Expansionism

{{short description|Consists of policies of states that involve territorial or economic expansion}} {{use dmy dates|date=January 2026}} [[File:Map of the Empire of Alexander the Great (1893).jpg|thumb|The full extent of the empire of Alexander the Great, assembled in the 4th century BCE as he strove to conquer the lands of Asia and the Mediterranean]] '''Expansionism''' refers to states obtaining greater control of territories, especially through direct annexation of territory, through military empire-building (e.g. imperialism) or colonialism.<ref> An alternative definition sees "expansionism" as "a desire to annex additional territory" for reasons such as perceived needs for ''Lebensraum'' or resources, the intimidation of rivals, or the projection of an ideology.{{cite book|editor1-last = May|editor1-first = Ronald James|title = The Indonesia-Papua New Guinea Border: Irianese Nationalism and Small State Diplomacy|year = 1979|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fbxwAAAAMAAJ|issue = Issue 2 of Working paper (Australian National University. Research School of Pacific Studies. Dept. of PoliticaL and Social Change)|publisher = Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University|publication-date = 1979|page = 43|isbn = 978-0-908160-33-4|access-date = 6 November 2020|quote = At this point, however, we must define 'expansionism' a little more precisely. I am interpreting it to mean a desire to annex additional territory either{{ordered list|type=lower-roman|for the sake of more ''lebensraum'' (living space) or resources (oil, copper, timber, etc.);|for the sake of demonstrating the national power so as to intimidate neighbours;|because of an ideology of national greatness, power}}[...]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knorr |first=Klaus |date=1952 |editor-last=Schumpeter |editor-first=Joseph A. |editor-link=Joseph Schumpeter |editor2-last=Arendt |editor2-first=Hannah |editor2-link=Hannah Arendt |title=Theories of Imperialism |journal=World Politics |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=402–431 |doi=10.2307/2009130 |jstor=2009130 |s2cid=145320143 |issn=0043-8871}}</ref> In the classical age of conquest, the moral justification for territorial expansion at the direct expense of another established polity was often as unapologetic as "because we can", treading on the philosophical grounds of "might makes right".{{citation needed|date=December 2025}}

As political conceptions of the nation state evolved, especially in reference to the inherent rights of the governed, more complex justifications arose. State-collapse anarchy, reunification or pan-nationalism are sometimes used to justify and legitimize expansionism when the explicit goal is to reconquer territories that have been lost or to take over ancestral lands.{{citation needed|date=December 2025}} Lacking a viable historical claim of this nature, would-be expansionists may instead promote ideologies of promised lands, perhaps tinged with a self-interested pragmatism that targeted lands will eventually belong to the potential invader anyway.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.britannica.com/event/Manifest-Destiny|title= Manifest Destiny {{!}} History, Examples, & Significance|website= Encyclopedia Britannica|language= en|access-date= 2019-05-07}}</ref>

==Theories==

Ibn Khaldun wrote that newly established dynasties, because they have social cohesion or Asabiyyah, are able to seek "expansion to the limit."<ref>The Muqadimmah, 1377, pp. 137–256.</ref> The Soviet economist Nikolai Kondratiev theorized that capitalism advances in 50-year expansion/stagnation cycles, driven by technological innovation. The UK, Germany, the US, Japan and now China have been at the forefront of successive waves. Crane Brinton in ''The Anatomy of Revolution'' saw the revolution as a driver of expansionism in, for example, Russia under Stalin, the United States and the Napoleonic Empire. Christopher Booker believed that wishful thinking can generate a "dream phase" of expansionism such as in the European Union, which is short-lived and unreliable. According to a 2023 study, important historical instances of territorial expansion have frequently happened because actors on the periphery of a state have acted without authorization from their superiors at the center of the state. Leaders subsequently find it difficult to withdraw from the newly captured areas due to "sunk costs, domestic political pressure, and national honor."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Nicholas |date=2023 |title=Push and Pull on the Periphery: Inadvertent Expansion in World Politics |journal=International Security|volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=136–173 |doi=10.1162/isec_a_00454 |s2cid=256390941}}</ref>

==Examples== [[File:Expansion of the Mongol Empire.svg|thumb|250px|Expansion of the Mongol Empire from 1206 to 1294]] Every part of the world has experienced expansionism.<ref>See Abernethy (2009); Darwin (2008).</ref><ref>Wade, (2014).</ref> The religious imperialism and colonialism of Islam started with the early Muslim conquests, was followed by the religious Caliphate expansionisms, and ended with the Partition of the Ottoman Empire. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of expansion. The Ottomans ended the Eastern Roman Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed the Conqueror.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Quataert |first=Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OX3lsOrXJGcC |title=The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922 |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-83910-5 |edition=2 |page=4}}</ref>

[[File:Growth of Russia 1547-1725.png|thumb|250px|Expansion of the Tsardom of Russia from 1547 to 1725]] The militarist and nationalistic reign of Russian Czar Nicholas I (1825–1855) led to wars of conquest against Persia (1826–1828) and Turkey (1828–1829). Various rebel tribes in the Caucasus region were crushed. A Polish revolt in 1830 was ruthlessly crushed. Russian troops in 1848 crossed into Austria-Hungary to put down the Hungarian Revolt. Russification policies were implemented to weaken minority ethnic groups. Pan-Slavist solidarity led to further war with the Ottoman Empire (the sick man of Europe) in 1853 provoked Britain and France into invading Crimea.<ref>Orlando Figes, ''Crimea'' (Penguin, 2011), chapter one.</ref>

In Italy, Benito Mussolini sought to create a New Roman Empire, based around the Mediterranean. Italy invaded Ethiopia as early as 1935, Albania in early 1938, and later Greece. ''Spazio vitale'' ("living space") was the territorial expansionist concept of Italian Fascism. It was analogous to Nazi Germany's concept of ''Lebensraum'' and the United States' concept of "Manifest Destiny". Fascist ideologist Giuseppe Bottai likened this historic mission to the deeds of the ancient Romans.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Davide|last=Rodogno|title=Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation During the Second World War |location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|pages=46–47|isbn=978-0-521-84515-1}}</ref>

After 1937, Nazi Germany under Hitler laid claim to Sudetenland, unification (''Anschluss'') with Austria in 1938 and the occupation of the whole of the Czech lands the following year. After war broke out, Hitler and Stalin divided Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union. In a ''Drang nach Osten'' aimed at achieving ''Lebensraum'' for the German people, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.<ref>Sebastian Haffner, The Meaning of Hitler, Phoenix, 2000, chapters 2, 3 and 4.</ref>

thumb|350px|Comparison of Africa in the years 1880 and 1913 Expansionist nationalism is an aggressive and radical form of nationalism that incorporates autonomous patriotic sentiments with a belief in expansionism. The term was coined during the late 19th century as European powers indulged in the Scramble for Africa, but it has been most associated with militarist governments during the 20th century including Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan, and the Balkan countries of Albania (Greater Albania), Bulgaria (Greater Bulgaria), Croatia (Greater Croatia), Hungary (Greater Hungary), Romania (Greater Romania) and Serbia (Greater Serbia).

In American politics after the War of 1812, Manifest Destiny was the ideological movement during America's expansion West. The movement incorporated expansionist nationalism with continentalism, with the Mexican War in 1846–1848 being attributed to it. Despite championing American settlers and traders as the people whom the government's military would be aiding, the Bent, St. Vrain and Company stated to be the most influential Indian trading company before the Mexican War, underwent a decline because of the and of traffic from American settlers by Beyreis. The company also lost the partner Charles Bent on January 19, 1847, to a riot caused by the Mexican War. Many in the Cheyennes, Comanches, Kiowas, and Pawnees tribes died from smallpox in 1839–1840, measles and whooping cough in 1845, and cholera in 1849, which had been brought by American settlers. The buffalo herds, sparse grasses, and rare waters were also depleted following the war as increased traffic by settlers moving to California during the Gold Rush.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Beyreis|first=David|date=Summer 2018|title=The Chaos of Conquest: The Bents and the Problem of American Expansion|journal=Kansas History|volume=41| issue = 2|pages=72–89|via=History Reference Center}}</ref>

==21st century== ===Azerbaijan=== {{further|Western Azerbaijan (irredentist concept)|Whole Azerbaijan|Zangezur corridor}} right|thumb|Map of "Whole Azerbaijan" according to Azerbaijani historian {{ill|Adalet Tahirzade|az|Ədalət Tahirzadə}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Broers |first1=Laurence |title=Armenia and Azerbaijan: (Anatomy of a Rivalry) |date=2019 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-1-4744-5052-2 |page=9 |chapter=Questionable Borders}}</ref> The Government of Azerbaijan has advanced expansionist territorial claims to internationally recognized sovereign territories, including regions of Iran<ref>{{Citation |last=Astourian |first=Stephan H. |title=Origins, Main Themes and Underlying Psychological Disposition of Azerbaijani Nationalism |date=2023-12-05 |work=Monuments and Identities in the Caucasus |pages=206–236 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004677388/BP000009.xml |access-date=2025-09-12 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004677388_010 |isbn=978-90-04-67738-8|url-access=subscription }}.</ref> and significant portions,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Armenia and Azerbaijan at Odds Over Peace Process |url=https://jamestown.org/program/armenia-and-azerbaijan-at-odds-over-peace-process/ |access-date=2025-09-12 |language=en-US |quote=Additionally, Baku is advancing its “Western Azerbaijan” narrative through a state-sponsored organization of the same name, laying expansionist claims to 60 percent of Armenia’s territory.}}</ref> up to and including the entirety, of Armenia.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-08-05 |title=Peace remains elusive between Armenia and Azerbaijan |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/08/05/peace-remains-elusive-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan_6744076_4.html |access-date=2025-09-12 |language=en |quote=Baku's expansionist rhetoric, which now refers to Armenia as "Western Azerbaijan," appears particularly menacing. The concept emerged in December 2022, two months after Pashinyan recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. Today, it is everywhere. "An Azerbaijani website, a television channel and a department at Baku State University are all named 'Western Azerbaijan,'" the researcher said. Since 2023, the theory has also appeared in history textbooks. "The new Azerbaijani generation is being raised to believe that Armenia is Azerbaijani!" said Hayrapetyan.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Civilnet |date=2023-05-08 |title=Ilham Aliyev's Anti-Armenian Rhetoric and Its Genocidal Undertones |url=https://www.civilnet.am/en/news/699536/ilham-aliyevs-anti-armenian-rhetoric-and-its-genocidal-undertones/ |access-date=2025-09-12 |website=CIVILNET |language=en-US |quote=The expansionist tendencies of Azerbaijan share similarities with the expansionism seen in other genocide perpetrators. Azerbaijan’s first target is the Republic of Artsakh Aliyev’s discourse regarding what it calls “historic Azerbaijan” includes so-called Western and Eastern Azerbaijans. During its two-decade old reign, Ilham Aliyev has often referred to 'Western Azerbaijan' as the Republic of Armenia.}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2024-04-24 |title=Genocide Warning: Azerbaijan is invading Armenia |url=https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/genocide-warning-azerbaijan-is-invading-armenia |access-date=2025-09-12 |website=Genocide Watch |language=en |quote=International experts highlight Azerbaijan’s territorial expansionism. Stefan Meister, head of the Centre for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia at the German Council on Foreign Relations, explained. 'It’s part of this maximalist approach: you’re hungry so you never stop eating if no one draws a red line.' Meister urged Western governments to impose sanctions on Baku. Lack of consequences has led Aliyev to become so emboldened by his ahistorical, expansionist ideology that he announced a 'Great Return Program' in which 140,000 Azerbaijanis will live in Syunik and Artsakh.}}</ref> These claims have been promoted under various labels, such as "Greater Azerbaijan",<ref>{{Cite web |last=Broers |first=Laurence |title=Perspectives {{!}} Augmented Azerbaijan? The return of Azerbaijani irredentism {{!}} Eurasianet |url=https://eurasianet.org/perspectives-augmented-azerbaijan-the-return-of-azerbaijani-irredentism |access-date=2025-09-12 |website=eurasianet.org |language=en}}</ref> "Whole Azerbaijan", "Southern Azerbaijan",<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hovsepyan |first=Levon |last2=Tonoyan |first2=Artyom A. |date=2025-07-04 |title=Sustaining conflict: identity, ontological (in)security, and Azerbaijan’s policy toward Armenia after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09592318.2025.2480690 |journal=Small Wars & Insurgencies |language=en |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=963–995 |doi=10.1080/09592318.2025.2480690 |issn=0959-2318 |quote=If the concept of Azerbaijanism in the Soviet era, in terms of the narrative of expansionism, declared the northwestern part of Iran as part of the ʹhistorical motherlandʹ of Azerbaijanis, under the name ʹSouthern Azerbaijanʹ, then in the post-Soviet period, the territory of Armenia is added to this, already under the term ʹWestern Azerbaijanʹ.|doi-access=free }}</ref> Expansionist claims targeting specifically Armenian territory include the "Goyche-Zangezur Republic", the "Republic of Irevan",<ref>{{Cite web |title=The rise and fall of Azerbaijan's "Goycha-Zangazur Republic" |url=https://eurasianet.org/the-rise-and-fall-of-azerbaijans-goycha-zangazur-republic |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=eurasianet.org |language=en}}</ref> "the Great Return",<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kucera |first=Joshua |title=Azerbaijan seeks “Great Return” of refugees to Armenia {{!}} Eurasianet |url=https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-seeks-great-return-of-refugees-to-armenia |access-date=2025-09-18 |website=eurasianet.org |language=en |quote=Armenia says the ["Great Return"] plan amounts to a territorial claim, while domestic critics say it is meant as a nationalist distraction to the country’s real problems.}}</ref> the "Zangezur Corridor",<ref>{{Cite web |last=Galitsky |first=Alex |date=2025-09-18 |title=Azerbaijan’s Aggression Has Forced Armenia Into Russia’s Arms |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/04/azerbaijan-aggression-armenia-russia-nagorno-karabakh/ |access-date=2025-09-12 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US |quote=For Azerbaijan, however, this corridor has taken on an explicitly expansionist dimension, with the government now making further territorial claims over Armenia’s southern province of Syunik.}}</ref> and "Western Azerbaijan".<ref name=":2" /> ===China=== {{further|Chinese expansionism}} The People's Republic of China has been described as expansionist through its operations and claims in the South China Sea, which are concurrently claimed in part by Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and the Republic of China.<ref>Simon Tisdall, 'Vietnam's fury at China's expansionism can be traced to a troubled history', The Guardian, 15/5/2004.</ref>

===Israel===

{{See also|Israeli settlement|Greater Israel}} [[File:Israel and occupied territories map.png|thumb|upright=0.7|Israel and Israeli-occupied territories]] Israel was established on May 14, 1948, following the end of World War II and the Holocaust. Its government has occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula since the Six-Day War, although the Sinai was later returned to Egypt in 1982.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/03/04/carter-says-error-led-us-to-vote-against-israelis/96769c94-19d6-43cc-87f3-32507792afab/?noredirect=on|title=Carter Says Error Led U.S. to Vote Against Israelis|newspaper=Washington Post|date=4 March 1980|access-date=16 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: politics of expansion|last=Masalha|first=Nur|publisher=Pluto Press|year=2000|location=Sterling, VA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/golan%20heights%20law.aspx/|title=Golan Heights Law|website=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs|date=14 December 1981|access-date=16 November 2021}}</ref> Israel also occupied southern Lebanon from February 1985 to May 2000.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Norton|first=Augustus.R |date=2000 |title=Hizballah and the Israeli Withdrawal from Southern Lebanon |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=22–35 |doi=10.2307/2676479|jstor=2676479 }}</ref>

===Iran=== {{Further|Axis of Resistance}} Iran, the largest Shi'ite state, has extended its influence across the Middle East, specifically Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon by arming local militias.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Arango |first1=Tim |title=Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. 'Handed the Country Over' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/15/world/middleeast/iran-iraq-iranian-power.html |work=New York Times |access-date=8 November 2019 |date=15 July 2017}}</ref> Multiple analysts have regarded the Axis of Resistance as an expansionist "Islamist revolution" project by Iran.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Akbar|first=Ali|year=2021|title=Iran's Regional Influence in Light of Its Security Concerns|journal=Middle East Policy|volume=28|issue=3–4|pages=186-202|doi=10.1111/mepo.12606}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Seliktar|first=Ofira|year=2021|title=Iran's Geopolitics and Revolutionary Export: The Promises and Limits of the Proxy Empire|journal=Orbis|volume=65|issue=1|pages=152-171|doi=10.1016/j.orbis.2020.11.008}}</ref>

===Russia=== {{further|Russian irredentism|Russian neo-imperialism}} [[File:Annexation of Southern and Eastern Ukraine.svg|thumb|Regions of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2014 and 2022, with a red line marking the area of actual control by Russia on 30 September 2022]] Russia under Vladimir Putin has been described as expansionist, especially since the 2010s.<ref>{{cite news |last=Walker |first=Peter |title=Russian expansionism may pose existential threat, says NATO general |work=The Guardian |date=2015-02-20 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/20/russia-existential-threat-british-nato-general |access-date=2018-10-04}}</ref> Putin said that the dissolution of the Soviet Union had "robbed" Russia of territories and made Russians "the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders", calling this an "outrageous historical injustice".<ref>{{cite news|title=Putin's Crimea Speech: A Manifesto of Greater-Russia Irredentism|publisher= Eurasia Daily Monitor |volume= 11| issue= 56|author= Vladimir Socor|url=https://jamestown.org/program/putins-crimea-speech-a-manifesto-of-greater-russia-irredentism/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Crimea crisis: Russian President Putin's speech annotated |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26652058 |work=BBC News |date=19 March 2014}}</ref> Russia occupies parts of three neighboring countries. In 2008 Russia invaded Georgia and occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In 2014 it occupied and then annexed Crimea from Ukraine. In 2022 it launched a full invasion of Ukraine and annexed its southeastern provinces. Meanwhile, Russia has established domination over Belarus.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mankoff |first1=Jeffrey |title=The War in Ukraine and Eurasia's New Imperial Moment |journal=The Washington Quarterly |date=2022 |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=127–128 |doi=10.1080/0163660X.2022.2090761 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/0163660X.2022.2090761|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Russian state is also accused of neo-colonialism in Africa, mainly through the activities of the Wagner Group and Africa Corps.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doboš |first1=Bohumil |last2=Purton |first2=Alexander |title=Proxy Neo-colonialism? The Case of Wagner Group in the Central African Republic |journal=Insight on Africa |date=2024 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=7–21 |doi=10.1177/09750878231209705 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09750878231209705|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=How Russia's Wagner Group funds its role in Putin's Ukraine war by plundering Africa's resources |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-wagner-group-ukraine-war-putin-prigozhin-africa-plundering-resources/ |work=CBS News |date=16 May 2023 |access-date=25 August 2023 |archive-date=22 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622145256/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-wagner-group-ukraine-war-putin-prigozhin-africa-plundering-resources/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Turkey=== {{further|Neo-Ottomanism}} Turkey's foreign policy is characterized, especially since 2010s by an aggressive expansionism, irredentism and interventionism in the Eastern Mediterranean and the neighboring Cyprus, Greece, Iraq, Syria, as well as in Africa, including Libya, and Nagorno-Karabakh.{{efn|See:<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Antonopoulos|first=Paul|date=2017-10-20|title=Turkey's interests in the Syrian war: from neo-Ottomanism to counterinsurgency|journal=Global Affairs|volume=3|issue=4–5|pages=405–419|doi=10.1080/23340460.2018.1455061|s2cid=158613563 |issn=2334-0460}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Danforth|first=Nick|title=Turkey's New Maps Are Reclaiming the Ottoman Empire|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/23/turkeys-religious-nationalists-want-ottoman-borders-iraq-erdogan/|access-date=2020-10-08|website=Foreign Policy|date=23 October 2016 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mei.edu/publications/turkeys-dangerous-new-exports-pan-islamist-neo-ottoman-visions-and-regional|publisher=Middle East Institute|title=Turkey's Dangerous New Exports: Pan-Islamist, Neo-Ottoman Visions and Regional Instability|date=21 April 2020|access-date=4 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/1855341|title=Turkey's militarized foreign policy provokes Iraq|publisher=Arab News|author=Sinem Cengiz|date=7 May 2021|access-date=9 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.csis.org/neo-ottomanism-turkeys-foreign-policy-approach-africa|title=Neo-Ottomanism: Turkey's foreign policy approach to Africa|publisher=Center for Strategic and International Studies|author=Asya Akca|date= 8 April 2019|access-date=13 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wgi.world/the-revival-of-neo-ottomanism-in-turkey/|title=The revival of neo-Ottomanism in Turkey|publisher=World Geostrategic Sights|author=Slaviša Milačić|date=23 October 2020|access-date=13 May 2021}}</ref>}} Turkey has occupied foreign territories and stationed troops in them, following the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the 2016 Turkish occupation of northern Syria, the 2018 Turkish presence in northern Iraq<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/turkeys-growing-military-presence-kurdish-region-iraq|title=Turkey's Growing Military Presence in the Kurdish Region of Iraq|publisher=Washington Institute|author=Yousif Ismael|date=18 May 2020|access-date=1 October 2022}}</ref> and following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War.

=== United States === {{main|51st state|American expansionism under Donald Trump}} [[File:President Trump Meets with the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark (49170427867).jpg|left|thumb|Trump with current Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen in 2019]] Donald Trump, the incumbent president of the United States, has stated in the lead-up to his second inauguration proposed plans and ideas that would expand the United States' political influence and territory.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/us/politics/trump-greenland-panama-canal.html | title=Trump's Wish to Control Greenland and Panama Canal: Not a Joke This Time | work=The New York Times | last1=Sanger | first1=David E. | last2=Friedman | first2=Lisa | date=December 23, 2024 }}</ref> The last territory acquired by the United States came in 1947 with the Mariana, Caroline and Marshall Islands. In December 2024, Trump stated a further proposal for the United States to purchase Greenland from Denmark, describing ownership and control of the island as "an absolute necessity" for national security purposes. This builds upon a prior offer from Trump to buy Greenland during his first term, which the Danish Realm refused, causing him to cancel his August 2019 visit to Denmark.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCormack |first=Caitlin |date=2024-12-23 |title=Trump indicates he may be interested in buying Greenland — again |url=https://nypost.com/2024/12/23/us-news/trump-indicates-he-may-be-interested-in-buying-greenland-again/ |access-date=2024-12-24 |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2024, Trump demanded that Panama return control of the Panama Canal to the United States due to 'excessive rates' being charged for American passage.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2024-12-23 |title=Donald Trump threatens to retake control of Panama Canal |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-23/donald-trump-threatens-to-retake-panama-canal/104757424 |access-date=2024-12-24 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}</ref> If the United States were to take control of the Panama Canal, it would mark the first time the United States controlled Panamanian territory since the United States invasion of Panama.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dec. 20, 1989: Invasion of Panama |url=https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/invasion-of-panama/ |access-date=2024-12-24 |website=Zinn Education Project |language=en-US}}</ref>

On January 7, 2025, Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland's capital city Nuuk alongside Charlie Kirk to hand out MAGA hats.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Eller |first=Emil |date=8 January 2025 |title=Trumps søn beskyldte Danmark for racisme: 'Det har han sådan set ret i' |url=https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/trumps-soen-beskyldte-danmark-racisme-det-har-han-saadan-set-ret-i |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117163132/https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/trumps-soen-beskyldte-danmark-racisme-det-har-han-saadan-set-ret-i |archive-date=17 January 2025 |access-date=8 January 2025 |work=DR}}</ref> At a press conference the following day, Trump refused to rule out military or economic force order to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal;<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Trump ramps up threats to gain control of Greenland and Panama Canal |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzn48jwz2o |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> however, he ruled out military force in taking over Canada.<ref name=":0" /> On January 14, the Nelk Boys also visited Nuuk, handing out dollar bills to locals.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Gille |first1=Anna Danielsen |last2=Jørgensen |first2=Nicolai Jørgen |date=15 January 2025 |title=Jacobs 11-årige søn fik 100 dollar af Trumps YouTube-venner i Nuuk: 'Ikke i orden' |url=https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/jacobs-11-aarige-soen-fik-100-dollar-af-trumps-youtube-venner-i-nuuk-ikke-i-orden |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117161422/https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/jacobs-11-aarige-soen-fik-100-dollar-af-trumps-youtube-venner-i-nuuk-ikke-i-orden |archive-date=17 January 2025 |access-date=17 January 2025 |work=DR}}</ref> On January 16, the CEOs of major Danish companies Novo Nordisk, Vestas and Carlsberg among others were assembled for a crisis meeting in the Ministry of State to discuss the situation.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jørgensen |first=Steen A. |date=17 January 2025 |title=Politikere har været til nyt hastemøde om Trump og Grønland |url=https://jyllands-posten.dk/politik/ECE17817853/politikere-har-vaeret-til-nyt-hastemoede-om-trump-og-groenland/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117155746/https://jyllands-posten.dk/politik/ECE17817853/politikere-har-vaeret-til-nyt-hastemoede-om-trump-og-groenland/ |archive-date=17 January 2025 |access-date=17 January 2025 |work=Jyllands-Posten}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Mortensen |first=Mikkel Walentin |date=17 January 2025 |title=Mens verden holder vejret, forbereder danske virksomheder sig på Trumps trusler |url=https://nyheder.tv2.dk/business/2025-01-16-mens-verden-holder-vejret-forbereder-danske-virksomheder-sig-paa-trumps-trusler |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117160019/https://nyheder.tv2.dk/business/2025-01-16-mens-verden-holder-vejret-forbereder-danske-virksomheder-sig-paa-trumps-trusler |archive-date=17 January 2025 |access-date=17 January 2025 |work=TV 2}}</ref> On the subsequent day, former chief executive Friis Arne Petersen in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the situation as "historically unheard of", while Noa Redington, special adviser to former prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, compared the international pressure on Denmark that during the 2005 ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons controversy.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hansted |first=Morten |date=17 January 2025 |title=Danmark i "historisk uhørt" krise: – Alarmtilstanden går kun én vej, og det er op |url=https://nyheder.tv2.dk/2025-01-17-danmark-i-historisk-uhoert-krise-alarmtilstanden-gaar-kun-en-vej-og-det-er-op |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117155039/https://nyheder.tv2.dk/2025-01-17-danmark-i-historisk-uhoert-krise-alarmtilstanden-gaar-kun-en-vej-og-det-er-op |archive-date=17 January 2025 |access-date=17 January 2025 |work=TV 2}}</ref> Political commentator Henrik Qvortrup stated on the 17th that a mention of Greenland during Trump's inaugural address on January 20 would confirm Trump's seriousness, definitely making the situation the biggest international crisis for Denmark since World War II.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brisling |first=Alexander Søgaard |date=17 January 2025 |title=Qvortrup: Det kan ende i den værste krise for Danmark siden Anden Verdenskrig |url=https://www.bt.dk/politik/qvortrup-det-kan-ende-i-den-vaerste-krise-for-danmark-siden-anden-verdenskrig?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AVINqTx1NlPmc3GurfLVlYWqmU-15JqJGMl_dmdrBjDmOKBYwZ2k1306V40mNhBG_WE%3D&gaa_ts=678a8c27&gaa_sig=GvbDjYGw9XjNjgYgixcHP_t3pG8Y4ZL3utFu0d3gVpKYwU5sKViunvwKl4tmkcJpLBQ3vKK0QyeF8iSoBbmDxQ%3D%3D |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117164714/https://www.bt.dk/politik/qvortrup-det-kan-ende-i-den-vaerste-krise-for-danmark-siden-anden-verdenskrig?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AVINqTx1NlPmc3GurfLVlYWqmU-15JqJGMl_dmdrBjDmOKBYwZ2k1306V40mNhBG_WE%3D&gaa_ts=678a8c27&gaa_sig=GvbDjYGw9XjNjgYgixcHP_t3pG8Y4ZL3utFu0d3gVpKYwU5sKViunvwKl4tmkcJpLBQ3vKK0QyeF8iSoBbmDxQ%3D%3D |archive-date=17 January 2025 |access-date=17 January 2025 |work=Ekstra Bladet}}</ref>

==Ideologies== In the 19th century, theories of racial unity evolved such as Pan-Germanism, Pan-Slavism, and Pan-Turkism and the related Turanism. In each case, the dominant nation (respectively, Prussia; the Russian Empire;<ref>Orlando Figes, ''Crimea'', Penguin, 2011, p. 89.</ref> and the Ottoman Empire, especially under Enver Pasha) used those theories to legitimise their expansionist policies.

=== American ideology === {{See also|Manifest destiny|American frontier}} [[File:U.S. Territorial Acquisitions.png|thumb|250px|Historical territorial expansion of the United States]] In terms of explaining the results of American expansion, this goes back to the 19th century when Frederick Jackson Turner produced his Frontier Thesis which made the case for the decisive role of American expansionism.<ref>Richard Hofstadter, "Turner and the Frontier Myth". ''American Scholar'' 18#4 (1949), pp. 433–43. {{JSTOR|41206669}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=LaFeber |first=Walter |title=The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion 1860 – 1898 |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1963 |isbn=0-8014-9048-0 |location=United States of America |pages=95–112}}</ref> The free land enabled economic independence (as opposed to political dominance by landlords in Europe) and popular democracy in America.<ref>Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, "A Meaning for Turner's Frontier: Part I: Democracy in the Old Northwest". ''Political Science Quarterly'' 69#3 (1954), pp. 321–53. {{doi|10.2307/2145274}}.</ref> The success of expansionism led to a deep belief in the superiority of the "American way of life," as shown by how it attracted tens of millions of immigrants. Economic success was supplemented by the confidence that Anglo Saxons were simply better at governing a nation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Burnett |first1=Christina |title=Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution |last2=Marshall |first2=Burke |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2001 |isbn=1-283-06210-0 |location=Durham |page=26}}</ref>

Further expansion far beyond the American continent, in the Philippines, at the turn of the century which was driven by a paternalistic United States as McKinley's objectives, he declared in mid-1899, were fourfold: "Peace first, then a government of law and order honestly administered, full security to life, property, and occupation under the Stars and Stripes."<ref>{{Cite book |last=LaFeber |first=Walter |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781139015677/type/book |title=The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations |date=2013-04-08 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-01567-7 |edition=1 |doi=10.1017/cbo9781139015677}}</ref> However, the Philippines government was shared with the local political elite, which called for independence. In Washington Democrats rejected McKinley-style expansionism and in 1934 set the Philippines on the path to independence, which was achieved in 1946.<ref>Dean Kotlowski, "Independence or Not? Paul V. McNutt, Manuel L. Quezon, and the Re-examination of Philippine Independence, 1937–9" ''International History Review'' 32#3 (2010), pp. 501–531 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25762090 online].</ref>

==In popular culture==

George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'' is a fictional depiction, based on Soviet Union under Stalin, of a new elite seizing power, establishing new rules and hierarchies, and expanding economically while they compromise their ideals. Robert Erskine Childers's novel ''The Riddle of the Sands'' portrays the threatening nature of the German Empire. Elspeth Huxley's novel ''Red Strangers'' shows the effects on local culture of colonial expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa. Philip K. Dick's novel ''The Man in the High Castle'' portrays a fictional version of the United States, which has been divided between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. The portrayal is also shown in the television adaptation of the book.

==References== {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * Abernethy, David B. ''The dynamics of global dominance: European overseas empires, 1415–1980'' (Yale University Press, 2000). * Darwin, John. ''After Tamerlane: the global history of empire since 1405'' ( Bloomsbury, 2008). * Edwards, Zophia, and Julian Go. "The Forces of Imperialism: Internalist and Global Explanations of the Anglo-European Empires, 1750–1960". ''Sociological Quarterly'' 60.4 (2019): 628–653. * MacKenzie, John M. "Empires in world history: characteristics, concepts, and consequences". in ''The Encyclopedia of Empire'' (2016): 1–25. * Wade, Geoff, ed. ''Asian Expansions: The Historical Experiences of Polity Expansion in Asia'' (Routledge, 2014). * Wesseling, Hendrik. ''The European Colonial Empires: 1815–1919'' (Routledge, 2015).

Category:Annexation Category:Imperialism Category:Military occupation Category:Political history Category:Political theories Category:Rises to prominence