The United States has rarely called what it did colonialism. The territory it acquired, the populations it displaced, and the bases it maintains do not require the word to be one[9].
- Indigenous nations recognised today
- 574 federally recognised + many unrecognised
- Indigenous population, 1492 estimate
- 5 – 18 million north of Mexico
- Indigenous population, 1900
- ≈250,000
- Enslaved Africans transported to British North America / US
- ≈388,000 direct (and millions internally trafficked)
- Overseas territories acquired 1898
- Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii (+ Cuba protectorate)
- Overseas military bases today
- ≈750 in 80+ countries (David Vine, 2021)
Phase one
Continental settler colonialism
From 1607 (Jamestown) and 1620 (Plymouth) through to the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, the British colonies and then the United States expanded westward through treaty-breaking, dispossession, and direct military violence. The 1830 Indian Removal Act forced ≈60,000 people of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations from the Southeast. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States traces the policy continuity from the colonial militia tradition to the Indian Wars of the late 19th century[7].
From the 1490s to ≈1900 the Indigenous population north of the Rio Grande fell from ≈5–18 million to ≈250,000. Disease accounts for the largest share; war, dispossession, and starvation account for the rest.
Phase two
1898 and the explicit empire
The Spanish–American War of 1898 transferred Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to direct US sovereignty. The Filipino independence movement that had been fighting Spain immediately turned to fighting the new occupier. The Philippine–American War (1899–1902) killed an estimated 250,000–750,000 Filipinos. General Jacob Smith's order on Samar — "Kill everyone over ten" — and the policy of "reconcentration" camps in Batangas are documented[8].
Hawaii had been seized by US business interests in 1893; formal annexation followed in 1898. The 1900s saw the construction of the Panama Canal Zone on land taken from Colombia.
“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”
Phase three
The post-1945 architecture
After 1945 the United States became a global hegemon in a different idiom. Direct territorial empire (the Philippines independent in 1946, Puerto Rico a "commonwealth" from 1952) was partially replaced by a network of military bases (≈750 today, in 80+ countries), military alliances (NATO, ANZUS, MD-T), and the willingness to overthrow governments judged hostile[3].
Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow counts at least 14 governments overthrown by the US in the 20th century — Hawaii 1893, Cuba 1898, Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Congo 1961, Brazil 1964, Indonesia 1965, Chile 1973, and on. Vietnam alone killed an estimated 1.5 to 3.8 million Vietnamese (and ≈500,000 Cambodians) between 1955 and 1975.
The unincorporated territories
The empire is not past tense
Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa are still "unincorporated territories" — US sovereign land whose residents pay federal taxes but cannot vote for the president and have only non-voting representation in Congress. The 1901 Supreme Court Insular Cases that established this status are still good law.
Chronology
Key dates
1607
Jamestown founded.
1830
Indian Removal Act.
1864
Sand Creek massacre.
1890
Wounded Knee massacre.
1893
US business interests overthrow Kingdom of Hawaii.
1898
Spanish–American War — Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii.
1899–1902
Philippine–American War.
1903
Panama Canal Zone acquired.
1953
CIA-backed coup in Iran (Operation Ajax).
1954
CIA coup in Guatemala against Árbenz.
1973
US-backed coup in Chile against Allende.
2001 / 2003
Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In short
Was the United States a colonial empire?
Yes. The United States annexed Hawaii in 1898, took the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam from Spain the same year, and governed the Philippines by force until 1946 — a war of conquest that killed at least 200,000 Filipino civilians by conservative estimates.
It also built a second, indirect empire: military occupations across the Caribbean and Central America, coups in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954) and Chile (1973), and a network of roughly 750 overseas bases that has no historical precedent.
The ledger
What was taken, and from whom
| Territory | Mechanism | Human cost |
|---|---|---|
| Philippines, 1899–1913 | War of conquest, then colonial rule to 1946 | ≈200,000+ civilian deaths |
| Hawaii, 1893–1898 | Planter coup against Queen Liliʻuokalani, then annexation | Sovereignty extinguished |
| Puerto Rico, 1898–present | Unincorporated territory; no vote in Congress | 3.2m people, no federal franchise |
| Haiti, 1915–1934 | Marine occupation, forced labour (corvée) | ≈15,000 killed |
| Guatemala, 1954–1996 | CIA coup, then civil war | ≈200,000 dead, 83% Maya |
Figures are mid-range scholarly estimates; see sources below.
Mechanism
Empire without the word
The distinctive American method was to keep the substance of colonial control while discarding the vocabulary. Cuba became independent in 1902 under the Platt Amendment, which reserved the right of US intervention and the naval base at Guantánamo. The Philippines were governed by an appointed commission. Puerto Rico was declared, in the Insular Cases of 1901–1922, to belong to the United States without being part of it — a legal category invented to hold territory whose people would never be full citizens.
That template — bases, tariffs, debt, client governments, deniable force — became the operating system of the twentieth century. It is why the American empire is easy to miss in a textbook organised around flags on a map.
Continuity
What is still in force
Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas remain unincorporated territories: 3.6 million people with no voting representation in the Congress that legislates for them. American Samoans are US nationals, not citizens, by birth.
The 1993 Apology Resolution acknowledged that the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was illegal, without restoring land or sovereignty. No reparations have followed for the Philippines, Haiti or Guatemala, and the archives that would price the claim were largely written by the occupying power.
FAQ
Frequently asked
- How many Filipinos died in the Philippine–American War?
- Conservative scholarly estimates put civilian deaths at 200,000 or more between 1899 and 1902, mostly from disease, displacement and famine caused by reconcentration camps and crop destruction. Some estimates reach 750,000.
- Is Puerto Rico a colony?
- Legally it is an unincorporated territory of the United States. Its 3.2 million residents are US citizens who cannot vote for president and have no voting member of Congress, while Congress holds plenary power over the island — the defining features of colonial rule.
- Why is Hawaii part of the United States?
- American and European sugar planters, backed by US Marines, deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893. The United States annexed the islands in 1898 by joint resolution rather than treaty. Congress formally acknowledged the illegality of the overthrow in 1993.
- How many US military bases are overseas?
- Roughly 750 installations in around 80 countries and territories, according to compilations of Department of Defense data — more foreign bases than every other country in the world combined.
- Did the United States colonise Latin America?
- Not by formal annexation, apart from Puerto Rico. It exercised control through occupations (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Cuba), covert coups (Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973), and debt and trade leverage — indirect rule with colonial effects.
