alt Hacker NewsThe reason for our overseas empire was to maintain our economic dominance.
If everyone voluntarily refused to touch boats and only trade oil for dollars we may have invested differently.
The reason for our overseas empire was to maintain our economic dominance.
If everyone voluntarily refused to touch boats and only trade oil for dollars we may have invested differently.
"Maintain economic dominance" is a bit of a distorted view of late 19th century US colonialism. It was not a dominant economic power compared to colonial Europe. It was to boost the local economy for sure, with the guano islands. But colonizing the Philippines after the "war" with Spain was mostly to prevent European colonial powers from dominating that part of the world.
The US didn't become economically dominant until after the first World War, when it already had an overseas empire for half a century.