You mean other than from the Native Americans?
And Hawaii?
And Mexico. And Spain. And even Britain (in the pacific northwest).
ETA: And Samoa, Philippines, Cuba, Guam, etc.
ETA: And Samoa, Philippines, Cuba, Guam, etc.
To be fair, most of those were also “Spain” at the time.
And all the proxy wars on the middle eats.
Around here we call the middle eats “lunch”.
They were native, they just didn’t know they were American yet.
Fortunately, they were lethally informed.
Countries used to think that invading others and getting more land and more people to rule over would make them more powerful. Some still think so.
But modern countries increase their influence through trade and their economy.European countries used to control huge parts of Africa, and all it did was cost them money. Also, generally, people don’t like being ruled by a foreign power. For a dictatorship that’s OK. But for a democracy, having lots of people in your country that don’t want to be governed by you is a big problem.
Manifest Destiny is pretty much that. The US fought Mexico, Spain, and British Canada, exploited the political situation in Europe to buy a huge chunk of land from France, and displaced or killed hundreds of thousands of native people. The US is the 4th largest country by area. Having that much contiguous land is insanely valuable and powerful. By the time the US would have even had to think about colonizing like the Europeans it was going out of style.
And we tried to recolonize parts of Central and South America anyways. Didn’t work out though, for obvious reasons.
You’re describing the Spanish-American War, when the US seized Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain.
Do military bases count?
Yeah, why go through the trouble of installing a puppet government when we can offer “assistance” with a military base? How many hundred bases are there around the world now? And have any been decommissioned ever?
Yes in the 1990’s, Clark and Subic Bay in the Philippines were decommissioned. Clark was abandoned because of volcanic ash from Mt Pinatubo. Subic Bay closed when the Philippine senate refused to renew the lease. This gives Filipinos the right to say “All your bases are belong to us.”
The US owns a bunch of Caribbean “territories” that they still won’t make into US states. Their citizens are US citizens, but can’t vote.
EDIT: The current US itself was carved out of territories owned by Mexico, France, and England (which took them from Native American tribes). Back in the day, we conquered and stole a bunch of land, both from natives and from other invading countries.
But we’ve been more interested in foreign politics since WWII and less about expanding our own land. Besides, why own a bunch of foreign soil when we can just set up outposts around the globe and have a military frontline anywhere? I served in the US military and we have so many bases scattered around every region of the globe. We can literally involve ourselves in any global conflict we want to within a day or two. Meanwhile, our actual homeland is isolated on the other side of the planet, where it’s difficult for foreign invaders to touch us.
Always have been, always are. They’ve just realized there will be less noise if you don’t plant too many flags or draw new maps when you invade.
The war of 1812
Mexican American war
The several occupations in South America before, during, and after world war 1.
Oh and the 41 wars against Native Americans. The last of which was in 1924.
