Can America’s Anti-Empire Survive?

“In fact, President Woodrow Wilson had made clear his antipathy to all forms of empire. Rather than merely sending American doughboys to end the war in the entente’s favor, Wilson insisted on fighting to end all war while simultaneously ending empire itself. Wilson envisaged a postwar order that forced all European empires to abandon their overseas colonies, embraced free trade, and made their markets open to American goods while opening their polities to American ideals. Essentially, Wilson wanted a postwar scenario in which all empires lost.”