How The United States Stole Hawaii Shutterstock
By Richard Milner/Dec. 24, 2020 10:49 am EDT/Updated: Dec. 24, 2020 8:58 pm EDT
Even before it was an empire, the United States behaved like one. Decades before the Declaration of Independence in 1776, amid contests between the French, English, Spanish, Native Americans, the Plymouth Company, the London Company, and more, the very bedrock of the US became founded on contests over land. The original 13 colonies expanded and gobbled up earth, seizing tribal territories without remorse or compunction, as overviewed by Aeon. By the time the US engaged in the Mexican-American War (1846-48) over the US annexation of Texas, as Britannica explains, the country was well on its way to fulfilling its original mandate of colonization.