The Empire Bluffs Back
Really, the American urge for expansion never left
Welcome back to the This Day In Esoteric Political History newsletter. Each week, a member of our team (or a friend of the show) gathers together bits of America’s past and attempts to find a throughline that might add a little understanding to our current moment.
Here’s what happened over the week ahead in American political history…
January 9
1861: Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union, joining the Confederacy in the lead-up to the Civil War
1964: Panamanian youths clash with U.S. military over the right to raise the Panamanian flag in the country’s Canal Zone, leading to widespread riots
1964: In his State of the Union speech, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared “war on poverty.” It was part of his ambitious Great Society agenda to remake American lives from birth to death
2008: President George W. Bush expresses hope for Palestinian peace, reflecting ongoing efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
January 10
1920: The League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, comes into being, aiming to prevent another world war through international cooperation
1921: A fire destroys the majority of the 1890 Census records, resulting in a significant loss of historical and genealogical information
1967: Edward W. Brooke, the first African American Senator elected by popular vote, takes his seat
1984: The United States and the Vatican established formal diplomatic relations for the first time in 117 years
January 11
1805: The Michigan Territory is created, setting the stage for Michigan's eventual statehood and development
1964: Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry's report declares smoking hazardous to health, a landmark moment in public health awareness
1971 : The federal government charged a group of anti-war activists, led by Catholic priest Father Phillip Berrigan, in a scheme to bomb tunnels in Washington DC and kidnap Henry Kissinger
2019: The Florida Board of Executive Clemency pardons the Groveland Four, four African American men wrongly accused of rape in 1949
January 12
1943: During World War II, "Victory Sausages," made of meat and soy meal, replace standard frankfurters in the U.S. as part of wartime conservation
January 13
1966: Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member, as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
1969: Civil rights leader Floyd McKissick announces his intentions to build a planned community called “Soul City” in North Carolina, hoping to prevent Black outmigration from the South
1990: Douglas Wilder of Virginia is inaugurated as the first elected African American governor in the U.S.
2018: A false missile alert in Hawaii causes widespread panic, highlighting the potential for catastrophic errors in emergency alert systems
January 14
1963: George Wallace's inauguration as Alabama governor is marked by his infamous pro-segregation "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" speech
1976: Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life for her attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford
January 15
1870: A political cartoon in "Harper's Weekly" symbolizes the Democratic Party with a donkey for the first time
1899: At the end of the Spanish-American War, President William McKinley is touring the south to drum up support from Southern lawmakers.
1919: Boston’s Great Molasses Flood begins when a large molasses storage tank bursts, flooding the streets and killing 21
1943: The Pentagon is dedicated as the world's largest office building, becoming the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense
In which we take the above collection of events and find themes, throughlines, rabbit holes and more. This week it’s Nicole Hemmer’s turn at the typewriter.
I have been thinking a lot this week about American Empire. That’s probably not a surprise: Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as president later this month, has spent the holidays reviving old-school U.S. imperialism, claiming he plans to grab Greenland, the Panama Canal, and—for good measure—Canada. Each of these acts would violate international law, but Trump has nonetheless made imperialism the watchword of this transition period.
Empire is not new to America. Although born in revolt against an empire, the United States was built on territorial expansion. On this week in 1805, the U.S. established the Michigan Territory, having taken the land from the Ottawa, the Potawatomi, Ojibwa and the Wyandot in a series of 18th-century treaties. Three decades later, the territory would become a state. That process mattered: statehood meant these territories would not linger as colonies but would be fully incorporated into the nation, with equal political status for the state and its citizens.
But by the end of the 19th century, the U.S. began acquiring colonies with little intention of making them political equals. After the Spanish-American War, the U.S. laid claim to former Spanish colonies from Puerto Rico to the Philippines. This was a new stage of U.S. empire, one that had serious consequences for both the people in these colonies and for people living within the United States. That became clear this week in 1899, when President William McKinley toured the U.S. South, attempting to drum up support from southern senators for his imperial acquisitions. He did so by leaning hard into the myth of the Lost Cause, no doubt finding traction with white southerners who had effectively created internal colonies based on the oppression of Black Americans.
But by the time World War I began, the contradictions of American empire were beginning to show. Woodrow Wilson spoke elegantly about the need for self-determination, at the very same moment that he was denying Philippine independence (which the U.S. had promised to recognize in 1916). The League of Nations, established this week in 1920, was supposed to be a testament to the power of Wilson’s vision of national self-determination but, perhaps fittingly, imperial America declined to join. A second world war led to an even greater global presence for the U.S., symbolized by the Pentagon, which was dedicated this week in 1943.
In the waves of decolonization that followed the world wars, however, the U.S. struggled to maintain its imperial holdings. In Panama, student uprisings began this week in 1964 to protest the U.S. occupation of the Canal Zone. The U.S. government was slow to shed its empire even under these fraught conditions—the Canal Zone was not returned to Panama until 1999. The invasion of Iraq—the opening of a new era of American empire—began four years later.
Make no mistake: Trump’s blustery threats to seize territory from other nations is deeply destabilizing, especially in a moment when authoritarian governments are seeking their own territorial expansion. But it is also far from un-American. Empire, it turns out, is a habit the United States has been particularly reluctant to quit.
More Esoterica
Our hearts go out to those impacted by the horrific fires in Los Angeles this week. If you’re looking for a way to help, non-profits delivering food, shelter, support for pets, and more are already on the ground in the area.
If it brings any comfort, the American people and their cities have survived natural disasters before—several of which we’ve covered on the show. In the best cases, those catastrophes opened citizens’ eyes to their need to work together in order to heal and build an even more robust community from the ashes of what was.
For even more, we recommend the recent book Fire Weather, on another tragic interaction between flames and homes—as well as the role oil has played heating our world.
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