Pax-Americana
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Do the current accusations of pax-Americana have any resonances with colonialism and/or Imperialism of the past?
Introduction
In this paper, it will be established that the power of the United States in the world today has similarities to the imperialistic and colonial powers of the past. A further analysis into the more modern threats and dangers of having a political power such as the United States achieving such an ironclad grip on global politics and international relations will help establish the true nature and threats of a modern Imperialistic empire.
As a state that champions itself as the upholder of civil liberties, freedoms and rights, the United States has evolved to become a global superpower whose sphere of imperialistic power has encompassed the worlds impoverished and weaker states with political and economical force. The term imperialism has been defined as “the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities and/or maintenance of empires”. (reference) Through territorial expansion or by “exerting control on the politics or economies of other countries” (reference) an empire such as the British would fit the Imperialist classification in most respects. The current Bush administration has been accused of “neo-imperialistic” motives (Janowski, 2004) and intentions due to its strategically marshalled political alliances and foreign policies in an effort to further its own national interests and maintain its sovereignty on a global front. The use of fear and global threats such as terrorism have united its people and created one of the most powerful empires in modern history. Threatening to etch itself on the face of history as the most great and dominant imperialistic empires, the intimidation tactics used by the United States government have helped it gain a political and economical stronghold on subordinate states. The impending threat of the United States obtaining global power over weaker states so as to exploit natural resources for economic and political gain is a very serious one, with Third World nations being forced into a violent cycle of civil conflict, poverty and financial deprivation as a direct result. It will be established in the following arguments that the United States has employed strategic political control over economies of weaker countries and states in an effort to expand and maintain U.S domination.
A History of U. S Imperialism
Despite the United States having colonial origins, it seems the initial opposition to notions of Imperialism were quickly forgotten as the United States first acquired Florida from Spain during the early part of the 19th Century. In 1823 the Monroe Doctrine was introduced by then President James Monroe, limiting the European expansion into the Western Hemisphere by conquering less powerful states. Monroe stated that “we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” (Rappaport, 1964:2) Internationally, however, it was the acquirement of Texas from Mexico in 1836 that became the first United States annexation of foreign territory. (Blackie, 1990:47) The disapproval from Mexican leader Santa Anna at the time did little to adjourn the acquisition, causing U.S President John Tyler to sign a treaty of annexation. This directly spawned the Mexican War in 1844, which subsequently produced the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo after four years of warfare. The treaty outlined the territories that were to be given to the United States, including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, California, Nevada and Utah. In exchange for the land the Mexican government was given $US 15 million to compensate for the massive land loss.
Throughout the past hundred years, the United States has repeated this pattern of land acquisition–by whatever means necessary. The United States intervention in Hawaii was initiated when Hawaiian sugarcane was granted access to U.S markets after a treaty was signed in 1875. Sugarcane was then the islands most abundant agricultural product. Almost two decades later the United States had far more than economic power–they had begun to control and manipulate Hawaiian internal affairs, much to the local peoples discontent. It was also much later when the United States acquired the Philippines from the Spanish War that they killed over a million Filipinos in an intervention tactic that gave them complete political and economic control over the nation.
The accusations that colonialism and imperialism generate more damage than benefit for nations have been supported by examples of current past-colonised states who are categorised as the Global South (REFERENCE TO TEXTBOOK), where poverty is rife, there is a lack of education, disease is in abundance and weak and corrupted governments are instilled. These are many of the multi-faceted problems and factors that are stunting the development of most of these South states, and in order to validate this point one must analyse cases such as the many African countries that are now torn apart by “internal and external pressures”. (Boddy-Evans, 2004) The damages of past-colonized states are seen through the myriad of civil conflict and unrest, a destruction of native culture and religion and exploitation of resources. The once colonized nations of Africa, South America and Asia are now being marshalled by the foreign policies and national interests of the United States, presenting a distressing indication of the continuous cycle that will force these states to remain undeveloped and impoverished.
The links between the British Empire and the United States territorial expansion since the early nineteenth century portray an accurate depiction of two states with enough political, economical and territorial power to acquire their role as the “playground bully” on a global front. Both powers feigned economical alliances to further their own national interests by expanding their territories and, in turn, both their political power and economical gain. Although the British had a much earlier start during the late nineteenth century until it had expanded its empire to over a third of the worlds states. Exploitation seemed to be the key–by using political and economical strength, the British Empire expanded as well the other empires that pillaged their way through weaker nations who could hardly afford to withstand such force.
Since the turn of the century, the United