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U.S. Territorial Expansion and State-Building: Comparative and Quantitative Perspectives
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Abstract: This paper argues that imperial expansion and governance drove antebellum federal state-building in the U.S. Drawing on insights from the historical-comparative literature on state-formation in Europe, the paper claims that the acquisition, control and incorporation of new territories and the need to finance these endeavors led to the build-up of significant state capacities on the national level. Government officials chose to pursue territorial expansion through the application of military force and the projection of governing authority to constantly westward moving peripheries. This could not be achieved without significant administrative and extractive capacities. The federal government had to generate sufficient revenue to finance a military, capable of overpowering and controlling the Native population, asserting U.S. expansionism against Spain, France, Britain, and Mexico, and projecting governing authority to frontier regions. The U.S. Constitution concentrated the authority, needed to organize and finance territorial expansion, in the hands of the newly created federal government. Drawing on the model of British imperial rule, the federal government built administrative capacities in the executive to effectively push its national boundaries westward and to integrate the newly acquired territory into the American political system. After discussing the relationship between territorial expansion and state-building, empirical evidence for the theoretical claims is presented and discussed. An analysis of the federal budget in the period from 1789 to 1859 underscores the importance of territorial expansion to antebellum state-building. Showing striking resemblances to the British “fiscal-military” state in the 18
th
and early 19
th
century, federal expenditures were
mainly concentrated on the military, navy, and the retirement of war-related debt. In addition the federal government spent a large share of its budget on the acquisition and administration of western territory. The federal government relied on custom revenues and the sale of the public domain to finance the rising costs of imperial expansion. While the federal government tended to leave social and economic policies to state and local levels of governance, it developed important administrative and military capacities to finance, organize, and conduct territorial expansion across North America.
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| | Authors: Heumann, Stefan. |
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Abstract:
This paper argues that imperial expansion and governance drove antebellum federal state-
building in the U.S. Drawing on insights from the historical-comparative literature on
state-formation in Europe, the paper claims that the acquisition, control and incorporation
of new territories and the need to finance these endeavors led to the build-up of
significant state capacities on the national level. Government officials chose to pursue
territorial expansion through the application of military force and the projection of
governing authority to constantly westward moving peripheries. This could not be
achieved without significant administrative and extractive capacities. The federal
government had to generate sufficient revenue to finance a military, capable of
overpowering and controlling the Native population, asserting U.S. expansionism against
Spain, France, Britain, and Mexico, and projecting governing authority to frontier regions.
The U.S. Constitution concentrated the authority, needed to organize and finance
territorial expansion, in the hands of the newly created federal government. Drawing on
the model of British imperial rule, the federal government built administrative capacities
in the executive to effectively push its national boundaries westward and to integrate the
newly acquired territory into the American political system.
After discussing the relationship between territorial expansion and state-building,
empirical evidence for the theoretical claims is presented and discussed. An analysis of
the federal budget in the period from 1789 to 1859 underscores the importance of
territorial expansion to antebellum state-building. Showing striking resemblances to the
British “fiscal-military” state in the 18
th
and early 19
th
century, federal expenditures were
mainly concentrated on the military, navy, and the retirement of war-related debt. In
addition the federal government spent a large share of its budget on the acquisition and
administration of western territory. The federal government relied on custom revenues
and the sale of the public domain to finance the rising costs of imperial expansion. While
the federal government tended to leave social and economic policies to state and local
levels of governance, it developed important administrative and military capacities to
finance, organize, and conduct territorial expansion across North America.
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