Colonialism

Throughout history, countries have colonized new territories for reasons like: escaping tyranny or oppression, exploiting new lands for trade and profit, and creating outposts to help secure empire. In the creation of the original American colonies, religious differences and opportunity were among the factors for the colonists, but empire was the reason for the kings that encouraged the emigration.

Because the original colonies did not have that many people, and because Native Americans were willing to share the land with this new white man’s culture, the colonies survived in this primitive new world. But, as the colonies grew and because the white man claimed the land as his own, friction and hostilities grew. Because of muskets and, later, repeating rifles, the white culture expanded across the continents, leaving only relatively small and inhospitable areas to the few, surviving Native Americans.

Americans think the United States is the supreme success story in all of history because we have become the greatest financial and military power in the world. I am an American, and I reap the benefits of being an American, and those benefits are extremely nice ones. Americans are extremely privileged people, but we are a people who have forgotten that we achieved this place in history stepping on the backs of other cultures. Just like kings and emperors, we were the victorious, and we live under the myth, “Might Makes Right.” We forget about how we destroyed the existing cultures of the many Native American nations, essentially killing 95% of them, leaving the rest to survive in reservations (see Atrocities). We forget how we made treaties with Native Americans, later breaking almost all of the treaties when we wanted more. We also forget about the millions of slaves who lived and died under terrible conditions and treatment, and who helped white American culture prosper.

Looking back, it is easy to say that what we did was wrong. The problem is that we are still doing the same sort of colonizing. Japan might be a colony, as we have a large military presence that they would like to see removed. South Korea might be a colony, which may be why we are still there preventing their unification. The Philippines were essentially a colony, but I’m not as sure since we removed our military. Afghanistan and Iraq are now colonies that we took by force killing thousands, and which we intend to occupy with our military and control for the foreseeable future. You might think I am crazy, but you must not realize that 150 years ago Americans believed that killing those Indian savages was justified, and owning those Negro slaves was alright. The only difference is we are killing those Al Qaeda terrorists and “liberating” those Iraqis. The purpose of the Negro slaves was to pick the cotton, and the purpose of those “liberated” Iraqis is so that we can pick their pockets of their oil. The words have changed but the motivation is the same, imperialism, the conquest of territory for exploitation and empire (see Neo-cons).