Donald Trump’s surprising references to the 25th United States president William McKinley (1897-1901) in his inaugural speech look more and more significant. Trump’s territorial claims on Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal confirm this, as does his commitment to tariffs against US allies and foes.

McKinley oversaw an aggressive expansion of the US to Cuba, Hawaii and the Philippines during his war with Spain, in addition to imposing large tariffs on trading partners. As part of the “Gilded Age” from 1860-1900, McKinley’s rule was marked by unparalleled political cronyism and corruption at home, and self-defeating tariffs, trade wars and wars of colonial domination abroad. Scratching the surface, the history of the Gilded Age reveals massacres, ethnic cleansing and inhumanity on an unthinkable scale, according to the historian of US empire Alfred McCoy.

No wonder this is being proclaimed a new era of imperialism, not only by left-wing critics but by The Economist and academic students of empire. Imperial conquest is back, says Tanisha Fazal in a

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