Birth & Expansion

A First Run at Democracy

Naturalization Act of 17901790-1952

Act of March 26, 1790 (1 Stat 103-104) (Excerpts) That any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof, on application to any common law court of record, in any one of the States wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least, and making proof to the satisfaction of such court, that he is a person of good character, and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law, to support the Constitution of the United States, which oath or affirmation such court shall administer; and the clerk of such court shall record such application, and the proceedings thereon; and thereupon such person shall be considered as a citizen of the United States. And the children of such persons so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of such naturalization, shall also be considered as citizens of the United States. And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States: . . .

First, a historical tangent…

The U.S.A. was born into a European

tradition of conquest and

expansion

Terms• colony / colonization• empire / imperialism

European Imperialism

in the Americas

European Imperialism in Africa

European Imperialism in Asia

European Imperialism

in theMiddle East

European Global Imperialism

Birth & Expansion

Original 13 English Colonies

1783

The Original Size of the U.S.A.

70 Years Later . . . .

The Process of Expansion1783-1853

Background to theUS-Mexico War

Mexico in 1824Texas Civil War with Mexico

1835-36

US Annexed Texas1936-1945

Lone Star Republic of Texas1845

US Annexed Texas as 28th State

On the surface, the war started over a dispute about the size and shape of

Texas. Mexico TroopsMexico Troops

US-Mexican War 1846-48

July 7, 1846 in MontereyCommodore John Sloat Proclaims US Control of All California

Read Sloat’s Proclamation

Ending the US-Mexican War

Treaty ofGuadalupe Hidalgo

ARTICLE VIIIMexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, and which remain for

the future within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.

Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. But they shall be under the obligation to make their election within one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty; and those who shall remain in the said territories after the expiration of that year, without having declared their intention to retain the character of Mexicans, shall be considered to have elected to become citizens of the United States.

In the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property by contract, shall enjoy with respect to it guarantees equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States.

The Process of Expansion1783-1853

Manifest DestinyThe Thinking that Drove Expansion

American Progress by John Gast in 1872

Manifest DestinyThe Thinking that Drove Expansion

“The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs. For the common happiness of them all, for their peace and prosperity, I believe it is indispensable that they should be associated in one federal Union.”

John Adams, 1811Philosophy of “Continentalism”

Manifest DestinyThe Thinking that Drove Expansion

“Away, away with all these cobweb tissues of rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, contiguity….Our claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative self government entrusted to us. It is a right such as of the tree to space of air and earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and growth…”

John O’Sullivan, News Editor, 1845

“Since the dispersion of man upon earth, I know of no human event, past or present, which promises a greater, and more beneficent change upon earth than the arrival of the van of the Caucasian race (the Celtic-Anglo-Saxon division) upon the border of the sea which washes the shore of the eastern Asia . . . It would seem that the white race alone received the divine command, to subdue and replenish the earth! for it is the only race that has obeyed it—the only one that hunts out new and distant lands, and even a New world, to subdue and replenish.... Three and a half centuries ago, this race, in obedience to the great command, arrived in the New world, and found new lands to subdue and replenish.... The van of the Caucasian race is now top the Rocky Mountains, and spread down to the shores of the Pacific. In a few years a great population will grow up there, luminous with the accumulated lights of European and American civilization.... “

Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton Speech to US Congress, 1846

Manifest DestinyThe Thinking that Drove Expansion

“That Mexico will ultimately fall a political prey, not to force, but to a superior population, insensibly oozing into her territories, changing her customs, and out-living, out-trading, exterminating her weaker blood, we regard with as much certainty, as we do the final extinction of the Indian races, to which the mass of the Mexican population seem very little superior; and we have no reason to doubt that this country will not have doubled its three centuries of existence, before South America will speak the English tongue and submit to the civilization, laws, and religion of the Anglo-Saxon race. We, as a great civilized and Christian nation, have only to use all endeavors to have this tide of population regular and peaceful in its course-with no violence, or spirit of conquest; its sure progress we cannot help.”

American Whig Review1847

Manifest DestinyThe Thinking that Drove Expansion

Monroe Doctrine (1823)stated that further efforts by European countries to colonize

land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed by the United States of America as acts of aggression requiring US intervention.

Roosevelt Corollary (1904)asserted the right of the United States to intervene in Latin

America in cases of “flagrant and chronic wrongdoing by a Latin American Nation”.

Manifest DestinyThe Thinking that Drove Expansion

Not all agreed with Manifest Destiny

“Resolved, That such a war of conquest (US-Mexico War), so hateful in its objects, so wanton, unjust, and unconstitutional in its origin and character, must be regarded as a war against freedom, against humanity, against justice, against the Union, against the Constitution, and against the Free States; and that a regard for the true interests and the highest honor of the country, not less than the impulses of Christian duty, should arouse all good citizens to join in efforts to arrest this gigantic crime, by withholding supplies, or other voluntary contributions, for its further prosecution; by calling for the withdrawal of our army within the established limits of the United States; and in every just way aiding the country to retreat from the disgraceful position of aggression which it now occupies towards a weak, distracted neighbor and sister republic.”

Massachusetts Legislature

Adopted 1847

After the Continental US was formed,

Expansion Continued…

1867

1893 18981898

1916

1899

1946

A New Forms of Imperialism?

US Global Foreign Aid

Interactive Map

US Corporate Global Influence

America is Exceptional

Bill Whittle Jay Townsend

The Myth of American Exceptionalism

Howard Zinn