Colonization: ‘Peopling’ the Empire

Abstract

Early American plans for a ‘western empire’ and Nazi plans for an ‘eastern empire’ were both predicated on ‘peopling’ the empire with settler colonists and ‘removing’ indigenous peoples who stood in the way of their national expansionist projects. In both cases, legacies of prior settlement episodes provided useful legacies and convenient justifications for future ‘settlement’ schemes. In the ‘American West’ and the ‘Nazi East’, political leaders envisaged a ‘people’s empire’ that would benefit ‘ordinary’ citizens — as well as, of course, the political elites — which, in turn, would provide economic security for the nation-state. In both cases, the settlers’ ‘pursuit of happiness’ was to be achieved at the expense of ‘inferior’ peoples who would be required to ‘disappear’ from the new settler ‘living space’. Political leaders, in both Early America and Nazi Germany, developed colonization plans that outlined general settlement goals in ‘the West’ and ‘the East’. And, finally, both nation-states shared a similar settlement model, based on settler self-interest in striving for prosperity and material security for themselves and their children.KeywordsIndian LandSettler ColonistWhite SettlerTerritorial ExpansionAmerican ColonizationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.