The word ‘empire’ wasn’t used very much by this country’s Founders and Framers. It had some troubling connotations for them. Most of our early political and cultural leaders were students of the Enlightenment and were primarily interested in establishing a governing system based on liberty, rejecting the notion that one country could rule another, which was the primary definition of empire in the 18th century. An interesting side note though, is that Thomas Jefferson, and a few others, occasionally describe the young United States as an “Empire of Liberty”.
Over time the definition of empire gradually changed and has come to mean any political or commercial organization with authority over a significant number of territories or business units. And while the country’s leaders in the 18th and 19th centuries were committed to liberty and freedom, the acquisition of land also continued to be an important goal. And the Doctrine of Discovery continued to be the legal justification for these efforts.
The history is clear that the United States became, and by the current definition still is, an empire with authority over land located beyond its continental boundaries. Some of the land was acquired by military action, the primary example being the Spanish-American War of 1898. As a result of that conflict, the United States acquired islands in the Pacific, such as Guam and the Philippines, as well as some Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico. Other lands were purchased, such as Alaska from Russia, and the Virgin Islands from Denmark. Today, most of us are somewhat familiar with the inhabited territories – America Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. And we may have heard of some of the uninhabited islands, such as Midway and Wake. But outside of a few government agencies, virtually no one knows about the 10 small islands that were claimed under the Guano Islands Act of 1856.
In the 1840s, guano (excrement of seabirds and bats) was discovered to be an excellent agricultural fertilizer, to the point that the U. S. was annually importing about 750,000 tons of it by the 1850s. The commodity was subject to high prices, exploitation and uncontrolled extraction processes. The Senate passed the Guano Act that gave U.S. citizens the authorization to claim islands containing guano on behalf of the government. Such claims would receive the protection of the U.S. military, but also required compliance with government regulations. These islands could be located anywhere, as long as they were not occupied or under the control of another government.
While the Guano Island Act doesn’t rise to the same level of privilege and superiority as the Doctrine of Discovery or Manifest Destiny, it is based on the same presumptions that guided the first colonizers of the 15th and 16th centuries. One was Terra Nullius – if the land appeared to be empty, then the colonizer could take it. Also, the Doctrine’s rule of ‘Civilization’ that stated if the land wasn’t being used in a manner that the colonizers thought it should be used – in this case for commercial reasons and profitable results – then it can be taken.
By 1903, 66 unoccupied guano islands were recognized as U.S. territories. With that number of controlled territories, the Unites States had to be one of largest empires in history. As the profitability of guano diminished, as well as the supply, many of the islands were abandoned. Currently, only ten remain. These ten, along with the five occupied islands, comprises the United States Empire, a position in the world that most U.S. citizens are not aware.
Contrary to the United States empire, which is not well known, the story of the World War II ‘Code Talkers’ is generally recognized by most people. What isn’t appreciated is the disturbing unjustness in that story.
The following picture is of three Navajo Code Talkers on Saipan during the campaign to capture that Japanese island during World War II. They were among the many young Indigenous men who volunteered their service to the U.S. military effort to defeat the worldwide threat to democracy. And also to protect their ancestral homeland from foreign occupation. The same homeland that had been severely diminished by the ancestors of the very men they supported and assisted in many WWII battles against a common threat.
But these three Marines and their fellow Code Talkers were not the first to serve in this manner. The following is a picture of a group of Choctaw Code Talkers from World War I. It may be hard to understand why these men felt compelled to assist a society that had taken their land and tried to suppress their culture. However the fact is, on a per capita basis, the American Indigenous Peoples joined the military effort in both World Wars at a higher percentage than any other ethnic group.
The men pictured in these photographs, and their fellow Code Talkers, served in a special category for the United States. They used their language to achieve military victories and save American lives. The very same language that the country they were serving had for many years tried to completely eliminate.
The government administered and/or sponsored American Indian Boarding Schools from the early 1800s well into the 20th century (Boarding Schools). It is highly likely that those who served in World War I were forced to attend one of those government sanctioned and operated schools. The Code Talkers in the Second World War may not have themselves attended a boarding school, but probably had grandparents, perhaps even parents, who did. They all knew, either from their own experiences or the stories from elderly family members, that while in a boarding school they were prohibited from speaking their native language. Severely punished if caught doing so. Ironically, that language became an essential, life saving skill that benefitted the colonizers. That is an unsettling duplicity to think about.
Primary Resources:
“The History Of American Imperialism, From Bloody Conquest To Bird Poop”; Davies, Dave; NPR.org; 18 February 2019
“American Empire”, New World Encyclopedia, Date of last revision – 24 July 2023.