Editing Decolonization (section)

==== United States ====
{{Main|American imperialism|Timeline of United States military operations}}

A union of former colonies itself, the United States approached imperialism differently from the other Powers. Much of its energy and rapidly expanding population was directed westward across the North American continent against English and French claims,  the [[Spanish Empire]] and Mexico. The [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] were sent to [[Indian reservation|reservations]], often unwillingly. With support from Britain, its [[Monroe Doctrine]] reserved the Americas as its sphere of interest, prohibiting other states (particularly Spain) from recolonizing the newly independent polities of [[Latin America]]. However, France, taking advantage of the American government's distraction during the Civil War, intervened militarily in Mexico and set up a French-protected monarchy. Spain took the step to [[Spanish occupation of the Dominican Republic|occupy the Dominican Republic and restore colonial rule]]. The Union victory in the Civil War in 1865 forced both France and Spain to accede to American demands to evacuate those two countries. America's only African colony, [[Liberia]], was formed privately and achieved independence early; Washington unofficially protected it. By 1900, the U.S. advocated an [[Open Door Policy]] and opposed the direct division of China.<ref>Thomas A, Bailey, ''A diplomatic history of the American people'' (1969) [https://archive.org/details/diplomatichistor00bail_0 online free]</ref>

[[File:Manuel L. Quezon (November 1942).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Manuel L. Quezón]], the first president of the [[Commonwealth of the Philippines]] (from 1935 to 1944)]]
[[File:TTPI-locatormap.png|thumb|[[Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands]] in [[Micronesia]] administered by the United States from 1947 to 1986]]
After 1898 direct intervention expanded in Latin America. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 and annexed Hawaii in 1898. Following the [[Spanish–American War]] in 1898, the US added most of Spain's remaining colonies: [[Puerto Rico]], [[Philippines]], and [[Guam]]. Deciding not to annex Cuba outright, the U.S. established it as a [[client state]] with obligations including the perpetual lease of [[Guantánamo Bay]] to the U.S. Navy. The attempt of the first governor to void the island's constitution and remain in power past the end of his term provoked a rebellion that provoked a reoccupation between 1906 and 1909, but this was again followed by devolution. Similarly, the [[McKinley administration]], despite prosecuting the [[Philippine–American War]] against a [[First Republic of the Philippines|native republic]], set out that the [[Territories of the United States#Former unincorporated territories of the United States (incomplete)|Territory of the Philippine Islands]] was eventually granted independence.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wong |first=Kwok Chu |title=The Jones Bills 1912–16: A Reappraisal of Filipino Views on Independence |journal=[[Journal of Southeast Asian Studies]] |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=252–269 |year=1982 |doi=10.1017/S0022463400008687|s2cid=162468431 }}</ref> In 1917, the U.S. purchased the [[Danish West Indies]] (later renamed the [[US Virgin Islands]]) from [[Denmark]] and Puerto Ricans became full U.S. citizens that same year.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Sanford |last1=Levinson |first2=Bartholomew H. |last2=Sparrow |year=2005 |title=The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion: 1803–1898 |location=New York |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield |pages=166, 178 |quote=U.S. citizenship was extended to residents of Puerto Rico by virtue of the Jones Act, chap. 190, 39 Stat. 951 (1971) (codified at 48 U.S.C. § 731 (1987)) |isbn=978-0-7425-4983-8 }}</ref> The US government declared Puerto Rico the territory was no longer a colony and stopped transmitting information about it to the United Nations Decolonization Committee.<ref>{{cite web | title=Decolonization Committee Calls on United States to Expedite Process for Puerto Rich Self-determination | website=Welcome to the United Nations | date=2003-06-09 | url=https://www.un.org/press/en/2003/gacol3085.doc.htm | access-date=2021-01-17|quote=The United States had used its exempt status from the transmission of information under Article 73 e of the United Nations Charter as a loophole to commit human rights violations in Puerto Rico and its territories.}}</ref> As a result, the [[UN General Assembly Resolution 748|UN General Assembly]] removed Puerto Rico from the [[United Nations list of non-self-governing territories|U.N. list of non-self-governing territories]]. Four referendums showed little support for independence, but much interest in statehood such as Hawaii and Alaska received in 1959.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1080/08263663.2017.1323615|title = Puerto Rico, the 51st state: The implications of statehood on culture and language|journal = Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies |volume = 42|issue = 2|pages = 165–180|year = 2017|last1 = Torres|first1 = Kelly M.|s2cid = 157682270}}</ref>

The Monroe Doctrine was expanded by the [[Roosevelt Corollary]] in 1904, providing that the United States had a right and obligation to intervene "in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence" that a nation in the Western Hemisphere became vulnerable to European control. In practice, this meant that the United States was led to act as a collections agent for European creditors by administering customs duties in the [[Dominican Republic]] (1905–1941), [[Haiti]] (1915–1934), and elsewhere. The intrusiveness and bad relations this engendered were somewhat checked by the [[Clark Memorandum]] and renounced by President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s "[[Good Neighbor Policy]]".

The [[Fourteen Points]] were preconditions addressed by President [[Woodrow Wilson]] to the European powers at the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|Paris Peace Conference]] following [[World War I]].  In allowing allies France and Britain the former colonial possessions of the German and Ottoman Empires, the US demanded of them submission to the [[League of Nations mandate]], in calling for ''V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty '''the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight''' with the equitable government whose title is to be determined.'' See also point XII.

After [[World War II]], the U.S. poured tens of billions of dollars into the [[Marshall Plan]], and other grants and loans to Europe and Asia to rebuild the world economy. At the same time American military bases were established around the world and direct and indirect interventions continued in [[Korean War|Korea]], [[Vietnam War|Indochina]], Latin America (''inter alia'', the [[Dominican Civil War|1965 occupation of the Dominican Republic]]), Africa, and the Middle East to oppose Communist movements and insurgencies. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States has been far less active in the Americas, but invaded [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|Afghanistan]] and [[Iraq War|Iraq]] following the [[September 11 attacks]] in 2001, establishing army and air bases in [[Central Asia]].