Thursday, November 27, 2025
This was, not surprisingly, a controversial matter. During the war, during the congressional debates over the treaty with Spain, and during the heated election of 1900, the question of empire was argued at high volume.
In essence, it was an argument about a trilemma. Republicanism, white supremacy, and overseas expansion—the country could have at most two. In the past, republicanism and white supremacy had been jointly maintained by carefully shaping the country’s borders. But absorbing populous nonwhite colonies would wreck all that.
I recently finished reading How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwhar. It gave me much food for thought about how American Empire shapes the experience of being on this planet today.
As an American citizen living through a period of American political crisis, I found the above quote especially thought-provoking. The United States couldn’t be more imperial than it already was (which was very) precisely because it would bring so many non white people into the country.
An argument for a trilemma - republicanism, white supremacy, and overseas expansion - what an awful combination. Can’t we just keep the republic and throw out the other two?