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We don't talk about the Spanish-American War enough IMO. I understand why- it's small fries compared to the wars that would come later- but it was a HUGE turning point for this country. Not just foreign-policy wise, but even domestically. (1/?)
See, the US conception of "freedom" relied on the frontier. Freedom was defined in a Jacksonian way to be able to settle your own farmstead & not be bothered by anyone. The small yeoman farmer who gets to live his days in peace. But this was actually pretty nefarious. (2/?)
The biggest & most prominent reason it's nefarious is, ofc, HOW the land was obtained (Native genocide). But there was another less visible effect it had: the frontier acted as a safety release valve for social & political tensions in the US. (3/?)
"Didn't like the way your boss treated you? Try your luck on the frontier! Feeling conflicted about slavery? Let's put off the question as we expand west! Sickened by rampant inequality? Then see what you can create on the prairie!" (4/?)
But toward the end of the 1800s, the frontier was shrinking. The US reached the Pacific. You couldn't just "go west" anymore. And now industrialization (and with it, inequality, financial crisis, and class conflict) was on the rise. The country was in deep crisis. (5/?)
In fact, there was a "Great Depression" in the US before 1929. The OG one happened in 1873 and lasted til 1879. Robber barons and corporate tycoons dominated politics and people's lives, and w/o any state social safety net, the US was becoming almost an an-cap dystopia. (6/?)
This is where the Spanish-American War (which friggin' John Quincy Adams foresaw all the way back in the early 1800s) came in. It expanded the frontier past the actual physical frontier of the US. The frontier went from a domestic one to an imperial one. (7/?)
Now the US could both (1)expand its market overseas to its economic frontier and (2)expand its territory through actual imperial control of territories it gained in the fighting. Suddenly many of these crises, while not disappearing completely, certainly became less urgent. (8/?)
We've been trying to expand the frontier since, both directly in the case of our own backyard (hence why we have done so many atrocities to Latin America & the Caribbean) as well as indirectly through finance capital. The Cold War was the most dramatic manifestation. (9/?)
Now, as the US is a declining empire, a lot of the conflict we've put off is now starting to come home. And the militarism, entitlement, and racism we've built our empire on abroad is coming home to roost. The frontier is coming inward. (10/?)
It's not all doom and gloom, tho. Plenty of societies in crisis & decline have pulled themselves out. But we gotta be able to honestly assess our past to honestly assess our present.
As a leftist, I believe firmly our future lies in the multiracial working class. (11/11)
As a leftist, I believe firmly our future lies in the multiracial working class. (11/11)
