Expansionism is the idea of expanding a country’s geographic possessions through military aggression. Colonialism is a well-known form of empire building, often involving a sense of divine fiat, with disregard for indigenous peoples. Hitler’s Lebensraum aimed to remove undesirables and expand the German race. Irredentism annexes territories based on common ethnic, cultural, or historical backgrounds. Expansionism is about borders and spreading them as wide as possible both geographically and politically.
As an operating philosophy, expansionism has enjoyed a long and colorful life in world history. In its broadest application, expansionism is the concept of expanding the geographic possessions of a given country, either by attempting to annex surrounding territory or by gaining control of lands that are far from the mother country. Expansionism is often attempted through the process of military aggression, with the idea of establishing new political borders both near and far.
There are a number of specialized forms of expansionism. Perhaps one of the best-known forms of expansionism is colonialism. Essentially, this is the process of building a worldwide empire by taking control of lands near and far. This type of empire building can be exemplified by the scramble between the UK, France and Spain to divide up the New World after its discovery. While many other nations have also attempted to expand their holdings by this method, these three have been by far the most successful for some time. Building an empire of this nature often involves a sense of divine fiat, with a sense that God is leading the march towards the acquisition of further lands. Unfortunately, this ideology has often led to an outright disregard for the indigenous peoples of the Americas, a black mark that remains to this day.
Expansionism took an even darker form with Hitler’s concept of Lebensraum. Loosely defined as “living space,” the idea behind Lebensraum was that as the number of pure members of the German race expanded, it only made sense that they would need more land to live and work. The removal of the undesirables was a logical progression of this line of thinking. Eliminating people who were not considered pure, both in Germany and in surrounding countries, would leave much room for the pure race to take its rightful place in the world.
Irredentism has also been used as a reason for expansionism. In essence, this approach involves trying to annex territories and unite them with another country based on common ethnic, cultural or historical backgrounds. China’s ongoing attempts to annex Taiwan are a contemporary example. Closely associated with irredentism is the doctrine of revanchism, which basically involves returning territories lost in wartime to the country that originally controlled them. Reunification is also closely aligned with revanchism and irredentism, the difference being that the separated territories are reabsorbed into the main country from which they may have voluntarily withdrawn in the past. The re-assimilation of the South after the American Civil War is a good example of reunification.
Ultimately, expansionism is about borders and spreading them as wide as possible both geographically and politically. While there have been numerous concepts that fall under this broad title over the centuries, it’s likely only a matter of time before someone comes up with a new concept that also allows a country’s influence to expand in some way.
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