The U.S. is a colonial power

In a January 2009 interview, President Obama confirmed that the United States “was the only Western power with no colonial legacy.” Stuart Whatley, a contributing editor for the Huffington Post, wrote “America is not a colonial power” in an unfortunately named article in 2010.

What do I think

Both President Barack Obama and Stuart Wheatley were entirely mistaken in believing that the United States lacks a colonial legacy, either in the past or at the present time. Our history is a prime example of how facts and truths can be spun, reinterpreted, and ultimately morphed into widely accepted narratives. While school textbooks and our national discourse often present a sanitized version of events, the advent of artificial intelligence offers a quick and simple tool to explore multiple perspectives. Curious about this dynamic, I asked ChatGPT to analyze whether the President's 2009 statement truly reflected historical reality.

It said:

“Obama's statement highlights America's self-image as a nation born from anti-colonial struggle. However, it overlooks the nation's own history of expansionism and imperial actions that resemble colonialism, particularly toward Indigenous peoples and overseas territories. While not a colonial power in the traditional European sense, the U.S. has engaged in actions that challenge a simple "non-colonial" narrative.” (11/29/2024, GPT-4o mini). 

This is the first of a multi-part blog post. Today, I start with the broader implications of colonialism and imperialism, apply them to recent examples, and ponder over the ramifications. I invite you to opine in the comments or through a private message.

Colonialism runs through my veins. I am a third-generation Kenyan; my parents were born in Kenya during its time as a British colony. My grandparents were born in India, also under British rule. My kids, by contrast, were born in Virginia—long after its days as a British colony. I now live in Washington State, an area shaped by U.S. colonization. Through work, personal interests like Model United Nations, and travel, I’ve touched the histories of countries deeply scarred by colonialism, including South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Zimbabwe. 

You may disagree when I claim that the U.S. colonized Haiti, Afghanistan, and Iraq. You may ask: what form of governance or control did we exert over three decades in Haiti? In 1915 we invaded and controlled the government, military, and finances. In 1930 we began turning over administrative control, and in 1947 we turned over financial control.

You may accuse me of conflating colonialism and imperialism. I think they are the same when  the foreign power exerts economic, military, or other coercive power over the local population, exploits them and their resources, and establishes some form of governance structures or controls.

I think the only real difference is whether or not an individual intends to settle long-term under the foreign power’s authority. I distinguish between:

• A person, backed by the foreign power, wants to reside permanently—Oregon Trail, South Africa Boers, Kenyan White Highland farmers.

• A permanent position established by a foreign power—Nairobi has hundreds of U.S. Government employees with their families in Nairobi while our military has thousands of employees, contractors, and families living in or near bases such as Bahrain and Korea.

By this distinction, I think I do not categorize the US presence in Kenya or Bahrain today as colonialism. But wait. What about the long-term settlement of one of the Chagossian Islands in the Indian Ocean? Perhaps you have heard of Diego Garcia? 

“Between 1968 and 1973, the United States and Britain, the latter the colonial administrator, forcibly removed the indigenous inhabitants of the islands, the Chagossians. Most of the two thousand deportees ended up more than a thousand miles away in Mauritius and the Seychelles, where they were thrown into lives of poverty and forgotten. The purpose of this expulsion was to create a major US military base on one of the Chagossian islands, Diego Garcia.” (Dunbar-Ortiz, 2014). 

The lease, which ends in 2036, is reviving a sordid history and controversy (BBC, 2024). Does this differ from the foreign power’s plans to exit India, Kenya, Haiti, or Iraq? What is or is not colonialism? 

Why should you care: 

History is “his-story” and is written by the winners. Over time, when terms become offensive, we simply make them more palatable. Today, we refer to colonies as territories— Guam and Puerto Rico (U.S. territories); Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Indian territories); Canary Islands (Spanish territories); and Northern Ireland (British territory). Text books and national narratives are simply the truth that we are meant to believe. Don’t believe them as truth. I challenge you to comment on what you think about our legacy as a colonial power or the differences between imperialism and colonialism. 

References:

• Stuart Whatley, “Civilizing Afghanistan while we decivilize ourselves”, Huffington Post, July 3, 2010 and updated June 12, 2013. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/civilizing-afghanistan-wh_b_634913 
• https://installations.militaryonesource.mil/ example 9,000 DOD military and civilians in Bahrain
  State Department Inspection of US Embassy in Nairobi, https://www.stateoig.gov/uploads/report/report_pdf_file/isp-i-12-38a_1.pdf, 2012 reporting 400+ Americans over 13+ agencies. 
• “An Indigenous People’s History of the United States”, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Beacon Press, Boston, 2014. E76.8 D.86 2014.
• "What I found on the secretive tropical island they didn't want you to see", Alice Cuddy, BBC News, September 29, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckdg7jjlx2go