Abstract:
This thesis describes the ways in which the United States Army developed a doctrine to
fight the imperial “small wars” of the early twentieth century across Latin America and
the Pacific. That doctrine was largely based upon decades of experience fighting Native
Americans, Confederates, Klansmen, and striking union members, and refined by
experience during the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. Furthermore,
the ways army officers discussed and approached their opponents on the imperial frontier
often mirrored past discussions of Native Americans and, as often, organized labor in
North America. Finally, this doctrine proved remarkably resilient, and formed the
foundation for later American counterinsurgency theory, and was even incorporated into
some aspects of international military law in the later twentieth century.
