Modern American Imperialism and Conquest

"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword, The other is by debt," (John Adams). During the Roman Empire, conquest took place by sword making it easy to determine which nations had been conquered and which had not. The act of conquering a nation was simpler during these times; if Rome wished to "acquire" a region which in turn defied Rome's wishes, Rome likely went to war in order to conquer the desired region. Aside from politics which did play a role in the process of declaring war, the act of conquest itself was a glorified public display of the Roman Empire's power.

Today, conquest takes on a more machiavellian nature, primarily in the form of debt. Many believe that in the current day America is not an imperialistic nation, the evidence however points to the contrary. America is in control of a modern day global empire, one which conducts itself more on the basis of pure economics and leverage of debt than the use of "sword". In high school I read a book called Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins who describes in depth the imperialistic strategy of our nation in the modern world along with his personal experience carrying out our country's missions of conquest. In the book and the four parts of the corresponding documentary attached below, Perkins describes how we use debt to conquer nations and force them into acting in our best interest. The underlying mechanics of the strategy work by us first identifying a nation of interest (with desired resources for instance), then a loan to the nation (typically from the World Bank etc. and these are very large loans), the large loans will end up going to an american corporation to develop infrastructure etc., the nation clearly cannot pay off the loan and is then forced to accept terms such as access/rights to resources we desire.

The first four clips below go into detail about the birth of this form of conquest along with the different methods of obtaining/maintaining power. The last clip is from the film, The International, which is about this concept of debt as a tool of power and even (economic) enslavement.