ESSAY 27MOST AMERICANS ARE ONLY
DIMLY AWARE OF THE SCOPE—ONEMIGHT SAY THE GRANDEUR—OFOUR EXPANSIONIST PROJECTattempt to annex Canada during the War of 1812, expansionist efforts suc-
ceeded spectacularly and at a remarkably modest cost to the nation. By
mid century, the United States stretched from sea to shining sea.
Generations of Americans chose to enshrine this story of westward ex-
pansion as a heroic tale of advancing liberty, democracy, and civilization.
Although that story certainly did include heroism, it also featured brute
force, crafty maneuvering, and a knack for striking a bargain when the oc-
casion presented itself.
In the popular imagination, the narrative of “how the West was won” to
which I was introduced as a youngster has today lost much of its moral luster.
Yet the country’s belated pangs of conscience have not induced any inclina-
tion to re apportion the spoils. While the idea of offering reparations to the
offspring of former slaves may receive polite attention, no one proposes returning
Florida to Spain, Tennessee and Georgia to the Cherokees,
or California to Mexico. Properties seized, fi-
nagled, extorted, or paid for with cold, hard
cash remain American in perpetuity.
Back in 1899, the naturalist, historian, politician,
sometime soldier, and future president Theodore Roo se velt
neatly summarized the events of the century then drawing
to a close: “Of course our whole national history has been
one of expansion.” When T.R. uttered this truth, a fresh
round of expansionism was under way, this time reaching
beyond the fastness of North America into the surrounding
seas and oceans. The United States was joining with Euro-
peans in a profit-motivated inter continental imperialism.
The previous year, U.S. forces had invaded and occupied
Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Pacific island of Luzon,
and annexed Hawaii as an official territory. Within the next
two years, the Stars and Stripes was flying over the entire
Philippine archipelago. Within four years, with Roo se velt
now in the White House, American troops arrived to gar-
rison the Isthmus of Panama, where the United States,
employing considerable chicanery, was setting out to build
a canal. Thereafter, to preempt any threats to that canal
and other American business interests, successive U.S. ad-
ministrations embarked on a series of interventions through-
out the Caribbean. Roo se velt, William Howard Taft, and
Woodrow Wilson had no desire to annex Nicaragua, Haiti,
and the Dominican Republic; they merely wanted the
United States to control what happened in those small
countries, as it already did in nearby Cuba. Though Presi-
dent Trump’s recent bid to purchase Greenland from Den-
mark may have failed, Wilson—perhaps demonstrating
greater skill in the art of the deal—did persuade the Danes
in 1917 to part with the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands)
for the bargain price of $25 million. At least until Trump moved into the
White House, Wilson’s purchase of the Virgin Islands appeared to have sated
the American appetite for territorial acquisition. With that purchase, the epic
narrative of a small republic becoming an imperial behemoth concluded and
was promptly filed away under the heading of Destiny, manifest or otherwise—a
useful turn, since Americans were and still are disinclined to question those
dictates of God or Providence that work to their benefit.
Yet rather than accept the nation’s fate as achieved, President Wilson
radically reconfigured American ambitions. Expansion was to continue but
was henceforth to emphasize hegemony rather than formal empire. This shift
included a seldom-noticed racial dimension. Prior to 1917, the United States
had mostly contented itself with flexing its muscles among non-white peoples.
Wilson sought to encroach into an arena where the principal competitors were
General George C. Marshall at the headquarters of the War Department, 1943 © Bettmann/Getty Images