Category: American Expansionism

• The Mexican "Empire of the South"

  This theory held that Southern expansionists in the United States aimed to conquer or dominate Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America in order to build a vast slaveholding empire. Though often treated as mere paranoia by its defenders, the theory had a substantial factual core: groups such as the Knights of the Golden Circle really did advocate adding slave territory across the region. In its strongest form, critics imagined a coordinated secret project to create a hemispheric plantation bloc centered on Havana and the American South. The documented record clearly shows that the Golden Circle idea was real and that pro-slavery expansionists openly envisioned slaveholding growth into Mexico and the Caribbean. What remains more interpretive is how close this came to becoming a fully operational state project.