I think it shakes out much more evenly if you count the westward expansion against Native American polities as imperialism. Don’t forget taking part of Mexico, opening Japan and attempting to open Korea at gunpoint, engaging in ‘unequal treaties’ with China, annexing Puerto Rico and the Philippines, occupying Haiti, etc. And the whole Cold War we engaged in a similar level of hegemonic imperialism as the USSR did, even if we were more tolerant of democracies on ‘our side’.
I love this stupid-ass country more than most (and more than I should honestly), and I go to bat for arguing against American Diabolism regularly, but we definitely have a long list of skeletons in our closets.
I think it shakes out much more evenly if you count the westward expansion against Native American polities as imperialism. Don’t forget taking part of Mexico, opening Japan and attempting to open Korea at gunpoint, engaging in ‘unequal treaties’ with China, annexing Puerto Rico and the Philippines, occupying Haiti, etc. And the whole Cold War we engaged in a similar level of hegemonic imperialism as the USSR did, even if we were more tolerant of democracies on ‘our side’.
I love this stupid-ass country more than most (and more than I should honestly), and I go to bat for arguing against American Diabolism regularly, but we definitely have a long list of skeletons in our closets.