When you hear the title Empire, what do you think of? Do you think of the 1930’s and 40’s Japan or the British Global Empire? You would never think of the United States, would you? Well yes, the United States did go through a span of imperialistic foreign policies, but we never gained that much out of it, right? What if I asked you if the United States became an Empire after World War II? Would you agree? This man, pictured to the right would say so. Alexandre Kojeve was a French philosopher before, throughout, and majorly after World War II. After the end of the war, he wrote a theory to the French government, titled Outline of a Doctrine Of French Policy, on what he thought would eventually happen. It’s safe to say that the clear divide in international power was understood.
Kojeve clearly identified who was going to be controlling the tow side, the Russians and the Americans. He first identifies them as two separate “ideas.” The Americans being the “Anglo-Saxon Empire” and the USSR being the “Slavo-Soviet Empire.” Yes, the common person would see the USSR as being an “empire” during this time since they continued to occupy every Eastern European country that they came through, but America didn’t. America did not control the governments of the countries that they liberated from the Germans. They only controlled a portion of Germany. Or did they?
Even if America kept the power in the countries’ peoples’ hands, they still had a huge part in their governments, right? Kojeve argues that in order for France to stay afloat as a world power, isolation would be needed. He sees the upcoming battle between America and the USSR and he urges the French government to stay out of it. But he also realizes that that cannot happen. The French have to buy into this new American system in order for Europe to stay together. He sees that the biggest problem is Germany and that it needs to be taken care of soon. If Germany were to fall into the USSR’s hands, then all of Europe would fall suit (basically the domino theory confirmed by a non-American.) So all of this reconstruction has to come from someone. In comes America.
The Marshal Plan has been seen as a huge explosion of food and building materials across all of Europe, or at least in some people’s eyes. But the plan itself was focused on something else. Instead of just giving Europe raw materials and letting them build stuff, America wanted to build up their system. America believed that if they built something from the ground up, then other things would come in time. So America had the idea of creating a consumer economy for Europe. This is where the idea of an Empire comes in. America had a plan to raise the standard of living by building up the lower things: industries, factories, railways, etc. Eventually, goods would begin to be produced and so would come spending. Then everything would start to flow. Now America has implemented their capitalist plan into the West, conflicting the East’s more Socialist approach. Thus here lies the battle of two giants. The plan did not go very fast. Europeans wanted it faster and easier. They wanted a great standard of living, not what was needed. But Americans had to constantly focus on patience with the Europeans. They even made film after film on explaining the process to Europeans, like Story of Koula. But at the end of the day, Western Europe bought into the system. Kojeve even predicted that Western Germany, America’s biggest focus, would fall to the Capitalist side rather than the Soviet side. America had to get Europe on it’s feet by giving the crutches needed instead of picking them up. They couldn’t just fix the scares themselves, but needed to give them the first aid kit. In the long run, it all worked out. Economies got back on their feet and eventually people began to call themselves consumers. Did America’s actions in this seem Imperialistic? In some ways, yes, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. America knew what needed to be done to preserve peace and freedom in Europe, and they did it.
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I think it is a good point that you highlighted that to the common man America and the Soviet Union could be seen as Empires. I also liked how in-depth you went while explaining the role of the Marshal Plan and how that could be seen as a form of Imperialism. Could the Marshal Plan also be seen as a form of propaganda?
Your introduction of the material was awesome; I really enjoyed reading your post! I also agree with your assessment that America’s actions could be seen as imperialistic; however, I wonder how much this was ‘necessary.’ It easy for Americans, I think, to see our actions and feel justified for stopping the spread of communism and promoting democratic ideals–but sometimes I wonder, how ‘pure’ and ‘democratic’ is the capitalist system after all with so many falling victim to its shortcomings as a system? Just a thought! Again, I really like your blog post, Kendall!
This is an incredible post! I agree with Ashleigh, the introduction really grabbed me. I would have never thought about America as an Empire. I have been told why Empires came about in school, but I never applied that same logic to America. When we gave money to Europe through the Marshall Plan, we did not tell the countries exactly what to spend the money on, but we did, however, send the money with a general idea of what it would be used for. Mainly, we knew it would be spent on building up European factories, which in turn would aid America’s economy. Were we then using Europe for our own gain, and through that idea were we acting as an imperial power, manipulating another continent into what we as a country deem most useful?
This is very well-written. I like how you asked questions to the audience frequently to get them thinking. I think that you made great points about the role America played in the reconstruction of Europe. I especially like the “teach a man to fish, rather than give him the fish” analogy that you used to get your point across at the end. Well done.
I like you’re inclusion of so many rhetorical questions, it made me think back to what I learned in High School and compare it to what we are learning now. Back in High School we were taught that the Marshall Plan was simply an economic stimulus package for Western Europe and never delved to deep into the imperialistic nature of this economic takeover. To quote your “common person” sentence, I would also agree that the USSR is generally seen as more of an empire than the United States after the war. But, now it seems that America was more of an economic empire rather than a physical empire.