I.  Overview One: The Growth of  American Empire

The Age of Continental Empire (1789 - c.1867)

--in which the new Americans, under the banner of  "manifest destiny," seize a continent from the first Americans, the British, French, Spanish, and Russians, subdue a massive rebellion, and create an Empire.

The [Brief] Age of [Traditional] Colonial Empire (c. 1865 - c.1917)  & the Emergence of the Idea of Informal Empire (1900-?)

--in which the Americans venture beyond the North American continent to belatedly join the European scramble for overseas colonies; and in which a new idea (to the Americans, at least) of an "informal, free trade" Empire emerges.

The Age of Armed Empire (1917-1989)

--in which the Americans fight two world wars and a cold war to ensure the triumph of American ideals, security and self-interest, as expressed in the idea of informal Empire; leading to

The Age of Global Empire (1989-date)

--in which the dream of Woodrow Wilson is at last realized, but....(to be determined).

The Age of Continental Empire (1789 - c.1867)
•     The Monroe Doctrine: An Option on Empire?

 
The [Brief] Age of Colonial Empire (c. 1865 - c.1917)
       & the Emergence of the Idea of Informal Empire (1900-?)
 
• The Spanish-American War: Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and the Annexation of Hawaii, etc.
• The Open Door Notes
• The Panama Canal
• Interventions in Cuba, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico; acquisition of the Danish Virgin Islands
• The "Good Neighbor" (1933)

 
The Age of Armed Empire (1917-1989):
• Guatemala (Truman and Eisenhower)
• Cuba (Eisenhower and Kennedy)
• The Dominican Republic (Johnson)
• Chile (Nixon)
• El Salvador, Nicaragua et al. (Reagan)


The Age of Global Empire (1989-date)
 

• The Early Republic
• The First Cuban Rebellion (1868-1878)
• The Second Cuban Rebellion (1895-1898)
• The Spanish American War and the Conquest of Cuba
• The Postwar Settlement: The Platt Amendment
• Military Intervention and Growing Economic Interests, 1900-1960
• The Era of [Fulgencio] Batista, 1933-1959
• Fidel Castro and The Cuban Revolution, 1959.
• Eisenhower, Kennedy and the CIA plan the Bay of Pigs

*South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.
 

Return to Top of Page