FOUNDATIONS
Conquest and Division: War and Empire in Asia and the Pacific
Have US wars forced Asian American and Pacific Islander communities to become who they are, or have these communities defined themselves on their own terms?
Chapter objectives
- Learn about the driving economic, political and cultural forces that created the US Empire and its wars in the Pacific Rim
- Understand the effects of the United States’ global empire in the late-nineteenth century
- Explore the history of Asian American and Pacific Islander people and its inseparable connection to Western empire building and colonization
Ranging from the French and Indian (1754–1763) and Revolutionary Wars (1775–1783) in the eighteenth century to the Two Gulf Wars (1990–1991, 2003–2011) of the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries, wars have played a central part in the making and maintaining of the United States. This chapter investigates the history of the varied attempts and projects to build a US empire, and its relationship to wars in Asia and the Pacific regions. In addition to impacting the Indigenous peoples of these lands, US wars and colonization also created new migration patterns from Asia and the Pacific and, ultimately, to the United States. This chapter also examines the impact of US Cold War policies in Asia, particularly through the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Both wars marked a new age of empire building in the twentieth century that were fought to maintain US global influence. The history of war extends through the twenty-first century to the Middle East. These wars affected the lived realities of Asians, Middle Easterners, and Pacific Islanders there and in the US.
Modules in this chapter
Introduction: The Many Faces of Empire
Conquest of the Pacific
World War II and the US Empire
Korean War
Vietnam War
American Wars in the SWANA Region
Introduction: The Many Faces of Empire
Conquest of the Pacific
World War II and the US Empire
Korean War
Vietnam War
American Wars in the SWANA Region
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