How does American imperialism differ from European imperialism?

Answer 1

Japanese Imperialism was largely dictated by the wish to control access to commodities and raw materials that Japan itself did not possess. Japan's occupation of the countries it occupied was charactarized by much random cruelty towards the indigenous peoples and a very strong military presence and oppression. Local people were often put to work and treated like slaves.

European imperialism (that is, the period between 1880 and 1960) in almost all cases took the form of a minimal presence of "white" officials (although they had the top jobs) , the overwhelming majority of officials, police and army personnel and public servants being recruited from the local population. Only if a colony's location gave it a global or regional strategic importance there might be troops from the motherland stationed there, who were usually encouraged to keep to themselves.

Contrary to common perceptions, the 'race for colonies' was largely dictated by considerations of status and power vis-a-vis other European powers and not dictated by the wish to control access to raw materials. At the time (around 1880) demand for them was only a tiny fraction of that of today anyway.

Slavery did play a part in European imperialism, but completely different from what you might think. Slavery had been abolished by all European countries by 1860 at the latest, but it still was everywhere in Africa and Asia by the end of the century. In several countries of Africa and Asia a third of the population consisted of slaves, held by their countrymen. One of the first actions after colonizing a country at the end of the 1800's usually was abolishing local slave holding and slave trade.

Answer 2

U.S. imperialism differs from European imperialism in almost every way. ... of Nationalist Expansionism in American History (Baltimore, 1935).