War, Imperialism, and Colonies: a View of the US Press

Abstract

Questions about the perspectives of the European empires colonial system after the Great War, forms and ways of its transition into postcolonial age, applicability of the colonial powers’ experience to the US foreign policy, were very popular and quite debating for the American public opinion during and after the end of the World War I. Research of colonial system cannot be complete without studying the press of the powers, which signed the Versailles Treaty. In order to give a detailed analysis of international relationships in the context of the global transformations from the American point of view relevant newspaper articles published after the Great War should be analyzed. The results have shown changes of priorities in schemes of colonial system transformation as it was viewed in American public discourse during 1919—1922. Woodrow Wilson’s plan for the colonial powers dismantle was gradually replaced by the less radical plans, which presupposed the use of the colonial experience in the US foreign policy. Materials of the American press for the 1919—1922 reveals that there was a search of the most effective and optimum strategy of the relations not just with the European empires, but also with their dependent territories. Analysis of American press reveals its steady interest in negative and positive experience of colonial empires in search of the “lessons of history”. In 1919—1922 most prominent journalists were focused on Europe, which was represented as the cornerstone for the US foreign policy by the White House, the US State Department, and the media. And we can clearly see another factor affecting approaches to the colonial issue in American press. It was the Soviet Russia’s attention and support to the national liberation movements in Asia and Africa. The “Red Menace” had become one of the factors that forced American media to redefine the colonial issue in light of the new world order which had been created after the end of the Great War on the base of the Versailles Treaty.