Showing papers on "Expansionism published in 1973"

Invitation to Empire: Tariffs and American Economic Expansion in Canada

Abstract: The growth of the United States' economic influence in twentieth-century Canada was intimately related to the continuation of the “National Policy†of protectionist tariffs. Professor Scheinberg argues that Canadians initially welcomed America's consciously expansionist thrust, and that they eventually became entangled in the problems of seeking rapid economic growth along with economic independence from both the older imperialism of Great Britain and the newer variety represented by the United States.

American Manufacturers and Foreign Markets, 1870-1900: Business Historians and the "New Economic Determinists"

Abstract: C Recent diplomatic historians have explained much of American expansionism at the end of the nineteenth century as the product of domestic industrial overcapacity and the resulting need to seek foreign markets. Evidence of business behavior, however, indicates that overseas expansion and exports were not a very important avenue through which U.S. businessmen sought to control prices and output. Indeed, in most of the industries which did engage in significant foreign activities, their expansion was usually the result of genuine competitive advantages rather than a sign of economic ill health. William Appleman Williams' The Tragedy of American Diplomacy is one of the most influential and popular interpretations of the sources of American expansionism. Williams argues that American industry turned out such an oversupply of goods in the late nineteenth century that America was impelled to develop foreign markets to relieve the glutted domestic economy. Manufacturers sought exports, and government policy makers facilitated that search, in order to employ workers periodically idled by economic crises brought on by overproduction and underconsumption.' In his more recent work, The Roots of the Modern American Empire, Williams explored the role of farmers in America's outward thrust "toward overseas markets as a crucial element in the nation's well being." While concentrating on agriculturalists, however, he still maintains that "various elements of the industrial part of the economy . . produced increasing surpluses. They had to be exported if they were to be sold at all." 2

Italian imperialism in its Ethiopian context

Abstract: The history of Italian imperialism in the nineteenth century has generally been highlighted by reference to the Treaty of Uccialli in 1889 and the Battle of Adowa in 1896. That treaty is widely supposed to have been the basis for the extension of an Italian protectorate over Ethiopia, thus marking the creation of an, instant empire in East Africa. It has usually beern treated in terms; of a confusion of language between the Amharic and the! Italian texts oir as a deliberate duping of one party by the other. The battle, which led to the abnegation of the Treaty of Uccialli, was, to the chagrin of many an imperialist (and no doubt to the horror of Prime Minister Francesco, Crispi's government), a major defeat of a large European military force at the hands of an indigenous African army. Moreover, it caused the collapse of Italian imperialist designs in all areas of Africa until the, advent of the Libyan War in 1911-1912. Yet clearly there is far more to this chapter of imperialism than an unsuccessful diplomatic venture and a catastrophic military defeat. Some seek clarification by reference to, Hobson or Lenin and general theories of European expansion, but such an approach is inadequate because it does not raise the kinds of questions necessary to achieving an understanding of the historical rather than the theoretical phenomenon of Italian imperialism. Moreover, such theories have been based, especially in the! Italian case, on. a woeful lack of evidence. Others seek understanding by study of purely Italian, that is, peninsular, ideas and events the growth of industry in the north, the role of southern politicians, the desire to' emulate the expansionist slogans and activities; of the other great

Open Door Expansionism Reconsidered: The World War II Experience

Abstract: UNTIL William A. Williams awakened diplomatic historians to the economic dimensions of World War II diplomacy, only economists had evaluated the mainsprings of America's commitment to non-discriminatory trade and currency convertibility. This program of multilateralism, most economists agreed, was a courageous, farsighted initiative to reverse interwar economic nationalism and to restore an efficient productive international economy benefiting all countries. As the economic counterpart of the United Nations, multilateralism was heralded as a foundation for peace., In the hands of Williams and other radical revisionists benevolent multilateralism metamorphosed into Open Door expansionism, a "self-serving" strategy to open the world to American trade and investments. And, non-discriminatory trade and currency convertibility, long considered benign tools of global cooperation, became "instrumentalities" of an atavistic counterrevolutionary scheme. According to Williams, Cordell Hull and his associates feared a resumption of the Depression would produce domestic unrest and jeopardize the business system. Consequently, to assure markets for America's surplus production, these officials designed a foreign economic program which effectively cast the "economy and the politics of the poorer, weaker, underdeveloped countries in a proAmerican mold." This rigid blueprint ignored the needs of Washington's allies, especially less-developed countries and the Soviet Union. If other nations could not accept this Open Door design, adds Gabriel Kolko, "either because of their own imperial ambitions or desire to build economies along new, essentially socialist lines, or simply out of suspicion of the erstwhile selflessness of Ameri-