The American Empire had an early start in East and Southeast Asia,
beginning with a U.S. Marine invasion of an Indonesian town in 1832,
another Indonesian town in 1839, and a brief occupation of Danang
(Vietnam) in 1846. From there, the United States sought to expand its
commercial hegemony and establish trade relations in East and Southeast
Asia. When a U.S. mission to Japan arrived in 1853, to establish a
coaling station for American ships on their way to the lucrative market
of China, this marked the “opening” of Japan, which had been isolated
for over 200 years. From then on, the Japanese Empire and nation state
formed, expanding with the colonization of Formosa (Taiwan) in 1895 and
Korea in 1910. In the late 1890s, America established its first colony
during the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), and thereafter, the
American and Japanese empires expanded their commercial hegemony and
military strength over the region, until an inevitable clash of empires
took place in World War II, and thereafter established the United States
as the reigning imperial hegemony of all East and Southeast Asia.
Source: Boiling Frogs Post
