So simple has been the process of empire building for the United States; so natural have been the stages by which the American Empire has been evolved; so little have the changes disturbed the routine of normal life that the American people are, for the most part, unaware of the imperial position of their country. They still feel, think and talk as if the United States were a tiny corner, fenced off from the rest of the world to which it owed nothing and from which it expected nothing.
The American Empire has been built, as were the palaces of Aladdin, in a night. The morning is dawning, and the early risers who were not even awakened from their slumbers by the sound of hammer and engine, are beginning to rub their eyes, and to ask one another what is the meaning of this apparition, and whether it is real.
4. The Will to Power
The forces of America are the forces of Empire,—the geography, the economic organization, the racial qualities—all press in the direction of imperialism. There is logic behind the two centuries of conquest in which the American people have been engaged; there is logic in the rise of the plutocracy. Now it remains for the rulers of America to accept the implications of imperialism,—to thrill with the will to power; to recognize and strengthen imperial purpose; to sell imperialism to the American people—in other words to follow the call of manifest destiny and conquer the earth.
The will to power is very old and very strong. Economic and social necessity on the one hand, and the driving pressure of human ambition and the love of domination on the other, have given it a front place in human affairs. The empires of the past were driven into being by this ardent force. As far back as history bears a record, one nation or tribe has made war on its more fortunately situated neighbor; one leader has made cause against his fellow ruler. The Egyptians and Carthaginians have conquered in Africa; the Persians, Assyrians and Babylonians conquered in Asia; the Macedonians, Greeks, Romans, Spanish, Dutch, French, and British built their empires on one or more of the five continents. Conqueror has succeeded conqueror, empire has followed empire. Spoils, domination, world power, have been the objects of their campaigns.
Each great nation grew from small beginnings. Each arose from some simple form of tribal or clan organization—more or less democratic in its structure; containing within itself a unified life and a simple folk philosophy.
From such plain beginnings empires have developed. The peasants, tending their fertile gardens along the borders of the Nile; the vine dressers of Italy, the husbandmen and craftsmen of France and the yeomen of Merry England had no desire to subjugate the world. If tradition speaks truth, they were slow to take upon themselves anything more than the defense of their own hearthstones. It was not until the traders sailed across the seas; not until stories were brought to them of the vast spoil to be had, without work, in other lands, that the peasants and craftsmen consented to undertake the task of conquest, subjugation and empire building.
The plain people do not feel the will to power. They know only the necessities of self-defense. It is in the ambitions of the leisure classes that the demands of conquest have their origin. It is among them that men dream of world empire.[50]
The plain people of the United States have no will to power at the present time. They are only asking to be let alone, in order that they may go their several ways in peace. They are babes in the world of international politics. For generations they have been separated by a great gulf of indifference from the remainder of the human race, and they crave the continuance of this isolation because it gives them a chance to engage, unmolested, in the ordinary pursuits of life.