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Article: The American way of empire.(RECONSIDERATIONS)
- Article from:
- World Policy Journal
- Article date:
- March 22, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 World Policy Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In 1884-85 representatives of the major European powers met in Berlin. The topic was empire. Great Britain, France, and Germany agreed on ground rules for their great game. They negotiated a blueprint for carving up Africa among themselves, an agreement that, along with new technologies of violence, medicine, and communication, accelerated their imperial expansion and tightened control over their colonies. Between the Berlin meetings and the world war, nearly a quarter million square miles were added each year to empires worldwide.
The United States was invited to Berlin (probably because of its interest in Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society in ...