Settler colonialism fed into U.S. imperialism as it provided a framework for controlling territories and their Native populations outside the mainland U.S. In general (in both cases) the United States imposed its ways on Native populations, often suppressing Native cultural and political ways. For example, in the U.S. with settler colonialism, Native children were forced into boarding schools to assimilate to Euro-American culture. Similar things happened in Hawaii, where certain aspects of Hawaiian culture were banned, such as their Native language and Hula dances.1 The U.S. also imposed its political ways on Native Americans and other territories. In the United States, Euro-American ways of land ownership and boundaries were imposed on Native Americans, ignoring their traditional practices of sovereignty and completely taking their sovereignty away. The Canadian and Mexico borders cut right through some Native communities, making it extremely difficult to travel. In Monday’s class, we talked about how a nation’s sovereignty was reinforced by having definitive borders. The creation of these borders themselves was another way that Native sovereignty was ignored. In Hawaii, laws and political systems were also dismantled. For example, land ownership systems in Hawaii were also changed and the United States imposed their own constitution on Hawaii. 2
I feel that imperialism is more about economic control over a territory and getting resources, but this also happened with settler colonialism. In the U.S., Native reservations were left with poor soil for farming, meaning that white settlers got the land with good soil to farm on. Though most of the bison was wasted during the massacre, parts were still sold as goods. The discovery of gold was also one of the pushing factors of white settlement and Native displacement. In the U.S., Native lands were taken for settlement and resources. National Parks could be thought of as an extension of this, as the parks themselves are a resource for profit through tourism. In order to establish these parks, Native communities were left with little to no rights to be on that land. Though these parks were created with an incentive towards preserving nature, I think it is likely that there was also a monetary incentive. A lot of these parks still do little to acknowledge the displacement of Native Americans.
In Hawaii, resources were also a driving factor in the illegal takeover of Hawaii and annexation. In Hawaii, Euro-Americans owned sugar plantations. Even before the annexation, a free-trade agreement was made between Hawaii and the U.S. to eliminate taxes for the selling of sugar.3 One of the reasons that the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown was sugar as if Hawaii was annexed, then there wouldn’t be a tariff on sugar imports. Hawaii also became an important strategic location due to the Spanish-American war, which was another factor in the U.S. decision to annex it.4