Colonialism

THE UNITED STATES is unique in having been both a group of colonies and a colonial power, though the world changed quickly enough that it was never a colonizer in the sense or to the degree of the European nations. Before they were the United States, the 13 United Colonies of British North America rebelled against their European ruler after declaring their independence through the Second Continental Congress (which later ratified the Articles of Confederation that formed the first sovereign American government). Self-governance was held by the founding fathers as the solution to many of their problems.

During and after the war, as the colonies struggled to form their national identity, this colonial heritage was a prominent factor in the disputes between the Federalist and Anti-Federalist (shortly thereafter, the Democratic-Republican) political parties. While the Federalists sought a strongly united national state, a federal government at least as powerful as the states (a whole greater than the sum of its parts, though subject to them), the Anti-Federalists wanted to retain the Articles of Confederation, which formed a national government only somewhat stronger than an alliance among the former colonies. When they failed in this, they and subsequently the Democratic-Republicans continued to oppose the Federalists' construction of a large national government. They feared monarchy, that the American government would too closely emulate the British government from which they had just extricated themselves.

Colonialism remained a prominent concern in American foreign policy. Democratic-Republican President lames Monroe, towards the end of his term in 1823, declared what is now called the Monroe Doctrine: European powers were forbidden from further colonizing the American continents, or interfering in the affairs of the sovereign American nations. Monroe had been elected in 1816, after serving as secretary of both war and state during the War of 1812, a war the Federalists had opposed (leading to the dissipation of the party). As president he pressed Spain to cede Florida to the United States, further reducing European presence, while continuing the expansion that had begun with the Louisiana Purchase.

In no uncertain terms, the Monroe Doctrine declared that the age of colonization had ended in the Americas. Attempts to regain colonies would be lost. The south [Page 126]American nations had already been recognized by the United States, and their sovereignty would be fought for, if necessary. John Quincy Adams was one of the co-authors of the doctrine, boosting his popularity in the intellectual northeast in the 1824 election, which he eventually won by congressional decision. As European colonial and imperial efforts continued through the 19th century, American resistance to them became associated with—even synonymous with—concurrent American expansion. The Jacksonian President James Polk entwined the Monroe Doctrine with Manifest Destiny, calling for concerted expansion and settlement into the west. If Americans were there, Europeans would be stymied in settling it, and French and Spanish settlements remained to be Americanized.

Soldiers in various uniforms from Africa and the colonies, who fought for France, c. 1917.

The United States expanded rapidly throughout the 19th century, acquiring Texas, the southwestern states, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest, all of which had previously been colonized and settled by other powers, and were to some extent resettled by Americans. Beyond the continent, Hawaii was annexed at the request of American businesspersons in residence who had agitated a rebellion against the native government, in the act that most resembles the American colonization of another land. As a Pacific island closer to Japan than the United States, Hawaii did not seem to fall under the same mandate of Manifest Destiny as, say, California or Missouri. Overseas expansion such as the Hawaiian annexation was colored by the racist sentiment prevalent at the time, especially pseudoscientific claims of Anglo-Saxon racial superiority and Social Darwinism.

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