The U.S. Empire: Its Origins

When the United States was born in the late 18th century, the world lay at America's feet, or at least a continent did. The inevitability of an American empire seem obvious to all (at least among the elite members of society), including one Englishman who wrote, "Westward the Sun of Empire takes its way. Time's noblest offspring is the last" (Mead 11). The U.S. rationalized that expansion in a peculiarly American way, referring to religion and claiming it was the nation's "Manifest Destiny." This paper will analyze Manifest Destiny and America's other justifications for its 19th century imperialism and quasi-imperialism.

The U.S. emerged from an empire during the age of empires, so it was natural that the new nation would quickly join in the competition. The U.S., though, faced a dilemma. The founders had based the nation's independence on the natural right of self-determination and based the nation's government on republican principles. How could American leaders square those standards with a push to conquer land and people? Did not the people in the targeted lands also have the right of self-determination? (Williams 21-22).

For Britain, this had never been a problem because its leaders never attempted to bring any colonies into the fold. "Self-governing Englishman never had to cope with the problem of integrating their conquests into their domestic social and political economy" (Williams 22). For America, incorporating their conquests was not only an optio

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to despot-ridden masses in nearby countries! This was not imperialism, but enforced salvation" (Billington 489). One of O'Sullivan's business ventures was the Democratic Review, a lively journal that mixed politics with culture. O'Sullivan believed that the "cause of humanity was identical with that of the United States." The Review pushed the expansionist view but rejected war, criticizing the British for their "constant aggression, without any shadow of excuse or apology." O'Sullivan preferred the American system, which did not offer any "pretext or excuse for such wholesale oppression, robbery, and murder" (Stephanson, 39-42). Every U.S. president from Andrew Jackson to Martin Van Buren to John Tyler had tried to acquire Mexico's northern provinces, through every means short of war. James Polk, elected in 1844, tried all of those means, too, then chose war. In 1845, Polk pushed through the annexation of Texas, which meant that the U.S. assumed Texas' border dispute with Mexico. Soon that dispute flared into war (Billington 493). The American people were divided at first. Those in the Northeast opposed the war, viewing it as Southern aggression designed to create more slave states or fearing agricultural comp

Category: History - T