What were impacts of American imperialism?

Answer 1

A problem with attempting to answer this question is that the word "Imperialism" is often misused by those seeking to criticize the United States. Properly, an imperialist state seeks to gain and hold additional territory. The United States has not been an imperialist nation since shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. In the time since then, the United States has still seized territory, but with the expectation of eventually returning it.

One obvious effect of United States imperialism is that the United States stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, and further includes Hawaii, Guam, and a few other islands. And, within all this territory, there have been virtually no tariff barriers, which has been a significant contributor to American per capita wealth. On the other hand, to the extent that this expansion was indeed imperialistic, it often came at the expense of aboriginal peoples, and left America with the burden of a legacy of oppression, similar in principle to the legacy of slavery, and often indeed intertangled with that legacy.

Some might feel that the United States is simply too bigfor its own well-being, that it would work better as smaller, friendly but separate federations.

The expansion fed into the mythologies of neighboring nations. Canada forgets that it was part of the greatest imperialist power, the British Empire, and reimagines its history as one of a smaller population threatened by an imperialist United States. Mexico forgets that it was ruled by Santa Ana, and imagines the United States as having stolen the northern parts of Mexico from a legitimate, Hispanic sovereign.

The fact that the United States was once imperialistic has also made it easier for people to become convinced that it remains imperialistic, and this in turn gave the Soviet Union and gives the PRC cover for their bona fide imperialism, and more generally helps various parties to effect destructive programmes in the name of anti-imperialism.