Imperialism’s Proving Grounds

Abstract

In Pursuing Respect in the Cannibal Isles: Americans in Nineteenth-Century Fiji, Nancy Shoemaker successfully weaves the history of nineteenth-century Fiji and its extraterritorial Americans into a cohesive story that illuminates the role of Fiji in the “ political evolution of the United States ” (16). Shoemaker argues that the United States ’ s extraterritorial machinations began significantly earlier than many think, and the case of Fiji therefore greatly extends the geography of American imperialism and pushes its temporal bounds backward several generations. Equally important, imperialist patterns first practiced in the Cannibal Isles can be used to understand U.S. actions long after its involvement in Fiji: “ The value of extraterritoriality and the government protection afforded extraterritorial Americans pushed the United States to enlarge its global scope and power ” (17). ” in straight-forward, linear narrative, U.S. and tethers Shoemaker ’ s to