1 Empire of the Setting Sun: American Westward Expansion and China, Past and Present Thomas Cole - Desolation. Oil on canvas, 1836, 39 ½ × 63 ½ in. From The Course of Empire series. Stuart Rollo The University of Sydney Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences A thesis submitted to fulfil requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2 This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. Stuart Rollo 3/2/2021 3 Acknowledgments I wish to extend my warmest and most sincere thanks to Professor John Keane for his attentive, thoughtful, and enlightening supervision throughout the composition of this thesis. John has been a true mentor and friend. His support has extended far beyond what is standard, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have studied under his guidance. In an academy that increasingly runs along technocratic and managerial lines, John is a shining example of the virtues of deep wisdom, expansive inquiry, and the persistent striving to conceptualise and understand what is right. I would also like to thank two other academic mentors and friends, Professor Roy MacLeod and Associate Professor Tess Lea, with whom I worked prior to undertaking doctoral studies. I hope that the example of scholarly rigour that Roy set during our time working together rubbed off on me in some small way. He was also kind enough to offer comments on this thesis during the draft stage, for which I am very grateful. Working with Tess demonstrated to me the strengths of interdisciplinary approaches to research, which continues to shape and enrich my work. In her work and life Tess is a rising tide of generosity of spirit that lifts all around her. I would like to thank my family, friends, and loved ones who have enlivened me with their companionship, understanding, and support through what has been, at times, a difficult and taxing process. Undertaking postgraduate research together with many colleagues at the university brought friendship, laughter, new ideas, and a sense of solidarity to a process that can otherwise feel very alienating. For this I am hugely grateful. The love, friendship, and support of those outside of the university sustained me with a sense of perspective and the value of everyday real life that exists outside of sitting at a computer, reading, and writing. The importance of which cannot be overstated. Finally, I would like to thank all of the scholars, living and departed, whose work I had the pleasure of immersing myself in during the composition of this thesis. The great privilege of doctoral studies lies in the time one is able to spend sitting with so much accumulated knowledge and wisdom. It is a humbling experience. 4 Abstract This thesis examines the historical origins and current trajectory of American empire in the Asia- Pacific region, with a particular focus on its westward expansion and entanglement with China. The principal argument is that American foreign and strategic policy in the Asia-Pacific region has always been shaped by broader economic and political concerns centred on China, and that China’s current rise is the most serious challenge to the structure of American empire to date. The thesis uses interdisciplinary methods to investigate the economic, governmental, and geostrategic factors that have propelled American imperial expansionism, its global triumphs and more recent decline. It is written in three sections. The first traces the development of American empire building from the pre-independence period to the eve of the First World War. It is argued that the new empire was primarily driven by commercial interests, oriented towards the China market, and pursued through consistent westward expansion. Section two investigates the shifts in global power, resource politics, and international economic structures that saw the United States transition from one of several imperial powers to the world’s sole superpower over the course of the 20th Century. The final section charts the decline of American empire since its brief period of unipolarity in the 1990s, and explains the new pressures and challenges posed by the rise of China. It concludes with a reflection on the classic problem of how empires manage their decline. Three possible futures of the American empire are sketched: the continued pursuit of liberal empire, with less relative American wealth, influence, and power undergirding it, and increased geopolitical opposition and domestic social and political contradictions; the conversion of the declining empire into an exploitative hegemony, attempting to shore up America’s global dominance, largely dependent on military means, but with fewer resources, emboldened opponents, and declining support among its allies; or a new effort to craft a post-imperial foreign policy, embedded within the economic realities of the 21st century, that works to repair the damaged fabric of American social and political life, and provides a long-term stable foundation for national security and the wellbeing of its citizens. 5 Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... 3 Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 7 Theorising Empire ............................................................................................................................. 11 Part One: Westward Expansion and the Commercial Origins of Empire........................................ 17 Chapter One – The Long March Westward and Native Dispossession........................................... 17 Technology, Industrialism, and Expansion ........................................................................................ 23 Chapter Two – The China Focus in Westward Expansion.............................................................. 26 Jackal Diplomacy and the China Trade ............................................................................................. 26 Sectional Interests Unite for Expansion ............................................................................................ 30 Civil Wars in the United States and China, and the Formation of the ‘Asia Threat’ Discourse ........ 36 The American Civil War and Political Consolidation for Expansionism ........................................ 41 Chapter Three – A Colonial Empire ............................................................................................. 46 Trade, Capital Investment, and Imperialism ..................................................................................... 46 The Enclosure of the Continent and the Importance of Seapower on the New Frontier. ............... 49 Theorising Empire and the Splendid Little War ............................................................................ 52 The Open Door: Foreign Policy for a New American Century .......................................................... 57 Part Two: Ascending Power to Unipolarity, 1914-1991 ................................................................ 61 Chapter Four: The Thirty Years Crisis .......................................................................................... 61 Industrial Mobilisation and Finance.................................................................................................. 62 Strategic Resources, Asia, and World Power .................................................................................... 65 Haves, Have Nots, and the Japan Threat in the Pacific ..................................................................... 67 Investment, Resources, and the Second World War ........................................................................ 70 A Geopolitical Theory for American Empire ..................................................................................... 74 Chapter Five: American Hegemony ............................................................................................. 77 Planning the Postwar American Empire ........................................................................................... 77 The American Lake ............................................................................................................................ 82 Global Market, Global Order, and Asia ............................................................................................. 88 An American-led Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere ............................................................................... 92 Chapter Six: War with Asia, Recession, and Resurgence .............................................................. 94 War on the Mainland ........................................................................................................................ 94 Korea and Vietnam ....................................................................................................................... 95 Rapprochement and a Multipolar Region....................................................................................... 100 6 Recession, Resources,