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History 1BB3: America and the World: The Twentieth Century
Dr. Stephen M. Streeter
McMaster University, Winter 2002
Introduction: Themes and Definitions
I. Definitions
imperialism - "the imposition of control by a powerful nation over other peoples and regions to the point that they lose their freedom to determine their own lives." [Thomas G. Paterson and Stephen G. Rabe, Imperial Surge (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1992), p.xvi]
1. formal imperialism:
a. colonialism (Monroe Doctrine)
b. annexation
c. military occupation
2. informal imperialism:
a. economic penetration
b. political subversion
c. threat of intervention
hegemony - the preponderance of military and economic military power to coerce others by threats or persuasion
empire - "a relationship, formal or informal, in which one state controls the effective political sovereignty of another political society. It can be achieved by force, by political collaboration, by economic, social, or cultural dependence." [Michael W. Doyle, Empires (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986), p. 45]
American imperialismII. Origins of the U.S. Empire
1. glut thesis
a. America's domestic well being requires exports.
b. Foreign trade will suffer interruption unless the United States intervenes abroad to implant American principles and keep foreign markets open.
c. The closing of any area to American products, citizens, or ideas threatens the very survival of the United States itself.
6. U.S.
Navy
III. Generalizations about the U.S. Empire
1. goal has been the spread of markets, investments, ideas, and religion, not acquistion of land
2. global hegemony achieved by 1945
3. propaganda has helped justify the creation and maintenance of the American empire
4. American population has played a mixed role in the promotion of empire
5. world has had mixed reaction to the expansion of the American empire
6. the overseas empire has shaped domestic developments
Further Reading