American Imperalism

The US maintains to this day over a dozen direct dependencies, the largest of which is Puerto Rico. Its military forces are active over most of the globe: at last audit about 216 countries have US military troops, 83 of which host American bases, while only 31 countries in the world have no US military presence - a projection of military power that makes the Roman, British, and Soviet empires pale in comparison. alternatively referred to as "neo-colonialism", "hegemony", "proxy rule", or "informal empire": roughly, a system of "dual elite" political rule, in which domestic elites (the proxy) recieve backing from (are dependent on - to varying degrees) a foreign elite, and in return protect (to varying degrees) the foreign power's interests in the country (security, economic, or domestic political interests). This is, at least, the framework within which I use the terms;

"Empire is 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. Imperialism is simply the process or policy of establishing or maintaining an empire. --Michael Doyle, Empires

As a point of reference formal American imperialism begins (or not - one would have to completely ignore the genocide of the native population, African and Native-American slavery, rapid and continuous expansion of the national borders through war, rapid and continuous expansion of mercantilism through war and the threat of war, the ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples, the mid 1800s mercantilist state established in Nicaragua, etc.) with the aquisition of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Phillipines after the Spanish-American War of 1898. It's a good point to remember how that war started: part hoax, part sensationalized, war mongering "journalism", and of course much talk about the brutality of the enemy and the necessity of our intervention on behalf of the suffering - in this case on behalf of the Cubans and their savage treatment at the hands of the tyrannical Spaniards: much better for them to suffer at our hands.
Old habits die hard.

"Lest this seem to be the bellicose pipedream of some dyspeptic desk soldier, let us remember that the military deal of our country has never been defensive warfare. Since the Revolution, only the United Kingdom has beaten our record for square miles of territory acquired by military conquest. Our exploits against the American Indian, against the Filipinos, the Mexicans, and against Spain are on a par with the campaigns of Genghis Khan, the Japanese in Manchuria and the African attack of Mussolini. No country has ever declared war on us before we first obliged them with that gesture. Our whole history shows we have never fought a defensive war. And at the rate our armed forces are being implemented at present, the odds are against our fighting one in the near future."

• • --Major General Smedley D. Butler, America's Armed Forces: 'In Time of Peace', 1935.

Though out this thread I will document the history of American imperialism and it's bloody and brutal impact accrost the world. It is my claim that American imperialism has had a far more brutal and bloody effect on the world than Nazism, Communism or any other imperialistic force this world has ever seen. The American empire has sought out to benifit itself as the cost of every nation on this earth and to the human toll of hundreds of millions, if not billions of innocent lives.


1898-1914: The Phillipines: http://christianforums.com/showpost....06&postcount=2

1903-1936: Panama: http://christianforums.com/showpost....43&postcount=4

1904-1978: Dominican Republic: http://christianforums.com/showpost....43&postcount=4

1915-1934: Haiti: http://christianforums.com/showpost....2&postcount=13

1912-1979: Nicaragua: http://christianforums.com/showpost....2&postcount=13

1917-1920: Russian Civil War: http://christianforums.com/showpost....2&postcount=13

1932-1972: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: http://christianforums.com/showpost....4&postcount=20

1936-1958: America: http://christianforums.com/showpost....9&postcount=26

1940: The McCollum Memo: http://christianforums.com/showpost....0&postcount=28

1942-1945: Japanese-American internment: http://christianforums.com/showpost....0&postcount=28

1945-1974: Greece: http://christianforums.com/showpost....4&postcount=33

1945-1960s: China. Tibet. Taiwan http://christianforums.com/showpost....4&postcount=50

1945-1994: Vietnam: http://christianforums.com/showpost....6&postcount=57

1945-Present: Projection of American Nuclear Power: http://christianforums.com/showpost....4&postcount=58

1946-1954: Phillipines http://christianforums.com/showpost....4&postcount=58

1946-1996: Marshall Islands http://christianforums.com/showpost....4&postcount=58

1949-1961: Burma: http://christianforums.com/showpost....0&postcount=71

1948-1976: Italy: http://christianforums.com/showpost....0&postcount=71

1948-1956: Peru http://christianforums.com/showthrea...1#post48587153

1949: Syria http://christianforums.com/showthread.php?p=48587153&posted=1#post48587153

1949-1953: Ukraine http://christianforums.com/showthrea...1#post48587153

1949-1976: Thailand http://christianforums.com/showthrea...1#post48587153

1898-1914: The Phillipines

U.S. Brig. Gen. Jacob H. Smith: "I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better you will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States."
Major Littleton W. T. Waller: How young?
Smith: Ten years and up.

• --Exchange on October 1901, quote from the testimony at Smith's court martial by the New York Evening Journal (May 5, 1902). General Smith, a veteran of the Wounded Knee massacre, was popularly known as "Hell Roaring Jake" or "Howling Wilderness".
  
  

The "Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation" of the McKinley presidency in 1899 annouced America's intention to be the benevolent dictator over various foreign nations that just happened to all be filled with ruthless, pagan savages.



In a savage conflict America repressed the Filipino independence movement. As in most cases of massacre on the part of the US the number of casualties remains a matter of debate; in this instance 5,000 (of some 120,000 involved) Americans killed with additional casualties later due to disease contracted in the Phillipines, but anywhere between 16,000-20,000 Filipino soldiers and 200,000-600,000 civilian Filipino deaths resulted due to the war, war induced famine, disease, and multiple atrocities, but one would be mistaken to describe the conflict as characterized by brutality. The US continued occupying the Phillipines for another 48 years.
US military involvement in the Phillipines continues to this day, much to the advantage of foreign investors, who continue to maintain economic hegemony. US troops may not enjoy their stay quite as much as the last time, nor as the first time.

Before the Americans it was the British.

After the Americans it will be someone else.

So it goes.

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1903-1936: Panama

• US indirectly runs Panama through a surrogate after managing its seccession from Columbia.
  
  
  
  

1904-1978: Dominican Republic

• In 1904 the USG takes control of Dominican customs houses by force to collect on international debts, shortly thereafter signing a treaty, with the DR essentially at gun point, ratifying the debt relationship. Between 1916 and 1924 the US occupies and rules the Dominican Republic. Shortly thereafter General Rafael Trujillo takes control of the country with the National Guard that was created and put under his control by the USG before its exit. During the 30s Trujillo wiped out some 30,000 Dominicans and Haitians in an effort to make his side of the island 'more white'. Trujillo recieved US backing until the mid 1950s, when he was finally placed under economic sanctions for attempting to assassinate the president of Venezuela. A few years later the USG began supporting the conservative opposition to overthrow him, successfully assassinating him in 1961, out of fear that the liberal Constitutionalist opposition would get to it first. Trujillo's son Ramfi was escorted out of the country by the US military.
  In 1963 USG-backed militants remove the recently elected president of the Dominican Republic, Juan Bosch - a centrist liberal - to "prevent another Cuba". Two years later Lyndon Johnson sent 22,000 US Marines to land on the island and take control of the country for 17 months after falling sugar prices and political conflict stirred an uprising against the new regime of Donald Reid Cabral. The Marines assist in supressing the rebellion, killing over 4,000 Dominicans and solidifying conservative control over the country, leading to the reinstatement of Trujillo-frontman turned Washington-frontman Joaquin Balaguer, who dragged the country into a nightmare of political violence, electoral fraud, and death squad activity that, by and large, eliminated any possible political opposition to the regime - minus one or two times when Balaguer's masters in Washington yanked his leash for the cameras. The USG continued lavishing military support onto the regime throughout the waves of terror.

American imperialism how ever is a far more dangerous kind. Especially when America uses the guise that it is the "defender" of democracy and "champion" of freedom. A lie which it's own people are far to willing to accept.

The British had similar lies for their people.

Every hegemonic power has similar lies.

Whoever comes next will have lies of that nature.

There's nothing going on now that hasn't gone on before.

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The British empire how ever was one that was easy to define, where the British had power was clear. America has exacted it's will though economic terrorism, support of dictators & other subversive means.

The British controlled the seas.

Trust me, they engaged in their own brand of economic terrorism.

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Why?

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Chaplain Sacerdote
Baptist Minister & Hospital Chaplain
US Army Retired


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I think it's more important for Christians to hear... maybe they'll wake up from their deception.