The Price of Empire
American Entrepreneurs and the Origins of America's First Pacific Empire

This book argues that small business drove American Pacific imperialism, developing a novel account of the origins of American imperialism.

Miles M. Evers (Author), Eric Grynaviski (Author)

9781009396370, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 April 2024

214 pages
22.8 x 15 x 1.2 cm, 0.32 kg

'… well researched, clearly articulated and convincing in its analysis.' Jeremy Kuzmarov, International Affairs

The United States was an upside-down British Empire. It had an agrarian economy, few large investors, and no territorial holdings outside of North America. However, decades before the Spanish-American War, the United States quietly began to establish an empire across thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean. While conventional wisdom suggests that large interests – the military and major business interests – drove American imperialism, The Price of Empire argues that early American imperialism was driven by small entrepreneurs. When commodity prices boomed, these small entrepreneurs took risks, racing ahead of the American state. Yet when profits were threatened, they clamoured for the US government to follow them into the Pacific. Through novel, intriguing stories of American small businessmen, this book shows how American entrepreneurs manipulated the United States into pursuing imperial projects in the Pacific. It explores their travels abroad and highlights the consequences of contemporary struggles for justice in the Pacific.

Introduction
1. One man and no dog: an entrepreneurial theory of American Pacific imperialism
2. Birds and bases: American expansion under the Guano Act
3. Germans and coconuts: American Imperialism in Samoa
4. Sugar and paradise: American Imperialism in Hawaii
5. Slavers and gin runners: explaining Pacific non-expansion
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS]