Trump wants to expand America, but that era is long gone

President Trump keeps talking about adding territory to the U.S.

He has floated buying Greenland, reclaiming the Panama Canal Zone, absorbing Canada and even taking control of places like Gaza and Cuba. Last week, he suggested Venezuela could become the 51st state, apparently bumping Canada down to number 52.

Most commentators dismiss these remarks as trolling, improvisation or political spectacle. But taken together, they reveal something more significant: Trump is the only openly expansionist president in modern American politics. At the same time, he is governing during the least expansionist era in American history.

For much of the nation’s past, territorial growth was not a fringe idea. It was central to American policy.

Expansion was easier in the 19th century partly because the international system was weaker and less regulated. Large stretches of North America were sparsely populated, disputed or governed by countries with limited ability to project power. Military conquest carried fewer diplomatic consequences, and international norms against changing borders barely existed. Great powers routinely bought, traded and seized territory. 

Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the country through the Louisiana Purchase. James Polk entered office determined to annex Texas, secure Oregon and acquire California from Mexico. Within a single term, he accomplished all three. At the end of the 19th century, William McKinley added Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and American Samoa.

For generations, the U.S. assumed the........

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