State, Market and Colonization: Notes on Empire in Nineteenth-Century U.S. History

Abstract

The essay offers a critical overview of recent historiographies on the nineteenth-century United States that allows on the one hand to grasp the imperial and colonial character of U.S. nineteenth-century territorial expansion, on the other hand, it accounts for nineteenth-century U.S. industrial growth and market building both as a quest for independence on the world market and as an expansive imperial process. In this respect, an understanding of colonization and industry as the two driving forces of nineteenth-century U.S. history can prove crucial for a comprehensive interpretation of Friedrich List's and Henry Charles Carey's national project for capitalist development.