A simple question: Is the United States a global empire in the colonial tradition?

Clearly this question would not have been valid before the American Revolution (1775-1783) when the British Empire owned the American colonies. The New England colonists were self-described “Englishmen” or “British citizens,” and those who remained so inclined became United Empire Loyalists and relocated to what became Canada or else returned to their “mother country.” 

My family maintained that we were descended from UEL stock, and while one branch was “True Blue,” another branch chose the Patriot side which conjures up the more apt description of the revolution as the “First American Civil War.”

It was during the early 19^th century that Americans began to develop a distinctive identity. Following a bloody revolution fought by citizen soldiers against trained British and Hessian troops, the right to “keep and bear arms” for its militia was woven into the United States constitution via the 2^nd amendment. This led to the misguided “gun culture” Americans celebrate today.

The other irony is that the slave owning founders of the country enshrined “freedom” (except for those who were enslaved) in the constitution, guaranteeing a Second American Civil War.

While capitalism has a cyclical rise and fall pattern built into it, the United States quickly developed a world-wide reputation for what Charles Dickens describes as “sharp dealing.” He is thought to have lost money investing in municipal bonds when the 1837 and 1839 Panics took place in the U.S., turning the “Yankee Dollar” into a worthless piece of paper. 

This may explain why his travel narrative American Notes for General Circulation, which described his 1842 lecture tour, was not greeted with favourable reviews in the U.S. The newspapers were particularly upset when Dickens publicly criticized the U.S. for ignoring copyright laws and exploiting a loophole which allowed them to re-print his stories without paying for them (Which makes the American criticism of China for Intellectual Property (IP) transgressions doubly ironic, considering American business practices of the 19^th century).

In the 1800s, the “Monroe Doctrine” expressed American expansionist ambition while it claimed to be a revolutionary government bent on blocking European powers by encouraging their colony’s independence. Under this disguise, the U.S. was able to take over (by force) large areas of Mexican territory, eventually creating the states of Texas, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California. 

This map illustrates the extent of the land that the U.S. expropriated following the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,

which was signed (at gun point) following the US invasion of Mexico. It provided $15M US dollars in compensation to Mexico. 

Previously, Louisiana (marked as “Unorganized Territory”) was purchased from Napoleon in 1803 also for $15M US dollars, and finally Alaska was purchased from the Russian Czar in 1867 for $7.2M US dollars. In all cases, the Indigenous title to these lands was never considered.

Cuba on this map was the next target of American “liberation.” Anthony Trollope, who followed Dickens on his own American tour in 1859 observed in The West Indies and the Spanish Main that: “The trade of the country is falling into the hands of foreigners – into those principally of Americans from the States. Havana will soon become as much American as New Orleans.” 

The U.S. enthusiasm for capturing Cuba was fanned by William Randolph Hearst and his “Remember the Maine, To Hell with Spain” slogan. 

The U.S.S. Maine had blown  up in Havana harbour in 1889, an event which conveniently allowed the U.S. military to occupy the island during the brief Spanish-American War. Following the four-month war, the remainder of the once mighty Spanish Empire was forced to give up control not only over Cuba, but also the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

For the first half of the 20^th century Cuba was reshaped by American companies, particularly those with heavy investments in the dominant sugar and tourist industries. When Prohibition was launched in 1920, American criminal organizations took over Havana’s “nightlife” and bank-rolled the puppet dictator Fulgencio Batista, before being overthrown by the Cuban Revolutionary forces on January 1^st, 1959 (This happened to be the 60^th anniversary of the American conquest). 

At that time American companies owned 70% of the arable land and considered that the country belonged to them and their shareholders. This is the main reason that the U.S. has been trying to recover its “property,” through invasion (Bay of Pigs), intimidation (Cuban Missile Crisis) and multiple CIA plots to kill the 16^th Prime Minister, Fidel Castro, plus a total trade embargo.

How many times have U.S. invasions been launched against Canada? Well, if you count the three Fenian “incursions,” of the 1830s and 1860s, which were more like comic operas, we are up to the number five (for details see “Les Invasions Barbares: The American Invasions” in Arthur).

Following the American Civil War, the British North American colonies banded together in self-defence and created the Dominion of Canada. Unable to conquer Canada overtly, the Americans turned to Plan B and following WWII, the corporations quietly moved in to create “branch plant” industries. I recall a 1956 Crawley sponsored film called “A New Future Lies North” designed to promote American investment in Canada – ironically Pierre Berton wrote the script. 

I wonder how long Canada would have lasted if the trade embargo of 1959 had been placed along the “world’s longest undefended border”? Certainly not 66 years. We should not be surprised that we are again under threat by the White House and are once more being considered for the questionable privilege and role as the “51^st State of the United States.”