatives accompanying emergency spending legislation for U.S. military bases in Iraq stated that the money allocated was "of a magnitude normally associated with permanent bases".^[2]

Declassified British Cabinet papers, published in The Guardian in 1994, indicate the possibility that the CIA and MI6 both provided backing for the 1963 military coup of Iraqi Colonel Abdul Salam Arif which overthrew Brigadier General Abdul Karim Qassim. Qassim had attempted to nationalize the Iraq Petroleum Company, of which U.S. companies were major shareholders, and in order to assert Iraqi rights to the territory of Kuwait. Following the coup, the new Iraqi government abandoned both of these policies disapproved of by the governments of both the U.S. and the United Kingdom (see also history of Iraq) After the government of Rahman Arif took power, the U.S. again backed a coup in Iraq, bringing the Baath Party to power in 1968,^[3] with Saddam Hussein eventually taking the helm.

Similar tactics were used by the United States in Iran in 1953 to topple the democractically-elected Mossadegh government and to install the Shah dictatorship, see Operation Ajax, and in Chile in 1973 to install Augusto Pinochet after the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Dr. Salvador Allende (see Chilean coup of 1973). In these cases U.S. interest lay in maintaining control over Iran's oil and Chile's copper.

From March 2003 to June 28, 2004, the United States effectively (although not formally) ruled Iraq through the Coalition Provisional Authority, which was headed by Jay Garner and later by Paul Bremer. During this period, the CPA controlled the Iraqi government, with its various ministries headed by Americans, and had the authority to pass legislation as it wished without consultation of Iraqis.

[edit] Cultural imperialism

Main article: Cultural imperialism

Since the end of the World War II, the United States has been world dominant in most cultural industries. US movies, television, food, and music are popular throughout the world. Thus the US has often been accused of cultural imperialism, a form of expansion overseas certainly more subtle than military conquest but perhaps with similar problems.^[4]

[edit] See also

• History of United States continental expansion
• United States territorial acquisitions
• Historic regions of the United States
• List of U.S. foreign interventions since 1945
• American Empire
• Manifest Destiny
• Spread-eagleism
• American Exceptionalism
• Project for the New American Century
• New Imperialism and the emerging empires.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

American benevolence

• Judis, John B.. "Imperial Amnesia". Foreign Policy.  (Alternate link)
• On the Coming Decline and Fall of the US Empire. transnational.org. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.
• Basic Statistics of US Imperialism. whatreallyhappened.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-30. (Death toll, interventions, air war campaigns, debt-leverage imperialism, proxy wars, etc.)
• USA and Latin America. casahistoria.net. Retrieved on 2006-07-30. History links to the early US involvement in Latin America from casahistoria.

[edit] Notes

1. ↑  Miller, p. 136, 163 "Will Show No Mercy Real Warfare Ahead For Filipino Rebels Kitchener Plan Adopted The Administration Weary of Protracted Hostilities." Boston Herald, November 19, 1900.
2. ↑  See Lodge Committee, Jacob H. Smith, J. Franklin Bell, for more detailed accounts, see the imperialist newspaper accounts wikisource: Lodge Committee testimony from the New York Times, wikiquote: Philippine-American War Quotes

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