One could argue that the US has always been an empire. Thomas Jefferson called the US an empire, but an “empire of liberty” dedicated to spreading freedom around the globe. Tell that to the Native Americans killed and dispossessed by White Settlers. Tell that to the Mexicans. The US seized a third of their country through war. Still, it wasn’t until 1898 that the US acquired its first overseas colony.
Hawaii had been an independent nation. In 1887, American planters in the islands had forced a change to the Hawaiian constitution which largely disenfranchised ethnic Hawaiians to the benefit of wealthy Whites. By 1893, with US support, American and European businessmen on the islands had staged a coup d’êtat, overthrowing the monarchy,[1] and establishing a Republic of Hawai’i; from there, they maneuvered for Hawaii’s annexation in 1898. That same year, Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam would be gathered into the fledgling American Empire, fruits of the US victory in the Spanish-American War...."Thomas Jefferson called the US an empire, but an 'empire of liberty' dedicated to spreading freedom around the globe." This is the basis of liberal internationalism, liberal interventionism, and neoliberal globalization under American "leadership."
The Day the US Became an Empire
Charles Pierson
18 comments:
Just an article suggestion :)
Donald Trump was right. The rest of the G7 were wrong -- by George Monbiot
He gets almost everything wrong. But last weekend Donald Trump got something right. To the horror of the other leaders of the rich world, he defended democracy against its detractors. Perhaps predictably, he has been universally condemned for it.
His crime was to insist that the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) should have a sunset clause. In other words, it should not remain valid indefinitely, but expire after five years, allowing its members either to renegotiate it or to walk away. To howls of execration from the world’s media, his insistence has torpedoed efforts to update the treaty.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/13/trump-nafta-g7-sunset-clause-trade-agreement
“Thomas Jefferson called the US an ‘empire of liberty’ dedicated to spreading freedom around the globe.”
All empires say that about themselves. The Roman Empire claimed to be “civilizing” those it enslaved and exterminated. Any nation that declined this “honor” was destroyed for “humanitarian” reasons.
Some empires are not as bad as others. In the Persian Empire, slavery was outlawed, women were voters, and military service was sought after, since it paid well. By contrast, the Greek city states were slave societies in which women were second class citizens, and “democracy” was only for rich males.
Yet we pretend that the tyrannical Greeks “saved western civilization from tyranny.”
Whoever questions the Empire of Death is a “dictator” who seeks to “conquer the world.” Yesterday it was Hitler and Mussolini. Today it is Putin and Kim Jong-Un. And Nicolas Maduro. And Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah. And Evo Morales of Bolivia. And Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba. And Assad of Syria.
All are “dictators” who are guilty of “human rights abuses.”
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@lastgreek: That article discusses the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). There was no immigrant problem before NAFTA came into force on 1 Jan 1994. U.S. and Mexican nationals freely walked across each other’s borders. Many Mexicans worked in the USA while living in Mexico. They walked back and forth every day.
NAFTA changed everything, and wiped out countless millions of Mexican livelihoods.
In the Mexican state of Nayarit is a mile-long beach called Playa Novillero. In 1989 it was filled with hotels and restaurants. In 2008 I went back there and saw that the hotels and restaurants still existed, but they had been abandoned for over ten years. People elsewhere in Nayarit had renamed it Playa Fantasma. (Ghost Beach.)
NAFTA had killed the tourist industry.
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DANCING IN THE STREETS
(Off topic)
As I have often said, the U.S. government’s “national debt” is the total amount of money that is on deposit in Fed savings accounts. (The U.K. “national debt” is the total money deposited in Bank of England savings accounts.)
According to the US Treasury Department, in March 2018, several nations sold off a portion of their U.S. T-securities.
China sold off $7 billion.
Japan sold off $12 billion.
Ireland sold off $17 billion.
Russia sold off $47.4 billion.
So in March 2018 these four nations kindly reduced the U.S. government’s “debt” by $83.4 billion.
You’d think this would cause people to be dancing on the streets.
After all, the U.S. government has a “debt crisis.”
Right?
https://www.rt.com/business/429931-russia-sells-us-treasuries/
@Konrad - NAFTA allowed the dumping of overproduced US taxpayer subsidized corn in Mexico, where it was sold for 20% less than the subsistence farmers cost to produce it, and millions of newly unemployed Mexicans streamed to El Norte seeking work.
Annual US corn subsidies - $5b, annual us corn sales to Mexico - $2.5b.
By contrast, the Greek city states were slave societies in which women were second class citizens, and “democracy” was only for rich males.
By contrast, the Greek city states were slave societies in which women were second class citizens, and “democracy” was only for rich males.
Right. This is a historical fact that is glossed over in the story of Athenian democracy being the paradigm out of which Enlightenment thinking that spawned liberalism and liberal democracy. Liberalism and the society, and its political system and economy were grounded in a mode of production in which the labor was chiefly provided by slaves.
It is therefore no contradiction that the founding fathers had no problem writing slavery into the US Constitution.
Before technology became widespread, the agriculture was the dominant means of production and manual labor was provided by slaves, land-bound serfs, or tenants that had no other choice. Labor share was at the subsistence level and owner share was sufficient to provide owners of land with the leisure necessary for culture. They have the means to devoted their days to handing out in the agora in Athens debating the issues of the day, for example.
Liberal democracy requires freedom of thought, expression and association, but also freedom choice sufficient to acquire education and the leisure to be able to participate directly in the culture, an essential aspect of which is self-governance.
Capitalism based on industrial technology fostered that over agriculture, but only to a degree. It was not until economic liberalism was modified enough to support a growing middle class that liberal democracy began to be a reality. Then, from the conservative POV, the rabble started to raid the treasury, passing all sort of social welfare programs that increased the condition of the middle class and relived poverty somewhat. So then a backlash of the elite was launched, which lead to the neoliberal world order, rising inequality and the decline of democracy.
This will result in an inevitable clash, the outcome of which is uncertain, but the bias is now toward global corporate totalitarianism masquerading as democracy.
However, as the world inters the information age and the mode of production begins to shirt away from labor toward technology as productivity increase through automation, robotics, and AI, there is the opportunity to develop relations of production that provide for greater equality, including distributive, and increased leisure as the basis for culture that is necessary for participatory democracy.
@ Noah Way:
NAFTA allowed the dumping of overproduced US taxpayer subsidized corn in Mexico, where it was sold for 20% less than the subsistence farmers cost to produce it, and millions of newly unemployed Mexicans streamed to El Norte seeking work.
Yes. Corn was first cultivated in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago, and it has always been a crucial part of the Mexican economy. NAFTA affected corn, plus many other crops.
NAFTA destabilized the Mexican economy, and caused Mexican inequality to explode (which is why Mexican plutocrats wanted it).
NAFTA forced millions of Mexicans to migrate north in desperation, and millions of other Mexicans to enter the drug trade. And yet, right-wingers blame immigrants, not the plutocrats that drove immigrants here.
Personally I see immigrants in all nations as war refugees. Some wars are with bombs and bullets. Some wars are economic. Most wars are waged by the rich against the rest.
Incidentally U.S. corn production is subsidized by the U.S. government, not by U.S. taxpayers. The U.S. government has no financial need or use for tax revenue, and effectively destroys it upon receipt. If we believe the lie that the U.S. government needs tax revenue, then we will believe the lie that there is “no money” for social programs.
Agreed, just speaking in the language of common stupidity. Your point is correct. We can "afford" all sorts of nonsense like corporate welfare but we can't afford even basic health care.
Right. This is a historical fact that is glossed over in the story of Athenian democracy being the paradigm out of which Enlightenment thinking that spawned liberalism and liberal democracy.
Tom, compared to the stubborn and narrow-minded Spartan SOBs, the Athenians were enlightened ;)
Everything is relative.
Significantly, slavery was integral to Athenian society. Aristotle came up with an explanation based on "nature" to justify it. This is reflected across history down to the present in conservative world views that hold some are better than others.
“Tom, compared to the stubborn and narrow-minded Spartan SOBs, the Athenians were enlightened ;)
Greece has a complicated ancient history. The city states sometimes allied with each other, and sometimes attacked each other. Sometimes Sparta and its allies (Thebes and Corinth, and later, Persia) emerged supreme. Sometimes Athens and its allies (the Delian League) emerged supreme.
I say it’s complicated because both sides could be treacherous and arrogant at times, and magnanimous at other times. For example, when Sparta finally won the Peloponnesian War (404 BC) Sparta’s allies (Thebes and Corinth) wanted to reduce Athens to rubble, and take every Athenian as slaves. However Sparta said no.
Athens had the great historians (e.g. Thucydides) and they tended to be honest in their assessments of the virtues and flaws of both sides.
There were times when Greece became surprisingly united. When Italy invaded Greece (28 Oct 1940) Mussolini thought he could exploit Greece‘s historical divisions and make quick work of Greece, but the Greek Army stopped the Italians in their tracks, and then mounted a successful counter-offensive. Finally the Germans invaded, but they too found the Greek resistance difficult to handle.
Today the Germans have fully conquered Greece via the euro.
This happened because Greek politicians let it happen, in return for enjoying life on the Troika’s payroll.
Contemporary war is economic. It's the preferred M. O.
The US has an economic war going with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
This is the only axis that can threaten the US militarily.
The push is on to take them down with as little need for military as possible, but it is there, too.
This has the potential to get ugly, and Trump has apparently decided to push ahead with Steve Bannon's plan of taking on China as the chief threat to US hegemony going forward.
So cool -- you Americans will soon have imperial stormtroopers to go along with your empire ;)
"Trump orders Pentagon to create 'space force' as 6th branch of military."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-space-force-us-military-pentagon-nasa-mattis-a8405666.html
“Trump has apparently decided to push ahead with Steve Bannon's plan of taking on China as the chief threat to US hegemony going forward.:
The U.S. Empire cannot hope to win. China is an industrial giant, and a manufacturing powerhouse. The USA only manufactures weapons and shi*ty movies.
Meanwhile the U.S. military is only able to fight small wars against defenseless peoples. The USA is not able to fight a war against a real enemy like Russia or China, since the Military Industrial Complex is utterly corrupt. Over $1 trillion a year is poured into the black hole of MIC corruption, with little to show for it. Military contractors devise more and more expensive weapons systems that stretch out longer and longer via production delays and cost overruns. "National defense" is all about grabbing federal dollars.
Konrad, no city-state was as brutal and destructive as Sparta, especially during the dual reign -- Sparta always had two kings; weird, eh? -- of its kings Agesilaus II and Cleombrotus (first spartan king to die in battle since king Leonidas of "Come and get them!" fame).
You know, the Greek city-states survived the bloody Peloponnesian War; it was not hopeless for them. But the two boneheads above, Agesilaus II and Cleobrutus (especially the former who woke up each morning with a hard-on for war) -- no, they just could not leave the city-states in peace; they had to wage more wars. Result? The tyranny of Alexander :(
Greek trivia: Greek philosophy came out of the Peloponnesian War, as in Plato's Academy (followed by Aristole);)
Opinion: Good man that Aristophanes. Hilarious, too (Lysistrata) :)
Perhaps you are referring to Spartan king Cleombrotus I, who co-ruled with Agesilaus II.
I agree that Sparta was a problem. Sometimes it's hard to figure out Sparta, since they never had historical records, or literature, or written laws. On the other hand, Spartan women were the only Greek women who had property rights (but no formal political rights).
Speaking of women's rights (going off on a tangent here) in the US and UK today, men's rights still prevail in the upper class (i.e. among the rich). Meanwhile the rich have seen to it that men in the middle and lower classes have been castrated, in order to keep the lower classes submissive. Middle and lower class women are all "victims," and women’s rights take precedence over men's rights. Militant feminism and #MeToo madness is a plague.
It is the same in large corporations. People at the top are a handful of males. People as the bottom are all males. People at the mid-level are women who rule departments like "human resources," and whose job is to keep bottom-level male employees from rising to compete with top-level males.
Although mid-level women have more power than do bottom level males, and are paid much more, mid-level women constantly whine that they are "victims" of men.
Anyway, getting back to Greece, many Western cultures have romanticized Sparta. For example, Israeli Merkava tanks have the Spartan lamdda chevron painted on their sides. (Lambda was the first letter of Lacedaemon, which was the overall Spartan city-state, as opposed to the city of Sparta alone.) The lambda chevron also appears on many U.S. military uniform patches, and was also painted on the sides of U.S. tanks in Iraq.
I think this romanticizing of Sparta is silly. One of the silliest examples was the movie “300” (2006).
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