In December 1899, John Barrett, a former minister to Siam (immediately Thailand) who had spent months accompanying the U.S. Navy squadron that defeated the Spanish fleet within the Philippines, wrote within the New York Instances: “[W]e are actually able to have our professional say within the commerce and politics of all the Pacific.” Barrett argued that the territorial acquisition of the Philippines partially “ought to make us not solely the paramount energy of the Pacific, however of all of the world.”
Over a century since Barrett’s invocation of worldwide greatness, Donald Trump has put territorial acquisition again on the foreign-policy menu. In his first time period, he expressed curiosity in shopping for Greenland and virtually held off on signing a peace take care of the Taliban so as to protect U.S. entry to Afghan minerals. In his second time period, Trump has indicated a need to take management of the Panama Canal; repeatedly triggered alarm in Europe over renewed requests to purchase Greenland; referred to as for Canada to develop into the 51st state; and tried to pin a Russia-Ukraine peace deal on securing U.S. entry to Ukrainian minerals.
In December 1899, John Barrett, a former minister to Siam (immediately Thailand) who had spent months accompanying the U.S. Navy squadron that defeated the Spanish fleet within the Philippines, wrote within the New York Instances: “[W]e are actually able to have our professional say within the commerce and politics of all the Pacific.” Barrett argued that the territorial acquisition of the Philippines partially “ought to make us not solely the paramount energy of the Pacific, however of all of the world.”
Over a century since Barrett’s invocation of worldwide greatness, Donald Trump has put territorial acquisition again on the foreign-policy menu. In his first time period, he expressed curiosity in shopping for Greenland and virtually held off on signing a peace take care of the Taliban so as to protect U.S. entry to Afghan minerals. In his second time period, Trump has indicated a need to take management of the Panama Canal; repeatedly triggered alarm in Europe over renewed requests to purchase Greenland; referred to as for Canada to develop into the 51st state; and tried to pin a Russia-Ukraine peace deal on securing U.S. entry to Ukrainian minerals.
Trump’s quest for territory and assets aligns with two first-term priorities: rising financial entry for U.S. corporations and shoring up nationwide safety. However the second Trump administration has additionally repeatedly linked its expansionist insurance policies to restoring American status—from “Make Greenland Nice Once more” hats to Trump’s declare that “America will reclaim its rightful place as the best, strongest, most revered nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of all the world.”
The wedding between financial curiosity, nationwide safety, and status by way of territorial acquisition will not be with out historic precedent. U.S. growth within the 18th and nineteenth centuries was usually framed in comparable phrases. President Thomas Jefferson, for instance, argued that the Louisiana Buy was “auspicious to the peace and safety of the nation,” added “intensive [and] fertile” territories, and will prolong the American “blessings of freedom [and] self-government” to the continent.
However america finally turned away from territorial growth, and the the reason why communicate to the complications Trump might face if he follows by way of along with his said need to accumulate and keep management over new land. Not like the 18th and nineteenth centuries, American international energy within the twentieth and twenty first centuries has grown as a result of it has forsaken territory as a substitute of buying it.
The seizure of a lot of U.S. territories within the 18th and nineteenth centuries, from Ohio to Texas, was spearheaded by particular person settlers after which supported by the federal authorities.
Some Founding Fathers recommended in opposition to involvement abroad, which risked entanglement, but in addition noticed growth throughout the continent as pure. For instance, President John Quincy Adams, who famously cautioned in opposition to involvement in overseas wars, additionally wrote in 1811 that “the entire Continent of North-America seems to me destined by Divine Windfall to be peopled by one Nation.” Continental growth was portrayed as democratic and frictionless, or as defending the livelihoods of settlers who had moved westward, and steadily cited as a motive to have a good time the nation’s greatness.
Over the course of the nineteenth century, america expanded throughout the continent and into the Pacific. In 1898, the Philippines turned a U.S. colony after america emerged victorious from the Spanish-American Warfare.
Critics cautioned that making the Philippines right into a U.S. colony could be no simple feat. For one, there have been few American settlers on the archipelago, and conquest would require a large army intervention. It had a inhabitants of over 5 million individuals—plus, an lively independence motion.
Nonetheless, not not like the arguments levied immediately in favor of buying Greenland, People who advocated for turning the Philippines right into a U.S. colony usually emphasised the financial alternatives, strategic worth, and status it provided.
Newspaper op-eds mentioned the roles that might be created, and commerce journals debated the business income of long-term funding. The primary army governor of the archipelago, Arthur MacArthur Jr. testified earlier than Congress of the “incalculable and indescribable worth of the archipelago, strategically and commercially,” and argued that U.S. withdrawal would create a destabilizing vacuum. Future U.S. President William Taft, who served as governor of the Philippines, additionally highlighted “the promise for the way forward for the business and commerce of the islands” as a motive to keep up the colony.
Status factored significantly within the U.S. need to colonize the Philippines. The Eighteen Nineties was a interval of relative nervousness in america, marked by financial crises, rising earnings inequality, political corruption, altering social norms, and pessimism amongst People about their nation’s future.
President William McKinley, whose celebration confronted a powerful midterm election in 1898, was keen to spotlight the Philippines for instance of his administration’s achievements. The identical night time that the U.S. Navy defeated Spain’s forces in Manila Bay, McKinley mentioned he advised a cartographer to “put the Philippines on the map of america … and there they may keep whereas I’m President!” Territorial seizure supplied the administration a supply of legitimacy in a time when different choices had been missing.
Finally, the critics had been proper: Seizing the Philippines was no simple feat. America despatched 125,000 troopers to subdue the archipelago by way of a brutal counterinsurgency that triggered an estimated 200,000 civilian deaths. U.S. troopers, removed from residence and anticipating a fast victory, struggled with guerrilla warfare. Opposition teams in america publicized ugly tales of civilian massacres and church burnings.
After the battle resulted in 1902, solidifying U.S. rule, there have been disagreements inside america concerning the prices of holding the Philippines. Some People particularly objected to the prospect of incorporating its nonwhite inhabitants into the nationwide material in the event that they had been granted citizenship.
By 1914, Theodore Roosevelt—by then a former president and as soon as an ardent imperialist who vigorously defended the everlasting acquisition of the Philippines—argued that the Philippines was a strategic legal responsibility that stretched the Navy’s skill to defend hundreds of miles of shoreline removed from the homeland.
In deciding what to do with the territory, america finally settled on a center floor, outsourcing the majority of safety duties to Filipino personnel, “Filipinizing” most civil governance, and—in response to the nationalist agitations of Filipino elites—lastly committing to Filipino independence, which was granted after World Warfare II.
However giving up the territorial dream was not only a reflection of the broader decolonization pattern—it was additionally a geopolitical calculation. By 1946, U.S. policymakers had secured a very powerful property that the Philippines might provide: a string of army bases and advantageous commerce agreements. Assured of Philippine allegiance however with out the difficulty of governance, america had discovered extra versatile types of getting what it needed.
There have been exceptions, however we are able to broadly characterize U.S. overseas coverage since then as a seek for energy with out territory. Colonies require governance; army base agreements with allies don’t.
To be clear, buying energy by way of non-territorial means was in no way benign. America has triggered and enabled extraordinary violence since 1945 through covert motion, small footprint army interventions, regime change, assist for coups, army assist, arms gross sales, and extra.
However by eschewing territorial seizure, america has often secured its pursuits in a comparatively nimble vogue whereas sidestepping the horrible prices of proudly owning extra of the world’s actual property. As an alternative of conquests, presidents have been in a position to cite different sources of American “greatness” in inaugurations and State of the Union addresses, akin to home progress, prosperity, or diplomatic wins. Setting apart questions of norms, ethics, or human welfare, U.S. leaders have repeatedly figured that the potential status of territory was unrelated to the pursuit of worldwide superpowerdom.
It’s no coincidence that on this present time of deep public pessimism about the way forward for the nation that the Trump administration has explored the acquisition of Greenland and Panama.
Filling extra elements of the world map with American colours looks like an easy option to restore nationwide pleasure and status for an administration that prioritizes media-friendly options—whether or not that be ASMR movies of deportations or missile strikes that play effectively on cable information—over cautious policymaking. However the precise technique of buying territory is something however simple. Taking Greenland is an alternate supply of status for an administration that’s uninterested in fixing the troublesome home issues that the majority People are involved with.
All of the status on the planet can not wave away the challenges and vulnerabilities of buying new territory, as america discovered with the Philippines greater than a century in the past. Ought to Trump get the territorial present he’s hoping for, he would possibly simply begin wishing for a return coverage.
