Book contents
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume II
- Part I Building and Resisting US Empire
- Part II Imperial Structures
- Part III Americans and the World
- Part IV Americans in the World
- 23 The Changing Geography of Mobility, 1820–1940
- 24 The United States and the Greater Caribbean, 1763–1898
- 25 Borderlands and Border Crossings
- 26 The Liberal North Atlantic
- 27 “To Enter America from Africa and Africa from America” during the Nineteenth Century
- 28 Islamic World Encounters
- 29 The American Island Empire: US Expansionism in the Pacific and the Caribbean
- 30 Inter-Imperial Entanglements in the Age of Imperial Globalization
- Index
29 - The American Island Empire: US Expansionism in the Pacific and the Caribbean
from Part IV - Americans in the World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2021
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume II
- Part I Building and Resisting US Empire
- Part II Imperial Structures
- Part III Americans and the World
- Part IV Americans in the World
- 23 The Changing Geography of Mobility, 1820–1940
- 24 The United States and the Greater Caribbean, 1763–1898
- 25 Borderlands and Border Crossings
- 26 The Liberal North Atlantic
- 27 “To Enter America from Africa and Africa from America” during the Nineteenth Century
- 28 Islamic World Encounters
- 29 The American Island Empire: US Expansionism in the Pacific and the Caribbean
- 30 Inter-Imperial Entanglements in the Age of Imperial Globalization
- Index
Summary
While President William McKinley claimed he had no idea about the location of the Philippine Islands until the War of 1898, the US government was not ignorant of the strategic importance of this archipelago, as well as other islands in the Pacific and Caribbean. Nor was the country a newcomer to empire. As demonstrated by the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the United States had long pursued Thomas Jefferson’s dream of an empire of liberty, meaning a vision of land access and acquisition for white males as key to the growth and strength of the country. White Americans went on to embrace the idea of manifest destiny, which implied a providential and moralistic duty to civilize non-Anglo-Americans and lands. The racial chauvinism, self-interest, and professions of benevolence that justified the expansion of US federal control across the continent also extended to the Pacific and the Caribbean during the nineteenth century.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of America and the World , pp. 693 - 715Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022