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United States of America

2025-08-22T16:22:56Z

146.70.148.46:

<blockquote>''"United States" redirects here. For other uses, see [[United States (disambiguation)]].''</blockquote>{{Infobox country
| name = United States of America
| image_flag = Flag of the United States.svg
| population_estimate_year = 2021
| population_estimate = 331,893,745
| area_km2 = 9,833,520
| established_date1 = July 4, 1776
| established_event1 = [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]]
| empire = yes
| official_languages = None (de jure) English (de facto)
| demonym = Statesian United Statesian US-American Yankee (pejorative) Gringo (pejorative) American (common)<ref group="lower-alpha">Inhabitants of the USA are sometimes called simply "Americans," which can cause confusion because there are many other countries in the [[Americas]]. The terms "Statesian" and "United Statesian" are based on words in other languages, notably including the Spanish ''estadounidense'', that refer specifically to the USA. The term "US-American" has precedent in the German term ''US-amerikanisch'', though that term is not universally accepted in German.</ref>
| image_map_size = 220px
| image_map = USA orthographic.svg
| leader_name3 = [[JD Vance]]
| native_name = ᏌᏊᎢᏳᎾᎵᏍᏔᏅᏍᎦᏚᎩ ᎾᎿ ᎠᎺᏰᏟ ʻAmelika Hui Pūʻia Tannapta Nunaat Amiarikami Mílahaŋska Tȟamákȟočhe Wááshindoon Bikéyah Ałhidadiidzooígíí Gichi-mookomaan-aki
| leader_title3 = President of the Senate
| leader_name2 = [[Mike Johnson]]
| leader_title2 = Speaker of the House
| leader_name1 = [[Donald Trump]]
| leader_title1 = [[President of the United States of America|President]]
| largest_city = [[New York City]]
| image_coat = Coat of arms of the United States.svg
| capital = [[Washington, D.C.]]
| government_type = Federal corporatocratic republic
| currency = United States dollar
| mode_of_production = [[Imperialism|Imperialist capitalism]]
| event_pre = Beginning of [[Statesian Revolution|revolution]]
| date_pre = April 19, 1775
| established_event2 = Current [[Constitution of the United States|constitution]]
| established_date2 = March 4, 1789
| established_event3 = Last state admitted
| established_date3 = August 21, 1959
}}
The '''United States of America''' ('''USA'''), commonly referred to as just the '''United States''' ('''US''') or '''America''', is a [[Settler colonialism|settler colonial]] [[state]]<ref>{{Web citation|author=Albert Bender|newspaper=Communist Party USA|title=What’s at stake in the settler colonial debate|date=2022-05-12|url=https://www.cpusa.org/article/whats-at-stake-in-the-settler-colonial-debate/|archive-url=https://archive.is/mE0sL|archive-date=2022-05-13|retrieved=2025-08-22|quote=To begin with, the U.S. definitely was founded as a settler colonial state as well as a capitalist state.}}</ref> located primarily in [[North America]]. Consisting of [[U.S. state|50 states]], the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]], [[Territories of the United States|14 internationally-recognised territories]], and 326 [[Indian reservation|Indian reservations]], it is the [[List of North American countries by area|second-largest]] [[country]] in [[North America]] and [[List of countries by area|fourth-largest in the world]]. It borders [[Canada]] to the north, [[Mexican United States|Mexico]] to the south, the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] to the east, and the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] to the west. The country's system of governance is a [[Liberalism|liberal]], [[Federation|federal]] [[Presidential system|presidential]] [[republic]].

The United States is the most influential [[Capitalism|capitalist]] and [[Imperialism|imperialist]] state today, accounting for 15% of global GDP (PPP)<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Statista|title=United States' share of global gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) from 2019 to 2029|url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/270267/united-states-share-of-global-gross-domestic-product-gdp/|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250716164332/https://www.statista.com/statistics/270267/united-states-share-of-global-gross-domestic-product-gdp/|archive-date=2025-07-16|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref> and more than 50% of global military spending.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Sara Flounders|newspaper=[[Workers World]]|title=Congressional chaos – deals and trades|date=2023-01|url=https://www.workers.org/2023/01/68509/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110165054/https://www.workers.org/2023/01/68509/|archive-date=2023-01-10|retrieved=2023-01-22}}</ref> With a population of more than 340 million,<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=World Bank Group|title=Population, total - United States|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=US|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250726154511/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=US|archive-date=2025-07-26|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref> it is the third-most populous country in the world; it constitutes 4.2% of the total human population, but is home to over 20% of the world's prisoners.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Roy Walmsley|newspaper=World Prison Brief|title=World Prison Population List, twelfth edition|url=https://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/wppl_12.pdf|archive-url=https://megalodon.jp/2025-0823-0056-37/https://www.prisonstudies.org:443/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/wppl_12.pdf|archive-date=2025-08-22|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref>

A modern [[United States imperialism|empire]], the United States sits at the center of a group of [[Imperial core|imperialist Western regimes]]. The USA is the leading country of many international imperialist organizations, such as the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]], [[Organization of American States]], [[The World Bank|World Bank]], [[International Monetary Fund]], [[National Endowment for Democracy]], [[Human Rights Watch]], and others.

The pervasiveness of [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] ideology, the frequent relationship between government officials and corporate board of directors, the tendency for war, and the reach of [[Nationalism|nationalist]], [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] and [[Racism|racial chauvinist]] ideas makes the USA a [[dictatorship of the bourgeoisie]] with traits of [[fascism]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Michael Cetewayo Tabor|title=Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide|title-url=https://exhibits.library.illinois.edu/s/rbml/item/1811#?xywh=-2988%2C0%2C7954%2C2999&cv=1|pdf=https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Michael_Cetewayo_Tabor/513.Michael.Tabor.Capitalism.Dope.Genocide.pdf|mia=https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/1970/dope.htm}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Fred Hampton|year=1969|title=It’s a Class Struggle, Godamnit!|title-url=https://www.lfks.net/en/content/fred-hampton-its-class-struggle-goddammit-november-1969|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/hampton/1969/11/class-struggle-godamnit.htm}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=KCNAWatch|title=Minju Joson on Final Doom of U.S.|url=https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/255411/minju-joson-on-final-doom-of-u-s/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528023946/https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/255411/minju-joson-on-final-doom-of-u-s/|archive-date=2021-05-28|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref> Wealth distribution is extremely unequal, with the richest three Statesians owning more than the poorest 160 million combined.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Noah Kirsch|newspaper=Forbes|title=The 3 Richest Americans Hold More Wealth Than Bottom 50% Of The Country, Study Finds|date=2017-11-09|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2017/11/09/the-3-richest-americans-hold-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-of-country-study-finds/?sh=7144ebfe3cf8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121000741/https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2017/11/09/the-3-richest-americans-hold-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-of-country-study-finds/?sh=3e972c243cf8|archive-date=2023-01-21|retrieved=2023-01-23}}</ref>

Beginning as a [[Settler colonialism|settler-colony]] of European maritime empires, the USA became an independent country in 1776. It has achieved remarkable economic, scientific and military development through the process of imperialism, where it uses military power to ensure access for its private industries to exploit the nations of the world. The United States deliberately killed over 11 million unarmed civilians in its imperialist wars and conquests before 2000<ref name=":6">{{Citation|author=Austin Murphy|year=2000|title=The Triumph of Evil|chapter=Introduction|section=|page=22–24, 34|pdf=https://mltheory.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil.pdf|publisher=European Press Academic Publishing|isbn=8883980026|anna=https://annas-archive.org/md5/1463915729b5ae8f30fac63de6d2d87e}}</ref> and another 4.5 million in the 21st century.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Patrick Martin|newspaper=[[WSWS]]|title=US wars since 2001 have killed 4.5 million people|date=2023-05-19|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/05/19/gmyj-m19.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519034557/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/05/19/gmyj-m19.html|archive-date=2023-05-19}}</ref>

Many of its methods of exploitation employed outwardly are also employed inwardly towards its own population with increasing intensity as its economy has been in steady decline since the [[Great Recession|2008 financial crisis]] and the [[COVID-19 pandemic|2020–2022 COVID-19 pandemic]].

== Nomenclature ==
The official name of the country is the United States of America, but it is often shortened to US, America, or United States; however, these names are erroneous, as other countries, such as the [[Mexican United States]], share the same wording "United States" in their name. Furthermore, the term "America" and "American" could refer to the geographic locations or inhabitants of [[North America]], [[South America]], or both.

Some of the indigenous names for the whole of North America include: ''Mishiike Minisi'', ''Anowara:kowa'', and ''Khéya Wíta''.<ref group="lower-alpha">Respectively in Anishinaabe, Kanien'kéha and Lakota. All mean "Turtle Island".</ref> "America" is often respelled as "AmeriKKKa" in reference to the pervasiveness of [[White supremacy|white supremacist]] ideology in the US. In [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], the US is referred to as ''Shaytân-e Bozorg'',<ref group="lower-alpha">Persian: شيطان بزرگ</ref> which means "the great Satan."<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Ruhollah Khomeini|date=1979-11-05|title=America the Great Satan|url=http://emam.com/posts/view/15718/Speech|newspaper=Emam.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160522133828/http://emam.com/posts/view/15718/Speech/|archive-date=2016-05-22|retrieved=2021-12-29}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Pre-colonization ===
{{Main article|History of humanity}}
[[File:US native nations.png|thumb|Indigenous nations in what is now the United States before colonization. California natives are grouped together as "California Indians" because there are too many groups to fit into the map. Numbers show US military forts.]]
[[File:USA native languages.png|thumb|Map of indigenous groups by language family]]
Human settlement in the [[America|Americas]] began between 12,500 to 27,000 years ago through different possible routes recognized by researchers. The most common and accepted theory is that humans crossed through land between Siberia and Alaska in the Beringia region at least 30,000 years ago,<ref>{{Citation|author=David J. Meltzer|year=2009|title=First peoples in a New World: colonizing Ice Age America|page=329|quote=The port of entry for America’s ﬁrst peoples was the Bering Sea region. They could, and likely did, walk across from Siberia to Alaska when expanding continental ice sheets dropped sea levels worldwide and Beringia surfaced. Crossing its Mammoth Steppe, blanketed by parkland and grazed by mammoth, horse, and bison, was possible anytime between 27,000 and 10,000 years ago. The recent genetic evidence of a possible Beringian standstill suggests the ﬁrst peoples may have been relatively isolated in this region for much of that time.|publisher=University of California Press}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Erika Tamm, et al|year=2007|title=Beringian Standstill and spread of Native American founders|title-url=https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0000829#pone.0000829-Pitulko1|quote=The new data suggest that the initial founders of the Americas emerged from a single source ancestral population that evolved in isolation, likely in Beringia. This scenario is consistent with the unique pattern of diversity from autosomal locus D9S1120 of a private allele in high frequency and ubiquitous in the Americas. The finding that humans were present at the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site dated to 30,000 ybp suggests that the isolation in Beringia might have lasted up to 15,000 years. Following this isolation, the initial founders of the Americas began rapidly populating the New World from North to South America.|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0000829}}</ref> when the sea levels were at a minimum, revealing a pathway which made possible to cross between the lands, and stayed there until at least 12,500 years ago,<ref>{{Citation|author=David J. Meltzer|year=2009|title=First peoples in a New World: colonizing Ice Age America|page=329|quote=In any case, it appears from the evidence at Monte Verde that the ﬁrst Americans were here by at least 12,500 BP and possibly earlier still. Certainly by 11,500 BP, Clovis Paleoindians were widespread, possibly representing a second migratory pulse to the New World, one that may have spread across the continent in less than a thousand years.|publisher=University of California Press}}</ref> when they went deep into American land.

Genetic evidence based on mitochondrial DNA suggests that the last common ancestor between central Asian and North American indigenous peoples was estimated to have diverged between 25,000 to 20,000 years ago,<ref>{{Citation|author=Goebel, Waters & O’Rourke|year=2008|title=The Late Pleistocene dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas|quote=Establishing when central Asian and Native American haplogroup lineages last shared a common ancestor has proven to be difficult. Current coalescent estimates based on variation in extant mtDNA lineages set the event at 25 to 20 ka or less than 20 ka, after the last glacial maximum (LGM), and estimates based on Y- chromosome variability suggest that divergence occurred after 22.5 ka, possibly as late as 20 to 15 ka.|doi=10.1126/science.1153569}}</ref> during the time humans were located at the Beringian region, and sub-haplogroup analysis suggest that dispersion from Beringia may have occurred as early as 16,000 years ago.<ref>{{Citation|author=Goebel, Waters & O’Rourke|year=2008|title=The Late Pleistocene dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas.|doi=10.1126/science.1153569|quote=New analyses of haplogroup subclades help to resolve when modern humans subsequently spread from Beringia to the rest of the Americas. Three subclades of mtDNA subhaplogroup C1 are widely distributed among North, Central, and South Americans but absent in Asian populations, which suggests that they evolved after the central Asian–Native American split, as the first Americans were dispersing from Beringia. The estimated date of coalescence for these subclades is 16.6 to 11.2 ka, which suggests that the colonization of the Americas south of the continental ice sheets may have occurred some time during the late-glacial period, thousands of years after the initial splitting of Asian and Native American lineages.|page=}}</ref>

Around 10,500 years ago, the peoples of the eastern region of North America, developed agriculture based on corn, domestication of animals, along with hunting, fishing and gathering.<ref>{{Citation|author=Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz|year=2014|title=An indigenous peoples' history of the United States|page=15-16|quote=Domestication of plants took place around the globe in seven locales during approximately the same period, around 8500 BC. Three of the seven were in the Americas, all based on corn: the Valley of Mexico and Central America (Mesoamerica); the South-Central Andes in South America; and eastern North America. [...] During this time, many of the same human societies began domesticating animals. Only in the American continents was the parallel domestication of animals eschewed in favor of game management, a kind of animal husbandry different from that developed in Africa and Asia. In these seven areas, agriculture based "civilized" societies developed in symbiosis with hunting, fishing, and gathering peoples on their peripheries, gradually enveloping many of the latter into the realms of their civilizations, except for those in regions inhospitable to agriculture.|pdf=https://www.sackett.net/An-Indigenous-Peoples-History-of-the-United-States-Ortiz.pdf|isbn=978-0-8070-0040-3|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=D80C34C2EDEF56A1CA68F01727416207|anna=https://annas-archive.org/md5/9b788412e2170da83e6cd2d8eec681a4}}</ref> The development of agriculture in the region also required complex irrigation systems and developed through extensive trade between the peoples of Central and South America.<ref>{{Citation|author=Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz|year=2014|title=An indigenous peoples' history of the United States|page=16|isbn=978-0-8070-0040-3|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=D80C34C2EDEF56A1CA68F01727416207|quote=Corn, being a summer crop, can tolerate no more than twenty to thirty days without water and even less time in high temperatures. Many of the areas where corn was the staple were arid or semiarid, so its cultivation required the design and construction of complex irrigation systems-in place at least two thousand years be fore Europeans knew the Americas existed. The proliferation of agriculture and cultigens could not have occurred without centuries of cultural and commercial interchange among the peoples of North, Central, and South America, whose traders carried seeds as well as other goods and cultural practices.}}</ref> By the 15th century, the population of the whole continent of America was about 100 million people, and about 40 million lived in North America. In comparison, the [[Europe|European]] peoples at that time amounted to around 50 million.<ref>{{Citation|author=Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz|year=2014|title=An indigenous peoples' history of the United States|page=17|isbn=978-0-8070-0040-3|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=D80C34C2EDEF56A1CA68F01727416207|quote=The total population of the hemisphere was about one hundred million at the end of the fifteenth century, with about two-fifths in North America, including Mexico. Central Mexico alone supported some thirty million people. At the same time, the population of Europe as far east as the Ural Mountains was around fifty million.}}</ref>

At the beginning of European colonization, most indigenous peoples lived in agricultural societies but others were hunters and gatherers.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Dennis Etler|newspaper=CGTN|title=U.S. treatment of Native Americans is a gross human rights violation|date=2021-03-29|url=https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-26/U-S-treatment-of-Native-Americans-is-a-gross-human-rights-violation-YVtGCFbCJa/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326013127/https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-26/U-S-treatment-of-Native-Americans-is-a-gross-human-rights-violation-YVtGCFbCJa/index.html|archive-date=2021-03-29|retrieved=2025-08-22|quote=Most were agriculturalists living in settled communities, some were hunters and gatherers.}}</ref>

=== European colonization ===
In the 17th century, settlers from Britain and Holland began to arrive in North America. Of 10,000 settlers who left from Bristol between 1654 and 1685, most were farmers and artisans and less than 15% were [[Proletariat|proletarians]]. The settlers initially enslaved both Africans and natives.<ref name=":3">{{Citation|author=[[J. Sakai]]|year=1983|title=Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat|title-url=https://readsettlers.org/text-index.html|chapter=The Heart of Whiteness|chapter-url=https://readsettlers.org/ch1.html|section=|pdf=https://readsettlers.org/settlers.pdf|isbn=9781629630762|anna=https://annas-archive.org/md5/d453946b79db6fbfdbf43812fa038826}}</ref>

In 1675, [[Metacomet]], also known as "King Philip," led an uprising against the settlers.<ref name=":4">{{Citation|author=J. Sakai|year=1983|title=Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat|title-url=https://readsettlers.org/text-index.html|chapter=Struggles & Alliances|chapter-url=https://readsettlers.org/ch2.html|isbn=9781629630762}}</ref>

In 1715, the settlers sold their native slaves abroad and focused on enslaving Africans. By the Revolutionary War, New Afrikans made up over 20% of the non-indigenous population, including more than half in Virginia and South Carolina.<ref name=":3" />
==== Bacon's Rebellion ====
Soon after King Philip's War, a conflict broke out in Virginia between settlers and the Susquehannock. A settler army of 1,100 surrounded the Susquehannock fort and executed five of their leaders, inspiring them to begin a guerrilla warfare campaign. In May 1676, plantation owner [[Nathaniel Bacon]] formed a vigilante group to attack the Susquehannock, against the orders of the British colonial governor. He went to an Occaneechee fort and persuaded the Occaneechee to attack the Susquehannock. After the Susquehannock were defeated, Bacon attacked the Occaneechee to steal their beaver furs, which were worth about £1,000.

After defeating the Occaneechee, Bacon turned against Governor [[William Berkeley]], whom he accused of secretly selling guns to the indigenous peoples. On June 23, 1676, he marched to Jamestown with an army of over 500 and captured the city. Loyalist forces arrived in September but Bacon soon recaptured the city and burned it down.<ref name=":4" />

==== Seven Years' War ====
During the [[Seven Years' War]], the British fought against [[Kingdom of France (987–1792)|France]] and their indigenous allies. The indigenous peoples supported the French because they traded with them but did not want to occupy their land. The British defeated the French in 1763 and France ceded the land west of the Appalachians to Britain. The natives continued a guerrilla warfare campaign against the British until they passed the Proclamation of 1763, which prevented colonists from settling west of the Appalachians.<ref name=":02">{{Citation|author=[[Howard Zinn]]|year=1980|title=A People's History of the United States|title-url=https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/peoples-history/|chapter=A Kind of Revolution|page=89–90|pdf=https://files.libcom.org/files/A%20People's%20History%20of%20the%20Unite%20-%20Howard%20Zinn.pdf|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=0060194480|anna=https://annas-archive.org/md5/c5f1afe8541ac325484af47ca6d3e525}}</ref>

After 1765, a crisis began between British authorities and colonists and local newspapers were pressured to censor anti-secessionist material. The [[Sons of Liberty]] attacked and rioted against loyalists.<ref name=":023">{{Citation|author=Albert Szymanski|year=1984|title=Human Rights in the Soviet Union|chapter=The Land of the Free|page=152–156|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceazdmtb2y3qq27fve5ib3gk7uv2unt6ae2xss74xmfpur7k5uhl5m?filename=Albert%20Szymanski%20-%20Human%20Rights%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union_%20Including%20Comparisons%20with%20the%20U.S.A.-Zed%20Books%20Ltd.%20%281984%29.pdf|city=London|publisher=Zed Books Ltd|isbn=0862320186|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=C597B1232D9EA6B0F3DCB438D7E15A81}}</ref>

=== Independence War ===
{{Main article|Statesian Revolution}}Between 1775 and 1778, state governments passed laws making it illegal to criticize the [[Continental Congress]], which was organizing a rebellion against the British. Eight states banished prominent loyalists and all states deprived their right to vote. Between 80,000 and 100,000 loyalists fled during the revolution, half of which moved to [[Canada]]. The percentage of colonists that fled from the Statesian Revolution (4% of the white population) was higher than those who fled the [[Russian revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]] (only 1.5% of the total population).<ref name=":023" />

During the Statesian Revolution, the British tried to form an alliance with the [[Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)|Cherokee Nation]] and provided them with weapons and funding. In 1776, over 5,000 settlers from Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas invaded the Cherokee Nation. Settlers attacked the Cherokee Nation again in 1780 and 1781.

In 1777, the British formed an alliance with the Shawnee in what is now Ohio. In 1780, settlers from Virginia attacked the Shawnee in what is now southern Ohio.

In the north, the six nations of the [[Haudenosaunee Confederacy|Haudenosaunee]] took different sides in the war. The Mohawk and Senecas sided with the British, the Oneidas sided with the settlers, and the Cayuga, Onondaga, and Tuscarora were neutral. [[George Washington]] gave orders to destroy the villages of the nations that did not side with the United States. The British surrendered in 1783 and allowed Statesian settlers to expand west into the territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.<ref>{{Citation|author=[[Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz]]|year=2014|title=An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States|chapter=Bloody Footprints|page=72–78|pdf=https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/10601/An%20Indigenous%20Peoples%20History%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Ortiz.pdf|city=Boston|publisher=Beacon Press Books|series=ReVisioning American History|title-url=}}</ref>

=== Early republic ===

==== Articles of Confederation ====

===== Shays' rebellion =====
In 1786, farmers in western Massachusetts rebelled because of [[debt]] and [[Tax|taxes]], which were four times as high as they had been under the British. Washington opposed the uprising, and [[Samuel Adams]] passed the Riot Act to crush dissent.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Chad Pearson|newspaper=[[MR Online]]|title=Sober Up Liberals: The U.S. Constitution Sucks|date=2023-07-12|url=https://mronline.org/2023/07/12/sober-up-liberals-the-u-s-constitution-sucks/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712132453/https://mronline.org/2023/07/12/sober-up-liberals-the-u-s-constitution-sucks/|archive-date=2023-07-12}}</ref>

==== Federalist Era ====
The first decades after U.S. independence were characterized by conflict between the [[Federalist Party (United States)|Federalist Party]], which favored the wealthy, and the [[Democratic-Republican Party]], which favored small farmers. [[John Adams]], George Washington's Federalist successor, passed the [[Alien and Sedition Acts]] in 1798 to enforce [[censorship]] and ban criticism of the government. The law sentenced the radical labor leader David Brown to prison in October 1798 after he put up a pole saying "Downfall to the tyrants of America."<ref name=":023" />

===== Whiskey Rebellion =====

===== Invasion of Ohio =====
In 1784, the Continental Congress deployed [[Josiah Harmar]] to the [[Northwest Territory]] to survey the land so it could be sold to settlers. The USA built its first fort, Fort Harmar, in what is now [[Ohio]] in 1785, followed by Fort Washington in modern-day Cincinnati in 1789. From there, Harmar invaded the Miami and Shawnee nations and lost almost 200 troops in four days before retreating.<ref name=":123">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|isbn=9780520972070|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05|page=|chapter=Why Are So Many Places Named Fort?}}</ref>:103–6

Mohawk leader Thayendanegea had formed an alliance of the indigenous nations in the Ohio River valley in the 1780s and received weapons from the British. Secretary of War [[Henry Knox]] organized an army of settlers from Kentucky to invade the territory of the Miami and Shawnee nations.<ref name=":8">{{Citation|author=[[Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz]]|year=2014|title=An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States|chapter=The Birth of a Nation|page=81–87|pdf=https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/10601/An%20Indigenous%20Peoples%20History%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Ortiz.pdf|city=Boston|publisher=Beacon Press Books|series=ReVisioning American History|title-url=}}</ref> Little Turtle and Blue Jacket ambushed the settler army, who destroyed 300 buildings and looted the two largest Miami towns. In 1791, they destroyed the invading army led by [[Arthur St. Clair]] at the Battle of Wabash, which was one of the largest defeats of the U.S. military in history.<ref name=":9">{{Citation|author=[[Nick Estes]], et al.|year=2021|title=Red Nation Rising|chapter=Anti-Indianism|page=22–27|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacechp4anuu3vkx7ttze5vwtbbslqpqkouqemkpa5xui27eulvyntx2?filename=Nick%20Estes%2C%20Melanie%20Yazzie%2C%20Jennifer%20Nez%20Denetdale%2C%20David%20Correia%20-%20Red%20Nation%20Rising_%20From%20Bordertown%20Violence%20to%20Native%20Liberation-PM%20Press%20%282021%29.pdf}}</ref> 637 U.S. soldiers died, and less than half of St. Clair's forces returned unharmed to Fort Washington.<ref name=":123" />:106 Anthony Wayne, who led the settlers from 1792 to 1794, destroyed food supplies and murdered native civilians. After Blue Jacket refused an ultimatum at Fort Defiance, settler forces began an extermination campaign against civilians. They defeated the Shawnee at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794.

In 1794, [[John Jay]] signed a treaty with the British that made them leave their 13 forts in the Northwest.<ref name=":123" />:108 The USA annexed southern Ohio in 1795 with the Treaty of Greenville.<ref name=":8" /> The British occupied some territory south of the Canadian border until 1796, when they withdrew and ended their support for the indigenous resistance.<ref name=":123" />:105–8

===== Quasi-War =====
Between 1798 and 1800, the USA fought undeclared naval battles with [[French Republic (1792–1804)|France]] in the Caribbean because it was seizing U.S. merchant ships. Congress was only two votes away from declaring war on France.<ref name=":1232">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|isbn=9780520972070|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05|page=|chapter=Invading Your Neighbors}}</ref>:135

==== Jeffersonian Era ====
In 1801, slave owner [[Thomas Jefferson]] came to power and replaced the Federalist government. He pardoned people convicted under the Alien and Sedition Acts but continued censorship and political repression against his own political opponents.<ref name=":023" />

In 1803, Congress approved $2,500 for Meriweather Lewis and William Clark's military expedition through the [[Louisiana Territory]] to plan the annexation of that area. Later, Zebulon Pike led expeditions in the Southwest and the Mississippi headwaters. In late 1803, the USA bought the Louisiana Territory from [[French Empire (1804–1815)|France]], which had secretly taken it from [[Kingdom of Spain|Spain]] in 1800. In 1806, Statesian and Spanish soldiers had a skirmish on the border of [[State of Texas|Texas]].<ref name=":123" />:113–8

Congress banned the international slave trade in 1808 without ending slavery within the country. In the early 19th century, the [[American Colonization Society]] emerged and attempted to [[Idealism|persuade]] slave owners to sell their slaves and send them back to Africa to spread [[Christianity]]. It sought to make the United States into a white-only country without forcibly freeing the slaves. [[State of Indiana|Indiana]], [[State of Illinois|Illinois]], [[State of Iowa|Iowa]], and [[State of Oregon|Oregon]] completely banned Black people (enslaved or free) from living in their territory.<ref>{{Citation|author=[[Domenico Losurdo]]|year=2011|title=Liberalism: A Counter-History|chapter=Liberalism and Racial Slavery: A Unique Twin Birth|page=52–57|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781844676934|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=5BB3406BC2E64972831A1C00D5D4BFE4|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacebhsj2yxuoudkhkjp6lzgr5jvgyhu76zxe4gw3d65gpg32a6nded4?filename=Domenico%20Losurdo%2C%20Gregory%20Elliott%20-%20Liberalism_%20A%20Counter-History-Verso%20%282011%29.pdf}}</ref>

In 1807, the Shawnee brothers [[Tecumseh]] and Tenskwatawa began a movement for indigenous peoples to return to their pre-colonial culture. Tecumseh united the nations of the northwest and presented a program to prevent settlers from buying native land. The governor of Indiana, [[William Henry Harrison]], bribed some Delaware, Miami, and Potawatomi to give up their land in 1809. In 1810, he moved south to bring the Muskogees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws into the alliance. In November 1811, Statesian troops attacked Tenskwatawa at Prophetstown and killed 200 natives. After the attack, Kickapoos, Winnebagos, Potawatomis, and Creeks obtained British weapons from Canada to fight the settlers.<ref name=":8" />

===== War of 1812 =====
{{Main article|War of 1812}}
The United States declared war on [[Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922)|Britain]] in 1812 because of its connections to Tecumseh's [[Anti-colonialism|anticolonial]] movement. Indigenous forces liberated Michigan and forced thousands of settlers out of Illinois and Indiana, but the USA killed Tecumseh at the Battle of Thames in 1813, destroying the resistance.<ref name=":8" />

===== Barbary Wars =====
The Berber states of North Africa (Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis) demanded taxes from ships traveling through their waters and captured ships if they refused to pay. Between 1801 and 1805, Jefferson sent the Navy to fight them and occupy Tripoli. In 1815, only ten days after the War of 1812 ended, [[James Madison]] told Congress to declare war again. The Navy quickly captured two warships from Algiers and forced them to end tribute payments.<ref name=":1232" />:133–4

==== Era of Good Feelings ====

=== Jacksonian Era ===
[[File:USA settler expansion.png|thumb|338x338px|United States occupation of native land from 1783 to 1893]]
After the war against the British Empire, the fledgling United States expanded westward with Thomas Jefferson (the third in [[List of Presidents of the United States|a long line of Presidents]]) referring to the country as an "empire of liberty." As Nancy Isenberg elucidates in her book ''White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America'': "The Louisiana Territory, as he envisioned it, would encourage agriculture and forestall the growth of manufacturing and urban poverty—that was his formula for liberty. It was not [[Benjamin Franklin|Franklin]]'s “happy mediocrity” (a compression of classes across an endless stretch of unsettled land), but a nation of farmers large and small. This difference is not nominal: Franklin and [[Thomas Paine|Paine]] used Pennsylvania as their model, while Jefferson saw America’s future—and the contours of its [[Class society|class system]]—through the prism of Virginia."<ref>{{Citation|author=Nancy Isenberg|year=2016|title=White trash: the 400-year untold history of class in America|publisher=Viking|isbn=9780670785971|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=858AE1D454C3854355613E1824C318ED|page=92}}</ref>

Around 1800, as the lands further to the west were opened up to the fledgling United States, the young state saw the land as a way to appease its population and strengthen its power in the world. As Nancy Isenberg further explains: "By 1800, one-fifth of the American population had resettled on its 'frontier,' the territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi. Effective regulation of this mass migration was well beyond the limited powers of the federal government. Even so, officials understood that the country’s future depended on controlling this vast territory. Financial matters were involved too. Government sale of these lands was needed to reduce the nation’s war debts. Besides, the lands were hardly empty, and the potential for violent conflicts with Native Americans was ever present, as white migrants settled on lands they did not own. National greatness depended as much as anything upon the class of settlers that was advancing into the new territories."<ref>{{Citation|author=Nancy Isenberg|year=2016|title=White trash: the 400-year untold history of class in America|publisher=Viking|isbn=9780670785971|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=858AE1D454C3854355613E1824C318ED|page=110}}</ref>

After the Statesian Revolution, the United States began a genocidal policy of "[[Indian Removal Act|Indian Removal]]" to clear the land between the Mississippi River and the Appalachians for settlers. In 1790, most of the settler population lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. From 1800 to 1830, the number of white settlers west of the Appalachians grew from 700,000 to 4.5 million. Between 1820 and 1844, the number of Native Americans living east of the Mississippi dropped from 120,000 to under 30,000. President [[Thomas Jefferson]] bought the Louisiana Territory from [[French Republic (1792–1804)|France]] in 1803, doubling the size of the United States and extending the frontier to the Rocky Mountains.<ref name=":5">{{Citation|author=Howard Zinn|year=1980|title=A People's History of the United States|title-url=https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/peoples-history/|chapter=As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs|page=124–129|pdf=https://files.libcom.org/files/A%20People's%20History%20of%20the%20Unite%20-%20Howard%20Zinn.pdf}}</ref>

Through a series of treaties from 1814 to 1824, settlers took control of most of [[Alabama]] and [[Florida]] as well as parts of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Commonwealth of Kentucky|Kentucky]], [[Mississippi]], [[North Carolina]], and [[State of Tennessee|Tennessee]]. Future president [[Andrew Jackson]] relied on bribery and threats to make native leaders sign these treaties. In 1818, he began raids into [[Governorate of Florida (1783–1821)|Spanish Florida]] and destroyed Seminole villages until [[Kingdom of Spain (1813–1873)|Spain]] surrendered the territory to the United States in 1819.<ref name=":5" />

==== Trail of Tears ====
[[File:A map of the process of Indian Removal in the US, 1830–1838. Oklahoma is depicted in light yellow-green..png|thumb|Map of the five nations deported to Oklahoma under the Indian Removal Act]]
Presidents Andrew Jackson and [[Martin Van Buren]] forced 70,000 Native Americans to move west across the Mississippi River. Secretary of War [[Lewis Cass]] promised in 1825 that the United States would never try to take indigenous land west of the Mississippi.<ref name=":5" />

Half of the 16,000 Cherokees died during the march. The Muskogees and Seminoles suffered similar death rates and about 15% of the Choctaws and Chickasaws died on the way to Oklahoma.'''<ref name=":82">{{Citation|author=[[Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz]]|year=2014|title=An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States|chapter=Andrew Jackson's White Republic|page=112–113|pdf=https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/10601/An%20Indigenous%20Peoples%20History%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Ortiz.pdf|city=Boston|publisher=Beacon Press Books|series=ReVisioning American History|title-url=}}</ref>'''

==== Invasion of Mexico ====
{{Main article|Mexican–Statesian War}}
[[File:Mexican cession map.png|thumb|232x232px|Territories occupied by the USA in 1848 in red. The USA bought more territory in 1853.]]
After the Mexican government banned slavery in 1829, US-backed settlers in Texas rebelled to form the Republic of Texas in 1836, which the United States annexed in 1845. The United States invaded Mexico in 1846, beginning in Veracruz. They occupied Mexico City in 1848 and did not leave until Mexico surrendered [[Aztlán|its northern territories]] to the USA. After the annexation, U.S. cavalry troops attacked the Apaches led by [[Mangas Coloradas]], destroying crops and villages and murdering civilians.'''<ref name=":822">{{Citation|author=[[Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz]]|year=2014|title=An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States|chapter=Sea to Shining Sea|page=123–132|pdf=https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/10601/An%20Indigenous%20Peoples%20History%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Ortiz.pdf|city=Boston|publisher=Beacon Press Books|series=ReVisioning American History|title-url=}}</ref>'''

==== Abolitionist movement ====
In 1805, [[South Carolina]] passed laws that allowed executing people who supported or encouraged slave rebellions. [[State of Georgia|Georgia]] passed a similar law around the same time.<ref name=":10" />

By 1830, following the abolition of slavery in much of Latin America, the United States was effectively in a cold war with [[Republic of Haiti|Haiti]]. [[State of South Carolina|South Carolina]] banned Africans from Haiti and other French colonies from entering the country in order to limit the spread of abolitionism.<ref name=":122">{{Citation|author=[[Domenico Losurdo]]|year=2011|title=Liberalism: A Counter-History|chapter=Crisis of the English and American Models|page=|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781844676934|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=5BB3406BC2E64972831A1C00D5D4BFE4|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacebhsj2yxuoudkhkjp6lzgr5jvgyhu76zxe4gw3d65gpg32a6nded4?filename=Domenico%20Losurdo%2C%20Gregory%20Elliott%20-%20Liberalism_%20A%20Counter-History-Verso%20%282011%29.pdf}}</ref>:151

In 1836, Andrew Jackson allowed the postmaster general to censor any newspapers critical of slavery. The [[United States Congress#House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] banned examining antislavery petitions.<ref name=":10">{{Citation|author=[[Domenico Losurdo]]|year=2011|title=Liberalism: A Counter-History|chapter=Were Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century England and America Liberal?|page=102|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781844676934|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=5BB3406BC2E64972831A1C00D5D4BFE4|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacebhsj2yxuoudkhkjp6lzgr5jvgyhu76zxe4gw3d65gpg32a6nded4?filename=Domenico%20Losurdo%2C%20Gregory%20Elliott%20-%20Liberalism_%20A%20Counter-History-Verso%20%282011%29.pdf}}</ref>

==== Slave rebellions and enslaved Africans ====
[[Peasantry|Yeoman farmers]], who did not own slave labor, made up the majority of whites. They sometimes believed in the institution of slavery but also occasionally challenged the goals of the planter elite, especially on the western frontier of the U.S, where they advocated for the gradual abolition of slavery. Due to the dominance of cotton in the south, and yeoman farmers there saw, how detrimental it was to their own survival to compete with the slave owning elite, working from dawn until dusk on with their own hands on their own lands. Poor white farms gained more voting rights in the 1830s and 1840s and sought to influence state legislatures about their political and economic concerns. Even then, trouble arose for elite slave owners with nations around the world from Europe to South America abolishing slavery, as the abolition movement picked up steam, an example of which, Britain's emancipation of <nowiki>''</nowiki>all slaves<nowiki>''</nowiki> in 1834, so elite white farmers came up with a system that was to ensure the institution of slavery was to be intact forever. With the three-fifths compromise, giving elite whites political power in congress, white elite planters also consolidated power, by making loans to those in need, hiring poor whites for work, as well as using resources to transport crops of yeoman farmers to the market. Even if some yeoman farmers didn't participate in the institution of slavery, they had major incentives not to end it because white settler colonial elites had made white society dependent upon themselves. White settler-colonialism, and its justification for the institution for slavery, was a political and economic move, to coerce, and influence those in slavery, and those who didn't contribute to slavery as much as actual slave owners, to disprove the evils, and horrors of slavery and to justify its evil to end it. The white settler elite created the idea of white supremacy to uphold white society together under elitist control. The idea that all whites were equal and superior towards black African slaves, was not in question due to the lower, and poor white farmers, who either did or did not support the idea of white supremacy, not having any benefits to opposing the idea of it, since the elite white farmers did in fact keep the yeoman poor farmers alive, and sustainable. Two justifying phrases include those that explain slavery, as a <nowiki>''</nowiki>necessary evil<nowiki>''</nowiki> or a <nowiki>''</nowiki>positive good<nowiki>''</nowiki>. [[John C. Calhoun]] noted that:

<nowiki>''</nowiki>I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good - positive good... There never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other. Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully borne out by history... I fearlessly assert that the existing relation between the two races in the South, against which these blind fanatics are waging war, forms the most solid and durable foundation on which to rear free and stable political institutions.<nowiki>''</nowiki>

Explaining the <nowiki>''inherent'', and ''moral'', as well as, ''necessary''</nowiki>, domination of the white race over the black, race bound southern society together. The planter elite and forged a unbreakable tie with the lower white classes and established a stronghold on southern culture.{{Citation needed}}

===== Nat Turner's rebellion =====
The largest slave rebellion in the United States happened near New Orleans in 1811. 400 or 500 armed slaves overthrew the plantation owner and began liberating slaves from other plantations. The U.S. army crushed the uprising, immediately killing 66 rebels and executing 16 later.

In 1822, [[Denmark Vesey]] planned to start a large rebellion in Charleston, [[South Carolina]], which was the sixth largest city in the USA. When authorities found out, they hanged Vesey and 34 others. The trial record was destroyed soon after.

Nat Turner's Rebellion, was an organized slave revolt in Virginia, led by an enslaved worker named Nat Turner. Being a spiritual individual he believed that god had chosen him for a mission. In obedience to that vision, Turner and his followers began by killing his masters in Southhampton county and then headed to other plantations to do the same. In the end Turner and his followers had killed 57 white people and the next day the Virginia Militia encountered the rebels and squashed the rebellion. Turner and 55 others believed to be his conspirators were hanged. And as a result of this, Virginia planters panicked, and unleashed terror on an estimated 200 of their enslaved workers, beating all of them and killing many.<ref name=":024">{{Citation|author=[[Howard Zinn]]|year=1980|title=A People's History of the United States|title-url=https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/peoples-history/|chapter=Slavery without Submission, Emancipation without Freedom|page=165–166|pdf=https://files.libcom.org/files/A%20People's%20History%20of%20the%20Unite%20-%20Howard%20Zinn.pdf|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=0060194480}}</ref>

===== John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry =====
[[John Brown]] tried to start a slave rebellion in Virginia in 1859. He failed and was executed by hanging.<ref name=":122" />

=== Civil War era ===
{{Main article|Statesian Civil War}}
[[File:Statesian civil war map.svg|thumb|United States in blue and Confederacy in red. Light blue states remained in the Union but allowed slavery.]]
In January 1861, several slave states seceded from the USA to form the [[Confederate States of America (1861–1865)|Confederate States of America]]. They seized an army base at Fort Sumter in April, beginning a war against the United States. In addition the the Union Army, the Confederacy also fought against [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] units of indigenous peoples and former slaves in Kansas.<ref name=":03">{{Citation|author=[[Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz]]|year=2014|title=An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States|chapter="Indian Country"|pdf=https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/10601/An%20Indigenous%20Peoples%20History%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Ortiz.pdf|city=Boston, Massachusetts|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=9780807000403|page=}}</ref>:133–6

==== Reconstruction ====
After the defeat of the Confederacy, [[United States Congress|Congress]] passed a series of laws putting the south under military rule. The army prevented former Confederates from voting and organized an anti-secessionist electorate. They elected delegates to create new state constitutions so their states could rejoin the USA. The army enfranchised almost 700,000 Black people and prevented 200,000 Confederates from voting. Most Confederate leaders were only jailed for short periods or not at all, and only one, Henry Wirz, was executed.

President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] declared martial law in nine counties of [[South Carolina]] to combat the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and arrested 500 to 600 people. In 1872, an amnesty act restored voting rights to most Confederates and only kept the top 300 or 400 disenfranchised. Many former slave owners fled to [[Federative Republic of Brazil#Empire era (1822–1889)|Brazil]] or [[Cuba]].<ref name=":0232">{{Citation|author=Albert Szymanski|year=1984|title=Human Rights in the Soviet Union|chapter=The Land of the Free|page=160–161|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceazdmtb2y3qq27fve5ib3gk7uv2unt6ae2xss74xmfpur7k5uhl5m?filename=Albert%20Szymanski%20-%20Human%20Rights%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union_%20Including%20Comparisons%20with%20the%20U.S.A.-Zed%20Books%20Ltd.%20%281984%29.pdf|city=London|publisher=Zed Books Ltd|isbn=0862320186|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=C597B1232D9EA6B0F3DCB438D7E15A81}}</ref> Reconstruction ended in 1877, leading to the creation of a white supremacist dictatorship in the south.<ref>{{Citation|author=[[Domenico Losurdo]]|year=2011|title=Liberalism: A Counter-History|chapter=The West and the Barbarians|page=222|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781844676934|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=5BB3406BC2E64972831A1C00D5D4BFE4|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacebhsj2yxuoudkhkjp6lzgr5jvgyhu76zxe4gw3d65gpg32a6nded4?filename=Domenico%20Losurdo%2C%20Gregory%20Elliott%20-%20Liberalism_%20A%20Counter-History-Verso%20%282011%29.pdf}}</ref>

=== Westward expansion ===
[[File:Western US wars map.png|thumb|Map of military bases and battles against indigenous nations between 1860 and 1890]]The U.S. Army fought 943 battles and skirmishes against native peoples between 1865 and 1898. Settlers reduced the native population in California from 150,000 in 1845 to 18,000 in 1890.<ref name=":12322">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|isbn=9780520972070|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05|page=157–66|chapter=The Permanent Indian Frontier}}</ref>

The Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Crow, Gros Ventre, Mandan, and [[Lakota people|Sioux]] signed a treaty with the United States that reserved them to certain areas of land in exchange for the government paying them goods for ten years. It allowed the government to build roads and forts on their reservations. Despite the promise of goods, many natives were starving by 1853.

The Dakota people of [[Minnesota]] were starving by 1862 and began a revolt against the settlers. The Union crushed them and hanged 38 in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. [[John Chivington]]'s volunteers killed 133 Cheyennes and Arapahos on the Sand Creek reservation. Colonel [[Patrick Connor]] massacred the Shoshone, Bannock, and Ute in [[Nevada]] and [[Utah]]. [[James Carleton]] fought against [[Cochise]], the leader of the [[Apache|Apaches]], in Arizona. He enlisted [[Kit Carson]], who forced 8,000 [[Navajo]] people to march 300 miles to a concentration camp in the [[New Mexico]] desert. A quarter of them starved to death.<ref name=":03" />:136–9

[[Black Kettle]] (''Mo'ôhtavetoo'o'') of the Cheyenne survived the Sand Creek massacre and was forced into Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The Army killed civilians in response to a guerrilla resistance. Black Kettle rode out unarmed to meet with [[George Custer]], and Custer ordered his soldiers to shoot him even though he was flying a white flag.<ref name=":03" />:145–6 In 1874, the Army attacked Arapahos, Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas in northern Texas and destroyed their supplies, forcing them onto reservations.<ref name=":12322" />

In 1877, [[Chief Joseph]] (''Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it'') of the [[Nez Perce]] led 800 civilians out of Idaho and towards the Canadian border. They held out for four months while 2,000 soldiers pursued them. In 1878, [[Little Wolf]] (''Ó'kôhómôxháahketa'') and [[Dull Knife]] (''Vóóhéhéve'') led more than 3,000 Cheyenne out of Oklahoma and back to their homeland in [[Montana]] and [[Wyoming]]. The military caught them and put them on a reservation that included only part of their homeland.<ref name=":03" />:149–50

The Lakota and Cheyenne, led by [[Crazy Horse]] (''Tȟašúŋke Witkó'') and [[Sitting Bull]] (''Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake''), killed Custer and defeated his entire Seventh Cavalry at Little Bighorn in 1876. A year later, the USA captured Crazy Horse and killed him when he tried to escape.<ref name=":03" />:151–2 In response, the Army began a ruthless campaign that ended with the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890, killing up to 300 unarmed and starving people. With the decline of the resistance, the number of forts dropped from 187 to 118.<ref name=":12322" />

By 1879, dozens of native nations were confined to Indian Territory.<ref name=":12322" /> [[Geronimo]] (''Goyaałé'') of the Apache nation led a resistance war against the U.S. colonizers from 1850 to 1886.<ref name=":9" /> He surrendered as a prisoner of war, and the Army sent him and his nation to Fort Sill in Indian Territory.<ref name=":03" />:150–51

===Rise as global empire===
Between the end of the Civil War and the invasion of Cuba in 1898, the United States expanded its army from 25,000 to almost 300,000 troops.<ref name=":83">{{Citation|author=[[Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz]]|year=2014|title=An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States|chapter=US Triumphalism and Peacetime Colonialism|page=164|pdf=https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/10601/An%20Indigenous%20Peoples%20History%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Ortiz.pdf|city=Boston|publisher=Beacon Press Books|series=ReVisioning American History|title-url=}}</ref>

The USA began an attack against the workers' movement following the [[Haymarket affair]] of 1886 and executed four [[Anarchism|anarchists]], including two who had not been involved in the incident. Soon after, the police raided the houses of dissidents throughout Chicago and destroyed foreign language newspapers. Leaders of the [[Noble Order of the Knights of Labor|Knights of Labor]] from multiple states were also arrested.

Starting in 1892, states began to declare martial law in order to suppress [[Strike action|strikes]]. In 1903, 1,000 troops invaded the town of Cripple Creek, Colorado, arrested 600 strikers, and held them in prison for weeks without trial.<ref name=":0233">{{Citation|author=Albert Szymanski|year=1984|title=Human Rights in the Soviet Union|chapter=The Land of the Free|page=|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzaceazdmtb2y3qq27fve5ib3gk7uv2unt6ae2xss74xmfpur7k5uhl5m?filename=Albert%20Szymanski%20-%20Human%20Rights%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union_%20Including%20Comparisons%20with%20the%20U.S.A.-Zed%20Books%20Ltd.%20%281984%29.pdf|city=London|publisher=Zed Books Ltd|isbn=0862320186|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=C597B1232D9EA6B0F3DCB438D7E15A81}}</ref>

==== Austronesian genocide ====
By the end of the 19th century, the United States would find itself as a predominant imperialist power in the world, invading countries such as the [[Philippines]] in a brutal war for control. [[J. Sakai]] recounts that, "U.S. Brig. Gen. James Bell, upon returning to the U.S. in 1901, said that his men had killed one out of every six Filipinos on the main island of Luzon (that would be some one million deaths just there). It is certain that at least 200,000 Filipinos died in the genocidal conquest. In Samar province, where the patriotic resistance to the U.S. invaders was extremely persistent, U.S. Gen. Jacob Smith ordered his troops to shoot every Filipino man, woman or child they could find 'over ten' (years of age)."<ref>Sakai 2014, p. 111</ref>

The United States would expand beyond its continental borders with the colonialist acquisition of lands such as [[Hawaii]], the Philippines, [[Guam]], etc. With the attack on several of these territories by the [[Japanese empire]], most notably at Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt would downplay the colonialist additions to the American empire, such as the Philippines, and give more emphasis to the U.S. territory of Hawaii (which was not yet a state during this time). From Daniel Immerwahr's ''How To Hide An Empire: A History of the Greater United States'':<blockquote>"Why did Roosevelt demote the Philippines? We don't know, but it's not hard to guess. Roosevelt was trying to tell a clear story: Japan had attacked the United States. But he faced a problem. ''Were'' Japan's targets considered 'the United States'? Legally, yes, they were indisputably U.S. territory. But would the public see them that way? What if Roosevelt's audience didn't care that Japan had attacked the Philippines or Guam? Polls taken slightly before the attack show that few in the continental United States supported a military defense of those remote territories.

Consider how similar events played out more recently. On August 7, 1998, al-Qaeda launched simultaneous attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, [[Republic of Kenya|Kenya]], and Dar es Salaam, [[United Republic of Tanzania|Tanzania]]. Hundreds died (mostly Africans), and thousands were wounded. But though those embassies were outposts of the United States, there was little public sense that the country ''itself'' had been harmed. It would take another set of simultaneous attacks three years later, on New York City and Washington, D.C., to provoke an all-out war."<ref>{{Citation|author=Daniel Immerwahr|year=2019|title=How to hide an empire: a history of the greater United States|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=9780374172145|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9D70A450044495E0D851721E77D5C8A1|page=6}}</ref></blockquote>While an embassy is different from a territory, as the book concedes, a similar logic was at play. And as Immerwahr says, Hawaii had more Americans and was closer to statehood. However, as Immerwahr explains, even Roosevelt felt the need to say that the "American island of Oahu" was attacked and that "very many American lives" had been lost. As Immerwahr says in explaining the nationalism implicit in Roosevelt's speech after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor: "An ''American'' island, where ''American'' lives were lost - that was the point he was trying to make. If the Philippines was being rounded down to foreign, [[Hawaii|Hawai'i]] was being rounded up to 'American.'"<ref>{{Citation|author=Daniel Immerwahr|year=2019|title=How to hide an empire: a history of the greater United States|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=9780374172145|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9D70A450044495E0D851721E77D5C8A1|page=7}}</ref>

==== First World War ====
{{Main article|First World War}}The [[Socialist Party of America]] and [[Industrial Workers of the World]] opposed U.S. involvement in the First World War. In May 1918, the USA passed the [[Sedition Act]], banning opposition to the war, and arrested New York SPA leader [[Benjamin Gitlow]]. Arizona, California, Montana, New York, and West Virginia passed laws banning left-wing activism. 27 farmers from South Dakota were sent to prison for petitioning against the war. Between 1917 and 1923, 33 states banned the use of red flags. In April 1918, 113 IWW members were convicted of over 10,000 offenses. [[Bill Haywood|Big Bill Haywood]], who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, escaped to the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]]. In addition to socialists, the United States suppressed pro-[[Republic of Ireland|Irish]] publications that criticized the British Empire. [[Eugene V. Debs|Eugene Debs]], who was imprisoned following an anti-war speech in June 1918, ran for president in 1920 and received over a million votes.<ref name=":0233" />:161–70

===== Invasion of Russia =====
In December 1917, the United States authorized aid to anti-communist forces in southern [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991)|Russia]] and the Caucasus.<ref>{{Citation|author=David S. Foglesong|year=1995|title=America's Secret War against Bolshevism|title-url=https://archive.org/details/americassecretwa0000davi|chapter=The British Connection|page=76|pdf=|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|anna=https://annas-archive.org/md5/1fa9443fced17a62f384d8e7b84f4b56}}</ref> At the end of the First World War, [[Woodrow Wilson]] sent 15,000 troops to western and eastern Russia to fight the Bolsheviks and limit the power of Japan. The USA occupied Vladivostok from August 1918 to April 1920.<ref name=":02222">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|chapter=The Military Opens Doors|page=218|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520972070|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05}}</ref>

===== Palmer Raids =====
On January 2, 1920, federal agents led by [[A. Mitchell Palmer]] arrested over 4,000 dissidents in 33 cities across 23 states. Between 1917 and 1921, they deported 900 leftists. During this same period, the KKK and [[American Legion]] attacked [[Left–right political spectrum|leftists]] and [[trade unionists]]. Membership of the newly founded [[Communist Party of the United States of America|CPUSA]] dropped from 70,000 to 12,000, the [[Socialist Party of America|SPA]] from 110,000 to 10,000, and the [[Industrial Workers of the World|IWW]] from over 100,000 to under 10,000.<ref name=":0233" />:169–72

==== Great Depression ====
{{Main article|Great Depression}}Political repression weakened after 1923 but resumed following the economic collapse of 1929. Ben Boloff, a [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian]] immigrant and CPUSA member, was arrested in 1930 and sentenced to ten years in prison. [[Dirk De Jonge]], leader of the Oregon Communist Party, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1934. Patterson, [[New Jersey]], banned all labour meetings and pro-worker protests.<ref name=":0233" />:172–73

===== New Deal =====

==== Second World War ====
{{Main article|Second World War}}Because the CPUSA initially stayed neutral in the Second World War, the United States arrested some of its members, including General Secretary [[Earl Browder]]. The [[Smith Act]], passed in 1940, criminalized opposition to the U.S. government or war effort and was used against [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Trotskyists]] as well as [[German American Bund|Nazis]]. After the entry of the USSR into the war, the CPUSA changed its line, and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] pardoned Browder.<ref name=":0233" />

In September 1940, the USA gave 50 old destroyers to the UK in exchange for taking control of British bases in the [[Americas]]. The bases were located in eight British colonies: [[Antigua and Barbuda|Antigua]], the [[Commonwealth of The Bahamas|Bahamas]], [[Bermuda]], [[Co-operative Republic of Guyana|Guiana]], [[Jamaica]], [[Newfoundland]], and [[Saint Lucia]], and [[Republic of Trinidad and Tobago|Trinidad]].<ref name=":0222">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|chapter=Reopening the Frontier|page=|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520972070|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05}}</ref>:223–4 Only nine of the destroyers actually worked. The USA also used the [[Lend-Lease]] program to give military aid to at least thirty countries, starting with the UK. [[Republic of China|China]], [[Hellenic Republic|Greece]], [[Kingdom of Norway|Norway]], and the Soviet Union later joined the program.<ref name=":0222" />:235–7

The U.S. government forced 112,000 [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] people living west of the Mississippi River into concentration camps in remote areas, giving them only two days to two weeks of warning. The camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers and did not allow Japanese culture and language. The army confined and isolated strikers.<ref name=":0233" />:173–75

After the defeat of Japan, the United States resurrected its former enemy to be used as a satellite state against [[socialism]].<ref name=":110">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=Suppressing a Worldwide Movement for Liberty|page=105–107|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> The USA became the most powerful empire in history and controlled both ends of Eurasia from Japan to the Britain.<ref name=":022222">{{Citation|author=David Vine|year=2020|title=The United States of War|chapter=Normalizing Occupation|page=301|city=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520972070|lg=http://library.lol/main/191568BFAC73F009132DB00ECD0F0F05}}</ref>

=== Cold War ===

==== Red Scare ====
{{Main article|Second Red Scare}}

==== Invasion of Korea ====
{{Main article|Fatherland Liberation War}}

==== Civil Rights movement and counterculture ====
By 1972, more than 500 municipalities had created political police squads to target radicals. Los Angeles had 167 political agents (1970), New York had 361 (1972), and Chicago had over 1,000 (1969). The New York police had files on 1.2 million political dissidents. The government actively spied on over 250,000 Statesians in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] created a list of dissidents who would immediately be arrested or investigated in the event of a [[Proletarian revolution|national emergency]]. This list included [[Black nationalism|black nationalists]], [[Anarchism|anarchists]], and [[Students for a Democratic Society|SDS]] members. The FBI sabotaged [[Marxism|Marxist]] and black nationalist movements by planting information claiming their members were informants and infiltrated the SDS with [[Agent provocateur|agent provocateurs]].<ref name=":0233" />:187–88

==== Invasion of Vietnam ====
{{Main article|Vietnam War}}

==== War on Drugs ====

===21st century===

==== Internal crises ====
The US is embroiled in crisis as its middle class (the [[Petty bourgeoisie|petit bourgeoisie]]) is increasingly impoverished.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-state-of-americas-middle-class-in-eight-charts/ The State of America’s Middle Class in Eight Charts] PBS Frontline by Jason M. Breslow and Evan Wexler on July 9th, 2013</ref><ref>[https://americansystemnow.com/deindustrialization-is-killing-america/ Deindustrialization is Killing America]</ref> This is due to the capitalist class deciding to offshore well-paying industrial jobs to lower-income countries,<ref>[https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/08/a-new-assessment-of-the-role-of-offshoring-in-the-decline-in-us-manufacturing-employment.html A New Assessment of the Role of Offshoring in the Decline in US Manufacturing Employment] on Naked Capitalism by Yves Smith on Aug 16, 2019</ref> as well expansionary monetary policy<ref>[https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1220364.shtml US’ excessive money-printing prompts de-dollarization] on [[Global Times]] by Ma Jingjing published on April 6th, 2021 </ref> which enriches the bourgeoisie through asset price inflation,<ref>[https://fee.org/articles/the-cantillon-effect-because-of-inflation-we-re-financing-the-financiers/ The Cantillon Effect: Because of Inflation, We’re Financing the Financiers] on Fee.org by Jessica Schultz on Oct 28, 2018</ref> and deepens the crisis among the poor by weakening their purchasing power.

As a result of this ongoing crisis of capitalism, populist movements have risen to challenge the rule of "the elites." [[Occupy Wall Street]] was a popular movement against the financial elites in 2011. During the 2016 presidential election, the corporate-owned media attacked both the left-wing populist [[Bernie Sanders]], as well as the right-wing populist [[Donald Trump]]. The Democratic Party's strategy to "elevate Trump" to make the Republican ticket look unsavory ended up backfiring and resulting in Trump's victory.

With the economic hardships of the 2020's, a growing number of Americans, often of younger ages, have begun to lose faith in capitalism.<ref>{{News citation|author=Laura Wronski|newspaper=SurveyMoney|title=Axios{{!}}Momentive Poll: Capitalism and Socialism|date=2021-6-11|url=https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/axios-capitalism-update/|retrieved=2022-6-11}}</ref> While many of these discontent people have achieved [[consciousness]] in how many problems (constant wars, [[homelessness]], [[Climate change|global warming]], etc.) in society can ultimately be traced back to capitalism, and have therefore aligned themselves with [[Marxism|Marxist]] or otherwise [[socialist]] ideologies, there are many other malcontent people who have taken to the far-right. A trend that is present especially among the middle-class, there has been an increase in the popularity of populist and xenophobic groups, as well as an increasing [[Fascism|fascistization]] of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] (one of the two ruling parties in the Statesian government).<ref>{{Citation|author=Marc-André Argentino, Blyth Crawford, Florence Keen, Hannah Rose|year=2021|title=Far-From-Gone:The Evolutionof Extremism in the First 100 Daysof the Biden Administration|title-url=https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ICSR-Report-Far-From-Gone-The-Evolution-of-Extremism-in-the-First-100-Days-of-the-Biden-Administration.pdf|chapter=3. The 6 January Insurrectionists: Narratives and Motivations|section=Discontent with Presidential Election Results|page=63-72|pdf=https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ICSR-Report-Far-From-Gone-The-Evolution-of-Extremism-in-the-First-100-Days-of-the-Biden-Administration.pdf|city=London|publisher=International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation|trans-lang=English}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|author=Alison Durkee|newspaper=Forbes|title=More Than Half Of Republicans Believe Voter Fraud Claims And Most Still Support Trump, Poll Finds|date=2021-4-5|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/04/05/more-than-half-of-republicans-believe-voter-fraud-claims-and-most-still-support-trump-poll-finds/?sh=7edebb081b3f|retrieved=2022-6-10}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Dr. Robert A. Pape|year=2021|title=UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN DOMESTIC TERRORISM|title-url=https://d3qi0qp55mx5f5.cloudfront.net/cpost/i/docs/americas_insurrectionists_online_2021_04_06.pdf?mtime=1617807009|chapter=STUDY 1:WHO ARE THE INSURRECTIONISTS AND WHERE DID THEY COME FROM|section=MANY BUSINESS OWNERS/WHITECOLLAR|page=6-9|pdf=https://d3qi0qp55mx5f5.cloudfront.net/cpost/i/docs/americas_insurrectionists_online_2021_04_06.pdf?mtime=1617807009|city=The University of Chicago|publisher=Chicago Project on Security and Threats|trans-lang=English}}</ref>

===== Mass shootings and racism =====

====External losses====
The American empire has been on the decline since the 21st century and possibly earlier. This is a slow process that will take years to complete however. One major factor of this decline is the United States' incapacity to respond to the [[People's Republic of China]]'s [[Belt and Road Initiative]], as more countries are moving towards the PRC and away from the USA for trade and loans.

If a superpower is measured through objective metrics such as scientific output (number of research papers per year),<ref>https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20206/</ref> exports & other trade metrics,<ref>https://www.statista.com/statistics/264623/leading-export-countries-worldwide/<nowiki/>archive: https://archive.ph/dKloW</ref> GDP,<ref>https://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?t=10&v=65 - GDP adapted to purchasing power parity (PPP)</ref> then these metrics show the US is on the decline and has been for several years. In subjective metrics, a superpower's hegemony is measured in its soft power (putting compradors in power abroad to ensure collaboration), its cultural exports (media, entertainment, software), and generally its respect in the world. In these trends too we see the USA declining. They have been unable for some time to ensure compradors in other countries, and are becoming less respected in the eyes of the international community (see list below). The United States' cultural export is still high, but even at home people are increasingly moving away from domestic entertainment, though it remains to be seen if this will be a lasting trend.

Other losses that the American empire has had to endure in the 21st century include, in chronological order:

* The [[September 11 attacks|September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks]] completely blindsided intelligence and security agencies and showed a very big weakness in the imperial apparatus; it was not as invincible as it thought.
* A smear campaign originated in the US media in January 2019 when [[Venezuela|Venezuelan]] president [[Nicolás Maduro]] was reelected. US News organisations started reporting about a supposed humanitarian crisis in the country, owing to Maduro's allegedly "disastrous" policies. Two weeks later, president of the Assembly [[Juan Guaidó|Juan Guaido]] proclaimed himself president of Venezuela as he contested Maduro's results under the guise that he was not allowed to run for office a third time as per the constitution. Juan Guaido, who enjoyed very little support at home and was a nobody, was nonetheless instantly recognized as the legitimate president of Venezuela by the United States and other countries and organisations ([[Canada]], [[European Union]]...). An attempted [[Colour revolution|color revolution]] then was planned in Venezuela, but went nowhere. Guaido was then slowly phased out of the public eye in the international community, though he continues to make noise in Venezuela. Maduro remains the president of Venezuela.
* In late 2019, [[Plurinational State of Bolivia|Bolivian]] president [[Evo Morales]] was reelected at his position. The election results were immediately contested by the [[Organization of American States|Organisation of American States]], a US-led organisation for the purpose of securing imperialism on the American continent. While these allegations proved to be false, Morales went in exile for over six months while [[Jeanine Áñez|Jeanine Añez]], a far-right [[comprador]] politician, was placed as an interim. After delaying new elections twice, Añez finally relented and took a huge blow when [[Luis Arce]], from the same party as Morales was elected. Añez is now in prison awaiting trial on various charges including terrorism, sedition, and leading a coup against the government.
* In January 2020, the United States ordered the assassination of [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iranian]] general [[Qasem Soleimani]] while on visit in Baghdad, [[Iraq]]. Later that month, Iran retaliated by launching an attack on a US military base in Iraq on a scale never seen before. The US did not retaliate against this attack in any way.
* In August 2021, the United States, after 20 years of occupation in [[Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021)|Afghanistan]] to prevent the [[Taliban]] from controlling the state, did exactly the opposite and let the Taliban seize the Afghan state.

It is important to compare this list to earlier imperialist ventures of the United States who, for example, considered South America their "backyard" for most of the 20th century and successfully pulled-off coups and regime changes unimpeded in the region. While the Empire also took losses in the 20th century (the invasion of Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs invasion, etc.), it must only contextualised by looking at the general trends and how these losses are rapidly adding up.

== Genocide of indigenous peoples ==
<blockquote>''See also: [[List of atrocities commited by the United States of America#Genocide%20of%20indigenous%20peoples%20of%20the%20United%20States|List of atrocities committed by the United States of America#Genocide of indigenous peoples of the United States]]''</blockquote>
Over 90% of the indigenous population of North America was killed due to colonization, and some have estimated that no more than 2% of the pre-[[Christopher Columbus|Columbian]] population survived and settlers killed over 18 million indigenous people. From 1641 to the late 18th century, legislation existed that rewarded settlers for killing indigenous peoples, with extra rewards for the scalps of boys.<ref name=":6" />

In 1871, Congress banned native nations from creating treaties and put them under the control of the federal government. Settlers and the Army killed tens of millions of buffalo, the economic base of the Plains, leaving only a few hundred alive by the 1880s.<ref name=":03" />:142

By the late 19th century, the native population had been decimated and the survivors were forced into concentration camps. Native children were forced into boarding schools and prevented from speaking their native languages.<ref name=":2">{{News citation|author=Dennis Etler|newspaper=[[CGTN]]|title=U.S. treatment of Native Americans is a gross human rights violation|date=2021-03-29|url=https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-26/U-S-treatment-of-Native-Americans-is-a-gross-human-rights-violation-YVtGCFbCJa/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219235353/https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-26/U-S-treatment-of-Native-Americans-is-a-gross-human-rights-violation-YVtGCFbCJa/index.html|archive-date=2022-02-19|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref> Several hundred children died in these schools.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=CGTN|title=U.S. govt finds burial sites at 53 Native American boarding schools|date=2022-05-13|url=https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-05-13/U-S-govt-finds-burial-sites-at-53-Native-American-boarding-schools-19ZRXTgFIC4/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513073029/https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-05-13/U-S-govt-finds-burial-sites-at-53-Native-American-boarding-schools-19ZRXTgFIC4/index.html|archive-date=2022-05-13|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref> The federal government also set up an educational system to "kill the Indian and save the man" by eliminating Native American religious and cultural traditions.<ref name=":11">{{Citation|author=Jeffrey Ostler|year=2015|title=Empire’s Twin: U.S. Anti-Imperialism from the Founding Era to the Age of Terrorism|chapter=“Native Americans against Empire and Colonial Rule,”|page=53|city=Ithaca, New York|publisher=Cornell University Press}}</ref> These policies were deliberately designed to bring about the extinction of Native American people and their customs.<ref name=":11" /> By 1900, only 190,000 Native Americans in the United States remained alive compared to five million at the beginning of colonization.<ref name=":2" />

[[United States Congress|Congress]] passed House Concurrent Resolution 108 in 1953, terminating tribes in [[State of California|California]], Florida, [[State of New York|New York]], and Texas. Over 100 nations were terminated between 1953 and 1964 and 1.3 million acres of native land were privatized. In 1955, the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]] created offices to relocate natives to cities to be assimilated. They relocated 750,000 natives into cities, where they often experienced severe poverty. By 2010, 78% of natives lived off of reservations.<ref name=":9" />

Many Native Americans are restricted to reservations in remote areas and live in poverty.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=[[CGTN]]|title=Native Americans: The invisible minority in the U.S.|date=2021-05-19|url=https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-19/Native-Americans-The-invisible-minority-in-the-U-S--10l6zrdhLMY/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520001321/https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-19/Native-Americans-The-invisible-minority-in-the-U-S--10l6zrdhLMY/index.html|archive-date=2021-05-20|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref> Overall, Native Americans are twice as likely to be in poverty.<ref name=":1">{{News citation|author=Xin Ping|newspaper=[[CGTN]]|title=Surviving in oblivion: Who cast a miserable shadow over the Native Americans?|date=2022-01-06|url=https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-06/Who-cast-a-miserable-shadow-over-the-Native-Americans--16BqNXMyp3i/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107052329/https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-06/Who-cast-a-miserable-shadow-over-the-Native-Americans--16BqNXMyp3i/index.html|archive-date=2022-01-07|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref> They do not have access to the natural resources of the reservations, which are owned by corporations and mining companies. Indigenous peoples have the worst health and educational outcomes and the highest level of suicide<ref name=":0" /> and indigenous women are 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted.<ref name=":1" /> During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Native American communities were disproportionately affected, with the highest rate of infection and death.<ref name=":2" />

==Government==
{{Main article|Government of the United States of America}}
[[File:US Plutocracy Flag.jpg|alt=U.S. flag restyled to illustrate the plutocratic and corporatist nature of the political system|thumb|U.S. flag restyled to illustrate the plutocratic and [[Corporatism|corporatist]] nature of the political system; the 50 stars which represent each state have been replaced with the logos of large monopolistic corporations. ]]
[[File:US government diagram.png|thumb|Connections between the capitalist [[ruling class]] and the U.S. government]]
[[File:US tax pie chart.png|thumb|The US spends 37% of its income [[tax]] revenue on war.]]
The US political system is a ''de facto'' plutocracy, a government entirely controlled by the wealthy.<ref>{{Web citation|author=TOM MCKAY|newspaper=MIC|title=Princeton Concludes What Kind of Government America Really Has, and It's Not a Democracy|date=2016-4-16|url=https://www.mic.com/articles/87719/princeton-concludes-what-kind-of-government-america-really-has-and-it-s-not-a-democracy|retrieved=2022-8-30}}</ref> The richest three Statesians have more money than the poorest 160 million combined.<ref>{{News citation|author=Tom Kertscher|newspaper=PolitiFact|title='The wealthiest three families now own more wealth than the bottom half of the country.'|date=2019-07-03|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/03/bernie-sanders/bernie-sanders-target-saying-3-richest-have-much-w/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220126234218/https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/03/bernie-sanders/bernie-sanders-target-saying-3-richest-have-much-w/|archive-date=2022-01-26|retrieved=2022-05-01}}</ref> Public support for the U.S. government is very low, with only 2% of Statesians believing the government almost always does what is right and only 19% believing it mostly does the right thing. 7% of Statesians have confidence in Congress, 23% have confidence in the presidency, and 25% have confidence in the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]].<ref>{{Web citation|author=[[Ben Norton]]|newspaper=[[Multipolarista]]|title=Polls show almost no one trusts US media, after decades of war propaganda and lies|date=2022-07-30|url=https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/30/trust-us-media-war-propaganda/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806143950/https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/30/trust-us-media-war-propaganda/|archive-date=2022-08-06|retrieved=2022-08-07}}</ref> Protests are illegal without permits from the government, and police often attack protestors with clubs and chemical weapons. It is illegal for protestors to wear helmets or gas masks to protect themselves.<ref name=":05">{{Citation|author=Austin Murphy|year=2000|title=The Triumph of Evil|chapter=A Detailed Autopsy of the Collapse of the Superior System in the Divided Germany|page=141|pdf=https://mltheory.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil.pdf|city=Fucecchio|publisher=European Press Academic Publishing|isbn=8883980026}}</ref>

The US is also a ''de facto'' [[one-party state]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Mark J. Green|year=1982|title=Winning Back America|title-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oa3VExRT2s8C&q=%22Yes,+we+have+one+party+here.+But+so+does+America.+Except,+with+typical+extravagance,+they+have+two+of+them.%22&dq=%22Yes,+we+have+one+party+here.+But+so+does+America.+Except,+with+typical+extravagance,+they+have+two+of+them.%22&hl=es-419&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiI5N6FrafqAhXoHbkGHehvD1UQ6AEwAXoECAAQAg|quote='Yes, we have one party here. But so does America. Except, with typical extravagance, they have two of them!'|publisher=Bantam Books|isbn=9780553226300}}</ref> with aesthetical differences between its two main parties, the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] and the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], but both parties follow common policies, especially abroad. The ruling capitalist oligarchy has two factions: the Democratic Party which is center-right<ref>[http://www.thebreezepaper.com/news-blog/2020/12/18/like-it-or-not-the-democratic-party-is-a-right-wing-party Like it or Not, the Democratic Party is a Right-Wing Party]</ref> and is controlled by the monopolistic managerial [[bourgeoisie]] who seeks to maintain the stability of the imperialist system by being less [[reactionary]] on inconsequential social issues, and the Republican Party, which is more reactionary and backwards when it comes to social issues<ref>[https://www.salon.com/2019/07/05/how-did-the-republican-party-become-so-conservative/ How did the Republican Party become so conservative?]</ref> and tends to pander to the [[Petty bourgeoisie|petit bourgeoisie]] in their effort to deepen the exploitation of labor.

The election system further solidifies this duopoly with its "First Past the Post" system, resulting in citizens having to choose "the lesser of two evils." The two political parties stir up public debate around their small disagreements to create a facade of democracy, but bipartisan agreement reigns on questions of foreign policy (imperialism, war, attacking socialist countries) as well as domestic policies such as prioritizing funding for police repression over social programs such as free housing, higher education, healthcare, etc.

Given the presence of campaign donations and lobbying (legalized [[corruption]]), the billionaires who buy off politicians to serve their will are sometimes referred to as the "donor class".<ref name="NYT-19980719">{{Web citation|journalist=Bob Herbert|date=1998-07-19|title=The Donor Class|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/19/opinion/in-america-the-donor-class.html|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

In his autobiographical account of taking on monopolistic corporations as president, President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] recounted:<blockquote>…we had come to the stage where for our people what was needed was a real democracy; and of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy.<ref>{{Web citation|title=Roosevelt, Theodore. 1913. An Autobiography: XII. The Big Stick and the Square Deal|url=http://www.bartleby.com/55/12.html}}</ref></blockquote>Despite various anti-monopoly countermeasures (anti-trust legislation, etc.) the underlying system of capitalism and the desire to accumulate more surplus value and increase profitability continues to result in monopolistic formations within the US economy. These monopolies are more powerful than the public state apparatus, and by most approximations can be considered the same object. According to fascist dictator [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]], the merging of corporate power and state power is the definition of fascism.<ref>"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." --Benito Mussolini. (from Encyclopedia Italiana, Giovanni Gentile, editor)</ref>

==Foreign policy==
[[File:US military bases.png|thumb|Map of Statesian military bases around the world.]]
The United States has long seen itself as a very special nation, playing a uniquely noble role on the world stage. While other nations are said to be guided by vulgar self-interest, the United States is supposedly different; the primary goal of American foreign policy is, according to the [[United States Department of State|State Department]]’s website, to “promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.” Despite these imperialist lies, the United States has been at war for more than 90% of its existence<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Sabir Shah|date=2020-01-09|title=The US Has Been at war 225 out of 243 years since 1776|url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/595752-the-us-has-been-at-war-225-out-of-243-years-since-1776|newspaper=The News|retrieved=2022-03-11}}</ref> and has over 800 military bases in foreign countries, compared to 30 for the rest of the world combined.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=David Vine|title=Where in the World Is the U.S. Military?|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/us-military-bases-around-the-world-119321/|newspaper=Politico|retrieved=2022-03-11}}</ref>

===Foreign aid and human rights===
The US has a horrific foreign aid record. It seems that American aid is quite a good predictor of human rights abuses, and that this trend goes back decades; according to a 1981 study in the journal ''Comparative Politics,'' US aid is “clearly distributed disproportionately to countries with repressive governments… this distribution represented a pattern and not merely one or a few isolated cases.” Indeed, it is quite easy to find examples of the United States supporting vicious repressive regimes (such as [[Pinochet]]'s Chile, the Shah of Iran, and the military junta of [[El Salvador]]).

Similarly, a 1984 study in the ''Journal of Peace Research'' looked at human rights and US aid under Nixon, Ford, and Carter. The authors found that “under Presidents Nixon and Ford foreign assistance was directly related to levels of human rights violations, i.e. more aid flowed to regimes with higher levels of violation, while under President Carter no clear statistical pattern emerged.” They therefore conclude that “the Carter administration did not implement a policy of human rights which actually guided the disposition of military and economic assistance.” In other words, the US attitude towards human rights seems to vary from outright hostility (under more conservative administrations) to mere indifference (under more liberal ones).<ref>{{Citation|author=Michael Stohl, David Carleton, Steven E. Johnson|year=1984|title=Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Assistance From Nixon to Carter|title-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258155100_Human_Rights_and_US_Foreign_Assistance_From_Nixon_to_Carter|pdf=https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=f864f24af8a5e65d8512f5c7ee351a324f485b43|doi=10.1177/002234338402100302}}</ref>

More recent studies have painted a similarly bleak picture. A 2008 book by Rhonda Callaway and Elizabeth Matthews found that “both United States economic and military aid have detrimental effects on security rights of the citizens in recipient states.” They note that these results “provide support for those critical of the US foreign assistance program.” The most recent research has continued to back up these conclusions. A 2016 study in the ''Quarterly Journal of Political Science'' sampled 150 countries from 1972 to 2008, finding that “US aid harms political rights, fosters other forms of state repression (measured along multiple dimensions), and strengthens authoritarian governance. [...] These findings counter the publicly stated objectives of the US government to foster political liberalization abroad via bilateral economic assistance.”

All-in-all, it seems that aid from the United States has a deleterious impact on the human rights situation in recipient nations. It provides military and economic aid to repressive regimes, arming and propping up some of the most vicious dictators on the planet, all in service of its own interests.

[[Alan MacLeod]] of [[MintPress News]] has compiled a thread of times the US military has deliberately bombed hospitals.<ref>@AlanRMacLeod on Twitter: [https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1501981269701373952?s=20&t=4ljxQ0O7WUzqg7tpOHEnHw <nowiki>"A short history of the United States deliberately bombing hospitals [Thread]"</nowiki>] ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20220310190033/https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1501981269701373952 (Archived)]''</ref>

===War on Terror===
Lest we think that the harm of US foreign policy stops at providing aid to dictators, the United States has also carried out a great deal of violence all on its own. To demonstrate the enormous death toll of US military intervention and invasion, let's take a look at the post-9/11 "War on Terror," including the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan (among others).

According to a 2019 report from Brown University's Costs of War project, "between 770,000 and 801,000 people have died" in what the report refers to as "America's post-9/11 wars." This tally does not include so-called "indirect deaths," such as those resulting from displacement and the destruction of crucial infrastructure (e.g. water and sanitation systems). In a 2019 article for the ''Hill,'' David Vine (Professor of Anthropology at American University) writes that "total deaths during the post-2001 U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen [are] likely to reach 3.1 million or more — around 200 times the number of U.S. dead."<ref>The Hill | Reckoning With the Costs of War: It's Time to Take Responsibility</ref> Others have come to similar conclusions. According to a 2018 report from the ''Intercept:''<blockquote>In addition to those killed by direct acts [of] violence, the number of indirect deaths — those resulting from disease, displacement, and the loss of critical infrastructure — is believed to be several times higher, running into the millions.<ref>The Intercept | The Assassination Complex: The Drone Papers</ref></blockquote>These death tolls are backed up by earlier research. A 2009 article from the MIT Center for International Studies, which looked ''only'' at Iraq, found that "we have, at present, between 800,000 and 1.3 million 'excess deaths' in this war as we approach its six-year anniversary." Keep in mind that this is only one of the invaded countries, and that this article was authored in 2009 (more than a decade ago). The current death tolls, when factoring in all nations (as well as the decade of subsequent warfare), are likely many times higher.

The United States government has engaged in a concerted effort to hide the civilian cost of its Middle Eastern wars. According to a 2017 report from the ''New York Times'', the actual rate of civilian causalities inflicted by coalition forces in the Middle East is "more than 31 times that acknowledged by the coalition. It is at such a distance from official claims that, in terms of civilian deaths, this may be the least transparent war in recent American history."

In point of fact, US forces often kill more people than the terrorists they are supposedly there to fight; a 2019 article in the ''New York Times'' reports that "more civilians are being killed by Afghan government and American forces than by the Taliban and other insurgents, according to a [United Nations] report on Wednesday."<ref>The New York Times | U.S. and Afghan Forces Killed More Civilians Than Taliban Did, Report Finds</ref> This is not even mentioning the US drone program, which was detailed in a 2013 report from the ''Intercept.'' To make matters worse, civilian casualties from US wars have been increasing dramatically since Donald Trump took office, according to a 2018 article from the ''Washington Post.''

While it must be noted that the United States did not personally kill all of the millions of people mentioned above, it still bears a heavy burden for these deaths, having initiated the invasions, and started the entire conflict. In the same way that we hold Hitler responsible for the deaths of WWII (since he was the one who started it), so too should we hold the United States responsible for the deaths listed above. For more information on the civilian cost of US intervention, I recommend ''The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America's Wars'', a study authored by John Tirman, director of the MIT Center for International Studies.

===Regime change===
The United States has a long history of overthrowing governments it doesn't like, typically then replacing them with brutal dictatorships. There are many, ''many'' examples of this, ranging from Jacobo Arbenz in [[Republic of Guatemala|Guatemala]], to Mohammad Mosaddegh in [[Iran]] (a coup for which the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] actually admitted responsibility in 2013).

====Chile====
In 1973 the United States helped to overthrow the elected socialist government of [[Salvador Allende]] in [[Chile]], replacing it with the right-wing dictatorship of [[Augusto Pinochet]]. Peter Kornbluh, the director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project, said the following of Chile:<blockquote>“To see on a piece of paper, for example, the president of the United States ordering the C.I.A. to preemptively overthrow a democratically elected president in Chile is stunning,” Mr. Kornbluh said. “The importance of having these documents in the museum is for the new generations of Chileans to actually see them.”<ref>The New York Times (2017) [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/world/americas/chile-coup-cia-museum.html Documenting U.S. Role in Democracy’s Fall and Dictator’s Rise in Chile]</ref></blockquote>As if this were not enough, in a 2014 interview with the ''Atlantic,'' Jack Devine (a former CIA agent who was in Chile at the time of the coup) confirmed that the Nixon administration was directly instructing the CIA to support the coup. According to declassified documents, Nixon had previously ordered Henry Kissinger to "make the economy scream," in an effort to rally support for the right-wing forces. The United States also attempted to prevent Allende from being inaugurated after his election, and provided support for state-terrorist campaigns after the coup. Now that the US role has been established, let's look at what Pinochet did once in power.

To begin with, Pinochet killed, tortured, and "disappeared" tens of thousands of people. According to a 2011 article from the BBC, the "total of recognized victims" numbers over 40,000, including more than 3,000 who were killed or forcibly disappeared. The rest were kidnapped, tortured, exiled, or some combination of the above. Pinochet was one of the most vicious dictators in the history of Latin America, and the United States played a direct role in propping up his regime.<ref>BBC | Chile Recognizes 9,800 More Victims of Pinochet's Rule</ref>

In addition, Pinochet introduced hard-line neoliberal reforms, which did immense damage to Chile's economy. A good study on this was published in 1990 in the journal ''Critical Sociology''. The authors note that growth rates under Pinochet were remarkably unimpressive:<blockquote>The Pinochet model produced growth rates well below the Chilean average established over the 1950-72 period. The average yearly GDP rate of growth in the latter period was 3.9 percent, while the Pinochet regime averaged 1.4 percent over the 1974-83 period... overall growth throughout the 1980s has been far from miraculous: GDP per capita grew at a 1.2 percent average rate between 1980 and 1989, below the 1.7 percent average yearly rate for 1950-72.<ref>Critical Sociology | The Chilean "Economic Miracle": An Empirical Critique</ref></blockquote>In addition, the authors charge Pinochet with "creating a great deal of poverty," noting that unemployment "rose dramatically after the coup," while real wages fell. At the same time, social expenditures were reduced, and "infectious diseases readily associated with poverty, overcrowding, poor hygiene, and inadequate sanitation underwent explosive growth." This assessment is echoed by a study in the ''International Development Planning Review'', which found that "the radical neoliberal policies and structural adjustment of the 1970s and 1980s during the Pinochet regime had severe negative effects on the poor and middle class."<ref>International Development Planning Review | Land of Miracles? A Critical Analysis of Poverty Reduction Strategies in Chile, 1975-2005</ref> The poverty rate itself increased dramatically; according to a report from the North American Congress on Latin America:<blockquote>The number of poor Chileans doubled during the Pinochet regime. By 1989, 44% of Chileans lived in poverty.<ref>NACLA | In Pursuit of "Growth With Equity": The Limits of Chile's Free-Market Social Reforms</ref></blockquote>In addition, it seems that Pinochet's privatizations also helped to create enormous corruption. According to a study in the ''Journal of Economic History,'' "firms were sold underpriced to politically connected buyers." This had predictable consequences:<blockquote>These newly private firms benefited financially from the Pinochet regime. Once democracy arrived, they formed connections with the new government, financed political campaigns, and were more likely to appear in the [[Panama papers|Panama Papers]]. These findings reveal how dictatorships can influence young democracies using privatization reforms.<ref>Journal of Economic History | The Privatization Origins of Political Corporations: Evidence from the Pinochet Regime</ref></blockquote>

=== Neocolonialism ===
The United States has begun the process of looting [[Ukraine]] by forcing the country into enormous debt in exchange for weapons. The USA is once again applying the same lend-lease program it used to facilitate the transfer of the British Empire to Statesian hands in the aftermath of World War II.<ref>{{Web citation|author=United States Congress|newspaper=Congress.gov|title=Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022|date=2022-05-09|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3522/text|retrieved=2023-01-25|quote=for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the President may authorize the United States Government to lend or lease defense articles to the Government of Ukraine or to governments of Eastern European countries impacted by the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine to help bolster those countries' defense capabilities and protect their civilian populations from potential invasion or ongoing aggression by the armed forces of the Government of the Russian Federation.}}</ref>

==Domestic policy==

=== Education ===
The U.S. education system promotes [[anti-communism]] and [[racism]] and denies or apologizes for U.S. war crimes. By law, teachers are not allowed to go against Western capitalist ideology.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Red Patriot]]|title=Anti-Communism in the American Classroom|date=2022-06-28|url=https://redpat.org/2022/06/anti-communism-in-the-american-classroom/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628162757/https://redpat.org/2022/06/anti-communism-in-the-american-classroom/|archive-date=2022-06-28|retrieved=2022-08-27}}</ref> Due to extreme inequality in educational funding, about 130 million Statesians, or 50% of the adult population, have low literacy and are unable to read above 6th grade level.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Emily Schmidt|newspaper=APM Research Lab|title=Reading the Numbers: 130 Million American Adults Have Low Literacy Skills, But Funding Differs Drastically By State|date=2022-03-16|url=https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy|retrieved=2023-03-28}}</ref>

===Poverty===
According to a study from the Brookings Institute:<blockquote>53 million Americans between the ages of 18 to 64—accounting for 44% of all workers—qualify as “low-wage.” Their median hourly wages are $10.22, and median annual earnings are about $18,000.<ref>Brookings Institute | Low-Wage Work is More Prevalent Than You Think, and There Aren't Enough Good Jobs to Go Around</ref></blockquote>Almost ''half'' of the American workforce is officially "low-wage," and that's only if we use an ''extremely'' low standard (below minimum wage, in some states). This is especially horrifying when we remember how many deaths can be directly linked to poverty and deprivation in the United States. According to a study from Columbia University:<blockquote>Overall, 4.5% of U.S. deaths were found to be attributable to poverty... the number of deaths the researchers calculated as attributable to low education (245,000) is comparable to the number caused by heart attacks (192,898), which was the leading cause of U.S. deaths in 2000. The number of deaths attributable to racial segregation (176,000) is comparable to the number from cerebrovascular disease (167,661), the third leading cause of death in 2000, and the number attributable to low social support (162,000) compares to deaths from lung cancer (155,521).<ref>Columbia University | How Many US Deaths Are Caused by Poverty, Lack of Education, and Other Social Factors?</ref></blockquote>Hundreds of thousands of people are dying every year because of poverty, deprivation, and lack of access to social services. Almost half of people 55 or older have no retirement savings.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Gao|title=Retirement Security: Most Households Approaching Retirement Have Low Savings, an Update|date=2019-05-26|url=https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-442r|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414181743/https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-442r|archive-date=2022-04-14|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref>

===Healthcare===
The U.S. healthcare system is among the most dysfunctional institutions imaginable, with the highest costs in the world, and some of the worst outcomes of any advanced country.<ref>{{News citation|author=Roosa Tikkanen, Melinda K. Abrams|newspaper=The Commonwealth Fund|title=U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2019: Higher Spending, Worse Outcomes?|date=2020-01-30|url=https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220424201656/https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2019|archive-date=2022-04-24|retrieved=2022-05-01}}</ref> That being said, there are still those who deny the necessity of completely overhauling the system, and as such, it is useful to take some time and go over the essential facts of the matter. As always, all sources will be listed at the end.

The United States ranks at the very bottom of the developed world in terms of preventable deaths. Annual deaths could be reduced by 101,000 if the U.S. had a health care system as good as other comparable countries.<ref>Reuters | US Worst in Preventable Death Ranking of Industrialized Countries</ref>

====Health outcomes====

The USA ranks near the bottom of the developed world in most essential health outcomes. A 2020 paper from the American College of Physicians (published in the ''Annals of Internal Medicine)'' reports that "despite higher spending, the United States generally has less favorable outcomes than other countries." Let's take infant mortality, for example. According to a 2016 study from the American Economic Association:<blockquote>The United States has higher infant mortality than peer countries... The US disadvantage persists after adjusting for potential differential reporting of births near the threshold of viability.</blockquote>The ACP paper confirms that the United States' poor infant mortality ranking persists "even after adjustment for reporting differences." According to the AEA, this subpar performance "is driven by poor birth outcomes among lower socioeconomic status individuals." As if this wasn't bad enough, maternal mortality is also shockingly high in the USA. According to an article from NPR (reporting on data from the CDC):<blockquote>More American women are dying of pregnancy-related complications than any other developed country. Only in the U.S. has the rate of women who die been rising.<ref>NPR | U.S. Has the Worst Rate of Maternal Deaths in the Developed World</ref></blockquote>To make matters worse, there is evidence that the official statistics actually leave out a great number of deaths, meaning that the actual rate is probably much higher. According to an article from ProPublica, "the new rate, while capturing just how poorly the U.S. ranks among other countries, is actually a significant underestimate of the problem."<ref>ProPublica | The New U.S. Maternal Mortality Rate Fails to Capture Many Deaths</ref> This only makes the issue even more horrifying.

In addition, healthcare-amenable mortality is generally higher in the United States than in peer countries. According to the American College of Physicians:<blockquote>The United States has a higher mortality rate for medical conditions for which there are recognized health care interventions than Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, France, and Australia.</blockquote>A 2017 study in the ''Lancet'' looked at global amendable mortality, finding that the United States ranked 35th in the world in overall performance. In a press release following the publication of the paper, Dr. Christopher Murray (the study's lead author) said the following:<blockquote>What we have found about health care access and quality is disturbing. Having a strong economy does not guarantee good health care. Having great medical technology doesn’t either. We know this because people are not getting the care that should be expected for diseases with established treatment. [...] America’s ranking is an embarrassment, especially considering the US spends more than $9,000 per person on health care annually, more than any other country. Anyone with a stake in the current health care debate, including elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels, should take a look at where the US is falling short.<ref>The Lancet | Healthcare Access and Quality Index Based on Mortality from Causes Amenable to Personal Health Care</ref></blockquote>While many people acclaim the US health system for its advanced technology, it is clear that this does no good if people cannot actually access the care they need. All-in-all, it clear that outcomes in the American healthcare system are extremely subpar, especially when one takes into account the ludicrously high cost. On that note, let's discuss cost and expenditures.

====Cost and expenditures====

The United States spends more per-capita on healthcare than any other country on Earth. According to the aforementioned study from the American College of Physicians:<blockquote>The United States spends far more per capita on health care than other wealthy countries, and spending is increasing at an unsustainable rate. [...] The pricing of health care goods and services is substantially higher in the United States than in other developed nations. A 2003 analysis of OECD data showed that health care utilization in the United States did not exceed that of other countries, and price was the key driver of spending differences.</blockquote>Much of this excessive cost is due to the enormous inefficiency and bureaucracy of the Statesian system. There is a massive amount of administrative spending in the US, which is due primarily to the fragmented multi-payer nature of the healthcare system. According to the ACP:<blockquote>In large part owing to its pluralistic financing system, the United States spends more on administration of health care than peer countries. One study estimated that in 2012, the United States spent $471 billion on billing and insurance-related costs—$375 billion (80%) more than in a “simplified financing system,” such as Canada's single-payer model. Another study concluded that administrative costs were 31% of total U.S. health care expenditures, nearly double those of Canada.</blockquote>These findings are validated by a study in the ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', which said the following:<blockquote>The fragmented financing system is one of the principal explanations for the high cost of medical care in the United States. A careful consolidation of financing into some form of single-payer system is probably the only feasible solution.<ref>Journal of the American Medical Association | Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries</ref></blockquote>Another study from the same journal says the following:<blockquote>The United States spent approximately twice as much as other high-income countries on medical care, yet utilization rates in the United States were largely similar to those in other nations. Prices of labor and goods, including pharmaceuticals, and administrative costs appeared to be the major drivers of the difference in overall cost between the United States and other high-income countries.</blockquote>According to a 2020 study in the ''Lancet'' (conducted at Yale Medical School), a single-payer system would save an enormous amount of money and (more importantly) lives:<blockquote>Taking into account both the costs of coverage expansion and the savings that would be achieved through the Medicare for All Act, we calculate that a single-payer, universal health-care system is likely to lead to a 13% savings in national health-care expenditure, equivalent to more than US $450 billion annually (based on the value of the US$ in 2017). [...] Furthermore, we estimate that ensuring health-care access for all Americans would save more than 68 000 lives and 1.73 million life-years every year compared with the status quo.<ref>The Lancet | Improving the Prognosis of Health Care in the USA</ref></blockquote>Claims that a single-payer system would be unaffordable are entirely baseless, and contradicted by the overwhelming mass of evidence. A 2020 meta-analysis in ''PLOS Medicine'' found "a high degree of analytic consensus for the fiscal feasibility of a single-payer approach in the US." As they put it:<blockquote>There is near-consensus in these analyses that single-payer would reduce health expenditures while providing high-quality insurance to all US residents. To achieve net savings, single-payer plans rely on simplified billing and negotiated drug price reductions, as well as global budgets to control spending growth over time. Replacing private insurers with a public system is expected to achieve lower net healthcare costs.<ref>PLOS Medicine | Projected Costs of Single-Payer Healthcare Financing in the United States: A Systematic Review of Economic Analyses</ref></blockquote>
====Access to care and lack of insurance====

To make matters worse, a large chunk of the Statesian population is uninsured, and many are forced to go without the care that they need. According to the ACP:<blockquote>The United States is the only wealthy industrialized nation without universal health coverage, a crucial component to ensuring quality health care for all without financial burden that causes delay or avoidance of necessary medical care... nearly 30 million remain uninsured, millions more are underinsured, and the number of uninsured persons is expected to grow.</blockquote>The high rate of uninsured people is extremely troubling, especially seeing as a lack of insurance is associated with increased risk of mortality. A 2009 study in the ''American Journal of Public Health'' said the following on the matter:<blockquote>Uninsurance is associated with mortality. [...] Lack of health insurance is associated with as many as 44 789 deaths per year in the United States, more than those caused by kidney disease.</blockquote>A 2017 study in the ''Annals of Internal Medicine'' validated these findings, saying:<blockquote>The evidence strengthens confidence in the Institute of Medicine's conclusion that health insurance saves lives: The odds of dying among the insured relative to the uninsured is 0.71 to 0.97.<ref>Annals of Internal Medicine | The Relationship of Health Insurance and Mortality: Is Lack of Insurance Deadly?</ref></blockquote>The high costs of US medical care cause a great deal of financial strain for patients. According to a 2019 study in the ''Journal of General Internal Medicine'' (carried out by the American Cancer Society), "medical financial hardship is common among adults in the USA, with nearly 140 million adults reporting hardship in the past year. Among those aged 18–64 years, more than half report problems with medical bills or medical debt; stress or worry; or forgoing or delaying health care due to cost." A 2019 Gallup poll found that 25% of Americans say that they or a family member have put off treatment for a "serious illness" in the past year because of cost, with a further 8% saying they or a family member has put off treatment for a "less serious illness" in the past year.<ref>Gallup Poll | More Americans Delaying Medical Treatment Due to Cost</ref>

Overall, there is strong evidence that the United States' lack of universal healthcare causes tens of thousands of deaths every year, and financial ruin for many more.[[File:1 out of 5 incarcerated people in the world is incarcerated in the US.png|thumb|1 out of 5 incarcerated people in the world is incarcerated in the US.]]

=== Incarceration ===
According to the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), not only does the U.S. have the highest incarceration rate in the world; every single U.S. state incarcerates more people per capita than virtually any country on earth. States like New York and Massachusetts "appear progressive in their incarceration rates compared to states like Louisiana, but compared to the rest of the world, every U.S. state relies too heavily on prisons and jails to respond to crime." PPI adds in their 2021 report that "incarceration has become the nation’s default response to crime, with 70 percent of convictions resulting in confinement — far more than other developed nations with comparable crime rates."<ref>Emily Widra and Tiana Herring. September 2021. [https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html “States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2021.”] Prison Policy Initiative. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html Archived] 2022-08-26.</ref>

Beyond the millions of people in the U.S. who are incarcerated, tens of millions more are dealing with the "collateral consequences" of punishment. Many cannot vote or get a driver's license, face barriers to employment, and are prohibited from living with the families who want them back because they have a criminal record.<ref>[https://www.prisonpolicy.org/collateral.html “Collateral Consequences.”] Prison Policy Initiative.</ref>
[[File:Incarceration in US states compared to incarceration in countries..png|thumb|Incarceration and "violent crime" rates of individual US states compared to incarceration and "violent crime" rates of individual countries, as determined by the Prison Policy Initiative in a 2021 report.]]
The U.S. doesn’t have one singular criminal justice system. Instead, it has thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal systems. Together, these systems hold almost 2 million people (as of 2022) in 1,566 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,850 local jails, 1,510 juvenile correctional facilities, 186 immigration detention facilities, and 82 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.<ref name=":7">Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner. [https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html "Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2022."] Prison Policy Initiative. March 14, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html Archived] 2022-08-31.</ref>

The PPI notes that "local jails often receive short shrift in larger discussions about criminal justice, but they play a critical role as 'incarceration's front door' and have a far greater impact than the daily population suggests. [...] In a typical year, about 600,000 people enter ''prison'' gates, but people go to ''jail'' over 10 million times each year. Jail churn is particularly high because most people in jails have not been convicted. Some have just been arrested and will make bail within hours or days, while many others are too poor to make bail and remain behind bars until their trial." The PPI further notes that at least 1 in 4 people who go to jail will be arrested again within the same year, often those dealing with poverty, mental illness, and substance use disorders, whose problems only worsen with incarceration.<ref name=":7" />

==See also==

*[[United States imperialism]]
*[[Manifest Destiny]]
*[[German Reich (1933–1945)|Nazi Germany]]
*[[:Category:USA states|USA states (category)]]
*[[Quotes:United States of America]]

== Further reading ==

* [[:Category:Library documents from the United States of America|All library works about the United States]]
* [[:Category:Library documents from the United States of America|All library works from the United States]]

=== History ===

* [[Library:Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire|''Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire'']]
* [[Library:Killing Hope|''Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II'']]

=== Communist movement ===

* ''[[Library:Black Bolshevik|Black Bolshevik]]''

== References ==
<references />
==Notes==
<references group="lower-alpha" />
[[Category:Countries]]
[[Category:Global north]]
[[Category:Imperialist countries]]
[[Category:United States of America]]
[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:North American countries]]
[[Category:Settler-colonial states]]

Jeffrey Epstein

2025-08-22T15:32:20Z

146.70.148.46:

{{Infobox person|name=Jeffrey Epstein|birth_place=New York City, New York, [[United States of America|United States]]|birth_date=January 20, 1953|death_date=August 10, 2019|death_cause=Strangulation|nationality=Statesian|image=Epstein.png|death_place=New York City, New York, United States}}

'''Jeffrey Edward Epstein''' (January 20, 1953 – August 10, 2019) was a [[United States of America|Statesian]] [[Bourgeoisie|capitalist]], rapist, and pedophile. He had connections to former [[United States of America|U.S.]] presidents [[Bill Clinton]] and [[Donald Trump]],<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|author=[[Alan MacLeod]]|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=Corporate Media Silence Deafening as Former Clinton Aide Confirms Ties to Jeffrey Epstein|date=2020-12-07|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-silence-deafening-former-clinton-aide-confirms-ties-jeffrey-epstein/273456/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921230825/https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-silence-deafening-former-clinton-aide-confirms-ties-jeffrey-epstein/273456/|archive-date=2022-09-21|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref> fellow billionaire [[Elon Musk]],<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=Whitney Webb|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=How the CIA, Mossad, and "the Epstein Network" Are Exploiting Mass Shootings to Create an Orwellian Nightmare|date=2019-09-06|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/cia-israel-mossad-jeffrey-epstein-orwellian-nightmare/261692/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002185148/https://www.mintpressnews.com/cia-israel-mossad-jeffrey-epstein-orwellian-nightmare/261692/|archive-date=2022-10-02|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref> and the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|British]] royal family.<ref name=":2">{{Web citation|author=Whitney Webb|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=These Scrubbed Reports Reveal New Secrets|date=2019-10-14|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/scrubbed-reports-reveal-new-secrets-of-the-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-relationship/262330/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806223123/https://www.mintpressnews.com/scrubbed-reports-reveal-new-secrets-of-the-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein-relationship/262330/|archive-date=2022-08-06|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref>

== Crimes ==
Epstein's crimes date back to the 1990s at least and involved hundreds of victims. He was in prison from 2007 to 2009 but was allowed to leave his cell for 12 hours a day.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Candice Yanez|newspaper=[[Liberation News]]|title=Pedophile Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes covered up to protect the ultra-rich|date=2019-07-15|url=https://www.liberationnews.org/pedophile-billionaire-jeffrey-epsteins-crimes-covered-up-to-protect-the-ultra-rich/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107232109/https://www.liberationnews.org/pedophile-billionaire-jeffrey-epsteins-crimes-covered-up-to-protect-the-ultra-rich/|archive-date=2020-11-07|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref>

== Arrest and death ==
The New York City Police Department arrested Epstein on July 6, 2019 at an airport in [[New Jersey]] for sex trafficking minors.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Whitney Webb|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=Hidden in Plain Sight: The Shocking Origins of the Jeffrey Epstein Case|date=2019-07-18|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/shocking-origins-jeffrey-epstein-blackmail-roy-cohn/260621/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027235149/https://www.mintpressnews.com/shocking-origins-jeffrey-epstein-blackmail-roy-cohn/260621/|archive-date=2022-10-27|retrieved=2022-10-30}}</ref> He was murdered in prison later that year.<ref name=":0" /> Epstein's prison footage was released to the public in July 2025, but the footage was doctored.<ref>{{Web citation|author=DHRUV MEHROTRA|newspaper=WIRED|title=Metadata Shows the FBI’s ‘Raw’ Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Was Likely Modified|url=https://www.wired.com/story/metadata-shows-the-dojs-raw-jeffrey-epstein-prison-video-was-likely-modified/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250716132342/https://www.wired.com/story/metadata-shows-the-dojs-raw-jeffrey-epstein-prison-video-was-likely-modified/|archive-date=2025-07-16}}</ref>

== Connections ==

* [[Bill Clinton]]<ref>{{Web citation|author=Joe Sommerlad|newspaper=The Independent|title=Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein’s friendship timeline: From philanthropy to ‘Lolita Express’ trips|date=2025-08-06|url=https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/bill-clinton-jeffrey-epstein-timeline-b2802828.html|archive-date=2025-08-22|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Web citation|author=Gabriel Sherman|newspaper=Vanity Fair|title=Confessions of a Clintonworld Exile|date=2020-12-02|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/confessions-of-a-clintonworld-exile|archive-url=https://archive.is/57bcj|archive-date=2020-12-02|retrieved=2025-08-22|quote=Band told me he had been trying to push Epstein out of Clinton’s orbit ever since their much-discussed 2002 trip to Africa aboard Epstein’s private 727, dubbed the “Lolita Express.” Band recalled that Epstein had made a bunch of ridiculous claims on the trip, like boasting that he invented the derivatives market. Band said he had no idea about Epstein’s sex crimes back then but got enough bad vibes that he advised Clinton to end the relationship. But Clinton continued to socialize with Epstein and take his money. In 2006 Epstein donated $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton made more than two dozen trips on Epstein’s jet around this time, Epstein’s flight logs show. In January 2003, according to Band, Clinton visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St. James}}</ref>
* [[Donald Trump]]<ref>{{Web citation|author=James Hill|newspaper=ABC News|title=The times Trump's name appeared in the Epstein files the DOJ has already released|date=2025-07-17|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/times-trumps-appeared-epstein-files-doj-released/story?id=123848078|archive-url=https://megalodon.jp/2025-0823-0005-52/https://abcnews.go.com:443/US/times-trumps-appeared-epstein-files-doj-released/story?id=123848078|archive-date=2025-08-22|retrieved=2025-08-22|quote=In the files, Trump was also listed as a passenger on Epstein’s plane eight times between 1993 and 1997.}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Hugh Dougherty|newspaper=Daily Beast|title=Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend’|date=2024-11-02|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/listen-to-the-jeffrey-epstein-tapes-i-was-donald-trumps-closest-friend/|archive-url=https://archive.is/y2ubq|archive-date=2024-11-02|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref>
* Prince Andrew<ref>{{Web citation|author=Sean Coughlan|newspaper=BBC|title=Andrew emails show contact with Epstein lasted beyond 2010|date=2025-01-31|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8qz22dqdzo|archive-url=https://archive.is/rqADE|archive-date=2025-01-31|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref><ref name=":2" />
* Elon Musk<ref>{{Web citation|author=Andrew Stanton|newspaper=Newsweek|title=Elon Musk's Ties to Jeffrey Epstein Explained|date=2025-06-06|url=https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-jeffrey-epstein-family-ghislaine-maxwell-trump-2082228|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250710193845/http://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-jeffrey-epstein-family-ghislaine-maxwell-trump-2082228|archive-date=2025-07-10|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
* Ehud Barak<ref>{{Web citation|author=JTA|newspaper=Times of Israel|title=Ehud Barak met with Jeffrey Epstein dozens of times, flew on private plane — report|date=2023-05-04|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/ehud-barak-met-with-jeffrey-epstein-dozens-of-times-flew-on-private-plane-report/|archive-url=https://archive.is/ulOtb|archive-date=2023-11-07|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref>
* FBI<ref>{{Web citation|author=Matthew Acton|newspaper=Radar|title=EXCLUSIVE: Leaked FBI Document Reveals Jeffrey Epstein's Secret History as an FBI Informant|date=2025-08-05|url=https://radaronline.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-fbi-source-leaked-document/|archive-url=https://archive.is/G4zv2|archive-date=2025-08-05|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref>
* Israeli military intelligence/Mossad<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Middle East Monitor|title=Jeffrey Epstein was blackmailing politicians for Israel’s Mossad, new book claims|date=2020-01-06|url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200106-jeffrey-epstein-was-blackmailing-politicians-for-israels-mossad-new-book-claims/|archive-url=https://archive.is/f1gj2|archive-date=2020-01-08|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

== See also ==

* [[MeToo movement|#MeToo]]
*[[TrueAnon]]

== References ==
[[Category:Capitalists]]
[[Category:Billionaires]]
<references />
[[Category:Pedophiles]]
[[Category:People on Epstein flight logs]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Jeffrey}}
[[Category:Assassinations ruled as suicides]]

Operation Aerodynamic

2025-08-22T14:48:33Z

146.70.148.46:

'''Operation Aerodynamic''' was a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] program which began in the late 1950s to support anti-Soviet [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] nationalists (including Nazi collaborators) which would eventually be installed in the 2014 US-backed coup in Ukraine.<ref>{{News citation|title=Operation Aerodynamics: how the CIA looked for Ukrainians with anti-Soviet sentiments|url=https://www.forumdaily.com/en/operaciya-aerodinamika-kak-cru-iskalo-ukraincev-s-antisovetskimi-nastroeniyami/}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Clever Geek Handbook|title=Operation Aerodynamic|url=https://clever-geek.imtqy.com/articles/2925311/index.html}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Russia Beyond|title=Top 5 CIA operations against the Soviet Union|url=https://www.rbth.com/history/330877-5-cia-operations-against-soviets}}</ref> Even earlier was the Belladonna Project of 1946.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Kevin C. Ruffner|newspaper=CIA Reading Room|title=Cold War Allies: The Origins of CIA's Relationship with Ukrainian Nationalists|date=1998-01-01|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/STUDIES%20IN%20INTELLIGENCE%20NAZI%20-%20RELATED%20ARTICLES_0015.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428102105/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/STUDIES%20IN%20INTELLIGENCE%20NAZI%20-%20RELATED%20ARTICLES_0015.pdf|archive-date=2021-04-28|retrieved=2025-08-22}}</ref>

An official CIA document declassified in 2007 reads:<blockquote>The purpose of Project AERODYNAMIC is to provide for the exploitation and expansion of the Anti-Soviet Ukrainian resistance movement for cold war and hot war purposes. Such groups as the Ukrainian Supreme Council of Liberation (UHVR), its military adjunct, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists]] (OUN all in the Ukraine, the Foreign Representation of the Supreme Council of Liberation (ZPUHVR) in Western Europe and the United States, and other Ukrainian organizations such as the Foreign Sections of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (ZchOUN), etc., will be utilized.<ref>https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/AERODYNAMIC%20%20%20VOL.%201_0113.pdf</ref></blockquote>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:CIA operations]]

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

2025-08-22T01:13:28Z

146.70.148.46:

{{#SEO:
|image=Chollima_monument_at_night.jpg}}
{{Infobox country
| name = Democratic People's Republic of Korea
| native_name = 조선민주주의인민공화국
| image_coat = Emblem of the DPRK.svg
| image_flag = Flag of the DPRK.svg
| symbol_type = Emblem
|national_anthem=애국가 ''Aegukka'' ("The Patriotic Song")| image_map = Democratic People's Republic of Korea (orthographic_projection).svg
| map_caption = Territories of Korea presently occupied by the United States are shown in light green.
| map_width = 220px
| capital = [[Pyongyang]]
| largest_city = capital
|mode_of_production=[[Socialism]]| government_type = Unitary ''[[Juche]]'' [[Socialist state|people's republic]]
| established_event2 = Founding of the DPRK
| established_date2 = 9 September 1948
| established_event1 = Start of partial US occupation
| established_date1 = 8 September 1945
|area_km2=120,540| population_estimate = 25,845,400 (77,048,000 including Koreans under [[neocolonialism|neocolonial]] occupation)
| population_estimate_year = 2020
|unemployment=2.8%<ref name="UNdata">UNData (2021). ''[https://data.un.org/en/iso/kp.html DPRK – UNData]''</ref>|GDP_nominal=$16.3 billion<ref name="UNdata">UNData (2021). ''[https://data.un.org/en/iso/kp.html DPRK – UNData]''</ref>|GDP_nominal_per_capita=$639.6<ref name="UNdata">UNData (2021). ''[https://data.un.org/en/iso/kp.html DPRK – UNData]''</ref>|GDP_nominal_year=2021|export=$1.1 billion<ref name="UNdata">UNData (2021). ''[https://data.un.org/en/iso/kp.html DPRK – UNData]''</ref>|export_year=2020|import=$3.46 billion<ref name="UNdata">UNData (2021). ''[https://data.un.org/en/iso/kp.html DPRK – UNData]''</ref>|import_year=2020|HDI=.785 (High)|currency=Korean People's Won|currency_code=KPW|drives_on=right|calling_code=+850|iso3166code=KP|cctld=.kp| leader_title1 = General Secretary of the Workers' Party
| leader_name1 = [[Kim Jong-un]]
| leader_title2 = President of the Presidium
| leader_name2 = [[Choe Ryong-hae]]
| leader_title3 = First Vice Chairman of the State Affairs Commission
| leader_name3 = Choe Ryong-hae
| leader_title4 = Premier of the Cabinet
| leader_name4 = [[Kim Tok-hun]]
| leader_title5 = Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly
| leader_name5 = Pak Thae-song
}}
The '''Democratic People's Republic of Korea''' ('''DPRK'''; Korean: 조선민주주의인민공화국, ''Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk''), also known as '''People's Korea''' and incorrectly referred to as '''North Korea''' by [[bourgeois media]], is a socialist country in [[East Asia]]. [[Korea]] is one nation, but the southern half of Korea is occupied by the [[United States of America|US]]-backed [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] [[Republic of Korea]], also known as Capitalist Korea. DPRK's capital city is [[Pyongyang]].

The DPRK is led by the [[Workers' Party of Korea]] (WPK) and the [[Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea]]. According to its constitution, the DPRK is an "independent [[socialist state]]", guided by the ideology of [[Juche]] which is a derivative of [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxism–Leninism]] originally codified by [[Kim Il-sung|Kim Il-Sung]].<ref>Articles 1 and 3 of the [https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Peoples_Republic_of_Korea_1998.pdf?lang=en Constitution of the DPRK]</ref>

While the DPRK distanced itself from [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|USSR]]'s ideological leadership in the 1960s, some authors still consider it a [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] socialist state.<ref>{{Textcite|author=Thomas Stock|year=2019|title=North Korea’s Marxism-Leninism: fraternal criticisms and the development of North Korean ideology in the 1960s|pdf=|lg=http://libgen.gs/scimag/ads.php?doi=10.1215%2F21581665-7258081&downloadname=|doi=10.1215/21581665-7258081}}</ref>

In 2017, DPRK's Minister of Foreign affairs, Ri Yong Ho, stated at the [[United Nations]] General Assembly that "The U.S. had put [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]] against our country from the very first day of its foundation, and the over 70-year long history of the DPRK can be said in a sense a history of struggle, persevering along the road of self-development under the harshest sanctions in the world." Ri also stated that the essence of the situation of the Korean peninsula is a confrontation between the DPRK and the US, where the DPRK tries to defend its national dignity and sovereignty against the hostile policy and nuclear threats of the US, and points out that it was the US who first introduced [[Nuclear weapon|nuclear weapons]] to the Korean peninsula. Ri stated that "The very reason the DPRK had to possess nuclear weapons is because of the U.S., and it had to strengthen and develop its nuclear force onto the current level to cope with the U.S. [...] Our national nuclear force is, to all intents and purposes, a war deterrent for putting an end to nuclear threat of the U.S. and for preventing its military invasion".<ref name=":0">Ri Yong Ho, DPRK Minister for Foreign Affairs. [https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf "Statement by H.E. Mr. RI YONG HO, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the General Debate of the 72 Session of the United Nations General Assembly."] New York, 23rd September 2017. gadebate.un.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220709114619/https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/72/kp_en.pdf Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref>

Minister Ri also clarified DPRK's nuclear policy by quoting [[Kim Jong-un]] as saying that international justice can only be achieved when the [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]] independent countries are strong enough, and that possession of nuclear deterrence by the DPRK is a righteous self-defensive measure taken as an ultimate option, pursuant to this principle, and further clarified that the DPRK "do[es] not have any intention at all to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against the countries that do not join in the U.S. military actions against the DPRK."<ref name=":0" />

DPRK representative Kim Song stated at the 2021 UN General Assembly, "If the U.S. wants to see the Korean war, the most prolonged and long-lasting war in the world, come to an end, and if it is really desirous of peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, it should take the first step towards giving up its hostile policy against the DPRK by stopping permanently the joint military exercises and the deployment of all kinds of strategic weapons which are levelled at the DPRK in and around the Korean peninsula."<ref name=":1">Kim Song. [https://estatements.unmeetings.org/estatements/10.0010/20210927/f9hI1UVcyVQ6/Ina2tpqa5rlW_en.pdf "Statement by Head of the DPRK Delegation H.E. Mr. KIM SONG, Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations At the General Debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly."] New York, 27 September 2021. UNmeetings.org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220828072554/https://estatements.unmeetings.org/estatements/10.0010/20210927/f9hI1UVcyVQ6/Ina2tpqa5rlW_en.pdf Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref>

In 1965 [[Che Guevara]] said that the DPRK "was a model to which revolutionary [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] should aspire".<ref>{{Web citation|author=Stephen Gowans|newspaper=What's Left|title=Understanding North Korea|date=2007-03-03|url=https://gowans.blog/2007/03/03/understanding-north-korea/|archive-url=https://archive.is/2esBE|archive-date=2022-08-19|retrieved=2025-08-21}}</ref><ref>{{Textcite|author=Bruce Cumings|year=2005|title=Korea’s place in the sun: a modern history|pdf=|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company; p. 404|lg=}}</ref>

==History==

=== Early history and Japanese occupation ===
{{Main article|Korea}}

===Division of Korea===
Following the defeat of [[Japanese Empire|Japan]] and the end of the [[Second World War]], Japan lost control of its colonies, including what was formerly the [[Korean Empire]]. As a result of negotiations between the Soviet Union and the United States, the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]] was divided into occupation zones along the 38th Parallel North. Although there was an attempt at establishing the [[People's Republic of Korea]], the nascent state was outlawed by U.S. forces. In the northern zone, the Soviets allowed Koreans to govern themselves, and a system of people's committees developed into a full provisional government.<ref name=":12">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Patriot State|page=88–93|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref> Originally, the division of Korea was not intended to be an actual dividing line nor a border to split the country, but simply meant as designated areas where Soviet and U.S. forces would be temporarily assisting Korea as it stabilized after liberation from Japan and formed an independent Korean state. However, the U.S. sought to prolong Korea's division in order to form Korea into a state subordinate to U.S. interests, pushing for separate elections in the south despite opposition from the [[The people|masses]] and despite attempts among the Korean populace to form a unified nation.<ref name=":9" />

Under conditions in which the U.S. imperialists were occupying south Korea and foreign and domestic [[Reactionary|reactionaries]] were gathered together in the occupied zone and opposing the founding of a unified independent Korean state, the policy of constructing a powerful democratic base in the northern half of Korea was adopted. The formation of a broad united front to rally the masses of people in all walks of life was the first question to be solved. Thus, early in 1946, a [[united front]] was formed of different parties and groupings, democratic forces of various social strata.<ref name=":9" />

=== Democratic and economic reforms in north ===
On the basis of the people's committees, the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea (Korean: 북조선림시인민위원회; Hanja: 北朝鮮臨時人民委員會) was formed on February 8 of 1946.<ref>[https://dprktoday.com/news/43457 "북조선림시인민위원회." ("North Korea Provisional People's Committee.")] 조선의 오늘, 주체109(2020)년 2월 8일. DPRK Today, February 8, Juche 109 (2020). [https://web.archive.org/web/20231004150520/https://dprktoday.com/news/43457 Archived] 2023-10-05.</ref><ref>[https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0070131 “북조선임시인민위원회(北朝鮮臨時人民委員會).”] Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. [[Archived]] 2023-10-05.</ref> The leaders of the Korean resistance agreed to make Kim Il-sung the new leader of Korea, and he became president of the provisional government on 8 February 1946.<ref name=":12" />

In March of 1946, the [[20-Point Platform]] (Korean: 20개조정강) for realizing Korea's [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], anti-[[Feudalism|feudal]] [[Democracy|democratic]] reforms was announced, including such items as thorough liquidation of all remnants of Japanese imperialist rule, waging an implacable struggle against reactionary and anti-democratic elements, carrying out land reform, [[Nationalization|nationalizing]] important industries, direct and equal suffrage, and the institution of free medical care for the poor, among other points.<ref>Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/page/n1/mode/2up "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref><ref>[http://www.jajusibo.com/58698 <nowiki>“[헌법으로 보는 북한-서문] 사회 전 분야의 방향이 제시된 20개조 정강.” ("[North Korea as seen through the Constitution - Preface] A 20-point platform that sets out the direction for all areas of society.")</nowiki>] 자주시보, 2022-02-25. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220707211557/http://www.jajusibo.com/58698 Archived] 2022-07-07.</ref><ref name=":15">[https://www.tongiltimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=767 <nowiki>“[북 현대사] 북조선림시인민위원회와 토지개혁 (4).” ("[North Korea Modern History] North Korea Provisional People’s Committee and Land Reform (4)")</nowiki>] 통일시대. April 6, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231004152620/https://www.tongiltimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=767 Archived] 2023-10-04.</ref> On November 3, 1946, the first democratic election in the history of Korea was held in the north, and the People's Committee of North Korea (Korean: 북조선인민위원회; Hanja: 北朝鮮人民委員會), which was no longer provisional, was created in February of 1947, functioning as the organ of the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]].<ref name=":9" />

The new government redistributed land from [[Landlord|landlords]] and Japanese officials to [[Peasantry|peasants]], nationalized large companies, shortened the work day to eight hours (seven for dangerous occupations), banned [[Child labour|child labor]], established social security and paid vacations, and enforced gender equality.<ref name=":12" />

As a result of land reform, feudal landownership, which was the social and economic base of the undemocratic reactionary forces, was done away with in the rural villages of the north. At the time, the matter of land reform was of great concern, due to a large percentage of Korea's population being peasant farmers, many engaged in [[sharecropping]] and being [[Exploitation|exploited]] in feudal relations as well as by Japanese colonialism.<ref name=":15" /> In addition to land reform, the nationalization of key industries was undertaken, wiping out the political and economic bases of imperialists and domestic reactionaries and promoting the general rehabilitation and development of the national economy in the wake of the Japanese colonial period. The Provisional People's Committee implemented the Law on the Nationalization of Important Industries in August 1946. Under it, all large factories, mines, power stations, railway transport, telecommunication facilities, banks and commercial and cultural establishments were made the property of the Korean people. Factories and other enterprises which had been owned by pro-Japanese elements were confiscated without compensation and became the property of the people, to be used for their own benefit rather than for the extraction of Korea's wealth for imperial Japan's benefit. Democratic reforms, beginning with the Labor Law and the Law on the Equality of the Sexes, were enforced, putting an end to unlimited exploitation of the working class and liberating women from feudal subordination.<ref name=":9" />

Author [[Kim Byong Sik]] describes the changes in social, economic, and class relations in the north during this time, noting that as a result of the reforms following liberation, capitalist economic relations were reduced to a small scale in limited areas of the economy, while socialist economic relations became dominant in all areas of the economy:<blockquote>Radical changes were effected in social, economic and class relations in the northern half of the Republic, a people’s democratic system was established and a powerful revolutionary base for an all-Korea victory was founded. In other words, all colonial and semi-feudal components were removed, and socialist economic relations, based on state and cooperative economy, came to occupy a leading position in all areas of the people’s economy, with capitalist relations confined to only small commodity production by private farms and handicraft enterprises in urban areas and to some commerce and small-scale industry. Concerning class relations, landlords, comprador capitalists, pro-Japanese elements and traitors were eliminated and working people became the masters of the country, the leading role of the working class increased and the worker-peasant alliance was consolidated. In this way, the balance of forces developed decisively in favor of the revolution.<ref name=":9" /></blockquote>As the above author later notes, by 1947 state-controlled industry accounted for 80.2% of industrial output, and private industry for only 19.8% of industrial output. In addition, mining was completely state-controlled. Industrial production jumped 70 per cent, and labor productivity 51 per cent, in fiscal 1947 in comparison with the previous year. 1947 was the first year in which an [[Planned economy|economic plan]] was implemented. 1948 also saw a successfully implemented economic plan.

=== Founding of Korean People's Army ===
The Provisional People's Committee trained national cadres and prepared a revolutionary armed force to defend the people's democratic system, establishing the [[Korean People's Army]] on February 8, 1948.

=== Reactionary regime forms in south ===
Throughout this time, reactionary and imperialist forces in the U.S.-occupied portion of Korea had been seeking ways to prolong Korea's division in order to form a state which was subordinate to U.S. interests and in which anti-communist forces would remain in power. As democratic reforms were taking place in the north and the base of power was being removed from feudal landlords, Japanese collaborators, and other reactionary forces in the north, the reactionaries were moving south, some of them forming right-wing anti-communist paramilitary groups such as the [[Northwest Youth League]] (Korean: 서북청년회), who later committed atrocities against ordinary citizens in the name of the southern regime, and many of whom went on to become police and members of the local government.<ref>Flenniken, Lauren. [https://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435 “The Northwest Youth League.”] Jejuweekly.com. 2011-04-10. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231005035904/https://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435 Archived] 2023-10-05.</ref> Among the imperialists' plans was the plan to hold a separate election in the south, which was opposed by many of the Korean masses.

In this context, Kim Il Sung submitted the draft Provisional Constitution of Korea for discussion by all the people north and south and he proposed the election of an all-Korea supreme legislative assembly through a general, direct, equal and secret ballot. At the same time he called on the political parties and social organizations of south Korea to hold a south-north joint conference to oppose the separate election and to discuss ways and means of saving the nation. In response to this call, a joint conference was held in Pyongyang on April 20, 1948, with attendants representing a range of political orientations. A resolution was adopted to boycott the separate elections. At the time of the controversial separate election held in May 1948, more than 140 polling stations and a number of police stations were destroyed and burned. The U.S.-backed southern regime resorted to fascist terror to suppress the opposition. After proceeding with the elections, the regime formed as a puppet regime consisting of collaborators, landlords, and subservient capitalists.<ref name=":9" />

===Founding of the DPRK ===
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was founded on 9 September 1948. The illegitimate government of the occupied portion of Korea (often referred to as South Korea, or [[Republic of Korea]]) had been established earlier the same year, when dictator [[Syngman Rhee]], who was referred to as an "imported expatriate" and "extreme rightist" in a CIA document of the time,<ref>[https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e "March 18, 1948 Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 15/48, 'The Current Situation in Korea'"]. ''Wilson Center Digital Archive''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220729051304/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/220065.pdf?v=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e Archived] from the original.</ref> came to power due to U.S. influence despite many Koreans opposing the holding of separate elections in the south. In DPRK, Kim Il-Sung became the first [[Premier of the DPRK]], a position he would hold until 1972. DPRK soon requested for U.S. and Soviet troops to leave Korea. The Soviets left on 25 September, but the U.S. occupiers refused to leave.<ref name=":1102">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=The Political Partition of Korea|page=114|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref>

The Occupied Korean government was hostile to socialism and to the DPRK. Even though Western media accuses the DPRK of initiating the [[Fatherland Liberation War]] (often referred to as the Korean War), numerous acts of violence were perpetrated by the illegitimate southern government that were tantamount to war—namely the [[Jeju Uprising|massacre on Jeju Island]] that targeted communists. The people of Jeju had been protesting the formation of a separate southern regime and the holding of separate elections in the south, but were eventually violently suppressed by the US-backed southern regime. The death toll was composed of thousands of civilians, many of whom were not affiliated with the [[Workers' Party of South Korea]] or communism at all. In addition, the [[Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion]] of 1948 was a rebellion among soldiers in the south who began guerrilla-style fights against the military, as the rebelling soldiers refused to participate in the brutal suppression of the Jeju uprising. Suppression of this rebellion by the southern regime led to hundreds of civilian deaths.<ref>[https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html “439 Civilians Confirmed Dead in Yeosu-Suncheon Uprising of 1948.”] Jan. 8, 2009. Hankyoreh. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230614174428/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332032.html Archived] 2023-06-14.</ref> Furthermore, paramilitary groups from the Republic of Korea illegally crossed the border into the DPRK on multiple occasions.

In DPRK, a two-year economic plan for 1949-1950 was adopted on the basis of the previous plans of 1947 and 1948, with plans for furthering the socialist transformation of the economy as well as the continued correction of distortions in the economy which were the result of the colonial period. However, this plan had to be suspended due to the escalation of the war in 1950.<ref name=":9" />

===Fatherland Liberation War===
[[File:CIA document pages 1 and 2.jpg|thumb|1950 CIA document stating that after the Korean People's Army entered Seoul, more than 50% of students were actively aiding communists, many volunteering for the army, and that the working class of Seoul generally supported the north.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=CIA Reading Room|title=SUBJECT: The Korean Situstion|date=1950-07-19|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608142706/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1950-07-19b.pdf|archive-date=2021-06-08|retrieved=2025-08-21}}</ref>]]
{{Main article|Fatherland Liberation War}}
During the Fatherland Liberation War, DPRK forces almost repelled the illegal occupation army; however, the [[United Nations]] and the United States sent extra forces to fight DPRK troops. Western forces pushed DPRK forces all the way to the border of the newly formed [[China|People's Republic of China]], which had itself repelled reactionary [[Kuomintang]] forces from the [[People's Republic of China|mainland]]. PRC forces intervened to protect Korean sovereignty, repelling Western troops once more as part of the War to Resist the U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea campaign. The majority of the fighting during the rest of the [[Fatherland Liberation War]] took place near the 38th Parallel North, with only minor border changes occurring after a ceasefire was signed. The DPRK technically remains at war with its illegitimate southern neighbour as no truce has been signed between the two.
[[File:Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, North Korea, on May 10, 1951 (AP photo).png|thumb|Thatched huts go up in flames after B-26 bombers unload napalm bombs on a village near Hanchon, DPRK, on May 10, 1951.]]
Virtually all of the major cities in DPRK were severely damaged and hundreds of thousands of civilians killed by U.S. saturation bombing during the war. The tonnage of bombs dropped on the north was about the same as the total dropped by the U.S. against Japan during the Second World War. By 1952, the bombing was so complete that the U.S. Air Force had run out of targets. According to an AP News article, the U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea during the war, most of it in the north, including 32,500 tons of [[napalm]]. In the present day, DPRK citizens continue to find unexploded ordinance and be injured by old bombs that were dropped by the US and UN forces, and have to evacuate areas and send in bomb squads where such bombs are found, as well as educate citizens, especially children, about the explosives.<ref>Talmadge, Eric. [https://apnews.com/article/international-news-asia-pacific-ap-top-news-north-korea-dd6256bad51e458cb2e8a1bf64b5c2b6 “64 Years after Korean War, North Still Digging up Bombs.”] AP NEWS. Associated Press. April 22, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230313163201/https://apnews.com/article/international-news-asia-pacific-ap-top-news-north-korea-dd6256bad51e458cb2e8a1bf64b5c2b6 Archived] 2023-03-13.</ref>

US sanctions on DPRK began in conjunction with the 1950 escalation of the war, with the US imposing an export ban on DPRK and forbidding financial transactions by or on behalf of DPRK. This began with U.S. President [[Harry S. Truman]] ordering naval blockade of Korean coast and imposing a total trade embargo against the DPRK in June of 1950. This was followed by the Trading with the Enemy Act in December 1950, to terminate all US economic contacts with the DPRK and freezing its assets. Truman also imposed an embargo against China, freezing Chinese assets in US at this time. In 1952, an embargo was imposed on all exports of industrial equipment and raw materials.<ref name=":2">Gary Clyde Hufbauer (PIIE), Jeffrey J. Schott (PIIE), Kimberly Ann Elliott (PIIE) and Barbara Oegg (PIIE). [https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 “US and UN v. North Korea: Case 50-1 and 93-1.”] 2016. Peterson Institute for International Economics. May 1, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909082604/https://www.piie.com/commentary/speeches-papers/case-50-1-and-93-1 Archived] 2022-09-09.

‌</ref>

===Post-Fatherland Liberation War===
[[File:Pyongyang after U.S. Air Force bombing.jpg|thumb|Pyongyang after its destruction by U.S. Air Force bombing during the war.]]
[[File:Chollima monument at night.jpg|thumb|The Chollima Monument at night, with the [[Pyongyang]] skyline in the background.]]
Following the war, the people of DPRK were faced with the task of converting the armistice into a lasting peace, rebuilding the destroyed economy as soon as possible, improving the people's living conditions, and strengthening the country politically, economically, and militarily as the base of the Korean revolution and converting it into a powerful material force for the reunification of Korea.

The sixth plenum of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party was called on August 5, 1953 to consider these pressing tasks. A decision was made to promote postwar rehabilitation and development of the people's economy in three basic stages, according to a proposal by Kim II Sung. The first stage would be a period of six months to a year in which preparations and adjustments would be made for general rehabilitation. In the second stage, a Three Year Plan would be carried out to recover the economy to pre-war levels. In the third stage, a Five Year Plan would be worked out to complete the first stage of industrialization, to lay the foundation for socialist industrialization.<ref name=":9" /> Author Kim Han Gil writes that the general task of laying the foundations of socialism was largely defined in two aspects: [[Relations of production|production relations]] and [[productive forces]]. In the first aspect, the task was to transform all the relations of production along socialist lines. In the second aspect the task was to establish the solid foundation of an independent national economy while laying the foundation for industrialization.<ref>Kim Han Gil. [https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/mode/1up?q=peasant&view=theater "Modern History of Korea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea, 1979.</ref>

A focus was placed on developing heavy industry as a priority, while simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture. Heavy industry was needed in order to maintain an independent national economy and to make the development of light industry and agriculture possible, while light industry and agriculture were necessary for improving the living conditions of the people, impoverished by the wartime destruction.<ref name=":9" />

After nine months, the first stage of the three-stage recovery and development plan was successfully carried out. During this stage, several thousands of temporary houses were built in the towns and countryside and rehabilitation and construction in the countryside were started. Prices were lowered, cities began being rebuilt, factories were restored and repaired, and various industrial and agricultural enterprises went into operation, beginning with the Kangson Steel Works, Songjin Steel Works, Sunghori Cement Factory and Komusan Cement Factory, with various enterprises in light industry such as Nampo Glass Factory and Pyongyang Spinning Mill being prepared for full-scale operation.<ref name=":9" />

Following this preparatory stage, the Party proposed a Three Year Plan for 1954-1956, the second stage of the recovery and development plan adopted after the war's end. The Three Year Plan aimed to restore the economy to pre-war levels, further raise the peoples' living standards, as well as correct the distortions of the economy resulting from the Japanese colonial period, and to continue developing heavy industry to lay a basis for socialist industrialization. The plan aimed to increase industrial production beyond 1949 levels, to produce grain at 1949 levels (the highest recorded previous grain production), further mechanization of agriculture, and to double the output of foodstuff and daily necessities compared to 1949 levels, as well as a five-fold increase in the production of cotton fabrics and a three-fold increase in production of rubber shoes. According to ''Modern Korea'', these aims were met in two years and four months, and by the end of January 1955, industrial production of state-run and cooperative enterprises exceeded the level set for 1956 in the Three Year Plan. Additionally, on the basis of results accomplished during an experimental period in 1953-1954, the trend toward agricultural cooperatives was phased into a mass movement in 1956, and by the end of February 1956, 14,651 agricultural cooperatives were organized, comprising 65.2% of total farm households and accounting for 62.1% of the total land under cultivation.<ref name=":9" />

After the armistice agreement, the US continued to prohibit all US economic contacts with DPRK in line with its general strategic controls against socialist countries.<ref name=":2" />

In 1988, South Korean and the US eased isolation of People's Korea by opening bilateral dialogue and allowing limited export of goods to the North for humanitarian purposes. Some travel restrictions were also lifted on a case-by-case basis. However, in that same year, DPRK was added to the [[U.S. State Department]] [[State Sponsors of Terrorism]] list.<ref name=":3">[https://nodutdol.org/sanctions-of-empire/ "제국의 제재 - Sanctions of Empire."] Nodutdol. October 20, 2020. [https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf PDF]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220520095404/https://nodutdol.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sanctions-of-Empire.pdf Archive].</ref><ref>[https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2019/democratic-peoples-republic-of-korea/ “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”] United States Department of State.</ref>

A unified team under the name Korea (KOR) competed in 1991 World Table Tennis Championships and FIFA World Youth Championship with athletes from both North and South Korea. In 1991, the team used the Unification Flag and the anthem "Arirang".

In 1992, the ROK announced suspension of the "Team Spirit" military training exercise normally conducted each year in conjunction with US forces stationed in South Korea. On January 22, US Undersecretary of State Arnold Kanter and Korean Workers' Party Secretary Kim Yong Sun held the first of a series of bilateral talks, focusing on the future of US–People's Korean relations and unification issues on the peninsula. However, following difficulties regarding the Joint Nuclear Control Committee, the US and ROK decided to conduct the Team Spirit exercise after all, and DPRK refused to negotiate bilateral nuclear inspections unless the Team Spirit exercise would be cancelled. By 1993, the US and South Korea confirmed that Team Spirit would proceed as planned, and DPRK ended negotiations.<ref name=":2" />

In July 1993, President [[Bill Clinton]], during a visit to the South Korean side of the DMZ, warned that the United States would respond to DPRK use of nuclear weapons with massive conventional or nuclear retaliation. In later January/early February of 1994, US officials in Washington let it be known they were considering transferring Patriot missiles to South Korea as a defensive move. In Seoul, a Defense Ministry official called for the resumption of Team Spirit unless the North agreed to full nuclear inspections. The US warned DPRK that unless it would allow inspections, it would bring a sanctions resolution before the UN Security Council.<ref name=":2" />

In July 1994, Kim Il-sung passed away at the age of 82.

===Arduous March===
The period of economic crisis, floods, and famine in DPRK known as the Arduous March (Korean: 고난의 행군) lasted from approximately 1994 to 1998. Compounding factors such as the [[overthrow of the Soviet Union]] (and subsequent worldwide economic shifts), unprecedented natural disasters, and economic sanctions imposed on the DPRK all contributed to the severity of the crisis at that time. The thriving Korean economy, which had exceeded south Korea's in production of electricity, coal, fertilizer, machine tools and steel even into the 1980s, was thrown into turmoil as it faced these factors in the 1990s.<ref>Kim, Crystal. [https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ “North Koreans Mourn Death of Leader Kim Jong Il.”] Liberation News, 22 Dec. 2011, Accessed 10 Apr. 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230410044940/https://www.liberationnews.org/north-koreans-mourn-death-of-html/ Archived] 2023-04-10.</ref><ref>[https://www.north-korea-travel.com/north-korean-history.html “North Korean History 1980s & 1990s | KTG® Tours.”] North-Korea-Travel.com.</ref>

The imperialist United States and its allies took advantage of this period, attempting to make the situation more deadly and more economically devastating via economic sanctions, to push DPRK into total collapse. It was at this time that the "military-first" policy of Songun (Korean: 선군; Hanja: 先軍) was initiated under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, in response to the constant threat of military aggression from the United States aimed at DPRK's destruction. The policy came of the determination that maintaining a strong military was essential for the defense of the country and the protection of its socialist system, and that the military was the backbone of the revolution and that it was necessary to give military affairs priority in order to proceed with socialist construction.<ref>[https://exploredprk.com/articles/the-evolution-of-dprks-socialist-lifestyle/ "The Evolution of DPRK’s Socialist Lifestyle."] Explore DPRK. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230928110755/https://exploredprk.com/articles/the-evolution-of-dprks-socialist-lifestyle/ Archived] 1012-09-28.</ref><ref name=":14">Ri Jong Chol. "Songun Politics in Korea." Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea, Juche 101 (2012). [https://web.archive.org/web/20230523072842/https://kkfonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Songun-Politics-In-Korea.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>]</ref><ref>[https://www.tongiltimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435 <nowiki>"[북현대사] 선군정치의 시작." ("[North Modern History] The beginning of Songun politics.")</nowiki>] 한반도정론: 북 바로알기. 통일시대. 2023-02-27. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230927173059/https://www.tongiltimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1435 Archived] 2023-09-27.</ref>

During this time, DPRK deployed the People's Army to major construction sites as well as rural areas for flood recovery and food production, in order to overcome the Arduous March in each region and sector. Notably, they were able to construct important infrastructure such as the Anbyon Youth Power Station at this time, erected by the service personnel of the People's Army in spite of harsh environmental conditions. Rather than yielding to the economic pressures imposed by the U.S. in combination with the environmental disasters and the worldwide economic upheavals, DPRK endured the hardships, defended the socialist system, and built structures of lasting value.<ref>[https://www.tongiltimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1421&page=2&total=125 <nowiki>"[북현대사] 고난의 행군과 강계정신" ("[North Modern History] Arduous March and Ganggye Spirit")</nowiki>], 한반도정론: 북 바로알기. 통일시대. 2023-02-18. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230927171532/https://www.tongiltimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1421&page=2&total=125 Archived] 2023-09-27.</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/juche-destiny/page/n75/mode/2up "Man's Destiny and Juche Idea."] Foreign Languages Publishing House. Pyongyang, Korea, Juche 101 (2012).</ref><ref name=":14" /> The end of the Arduous March was declared in October 2000.<ref>[https://www.tongiltimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1544 <nowiki>"[북현대사] 36년 만에 열린 조선로동당 제7차 대회" ("[North Modern History] The 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea held after 36 years").</nowiki>] 한반도정론: 북 바로알기. 통일시대. 2023-05-06. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230928173958/https://www.tongiltimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1544 Archived] 2023-09-28.</ref>

===6.15 Declaration and ROK's "Sunshine Policy"===
[[File:President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Jong-il join hands at Inter-Korean summit.jpg|thumb|[[Republic of Korea|South Korean]] President [[Kim Dae-jung]] and Chairman [[Kim Jong-il]] join hands at the 2000 Inter-Korean summit, which resulted in the 6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration.]]
The South Korean policy towards DPRK from the late 1990s to mid 2000s is known as the "Sunshine Policy" and is primarily associated with the [[Kim Dae-jung]] administration (1998–2003) and the [[Roh Moo-hyun]] administration (2003–2008). During this time, a notable attitude of reconciliation between north and south Korea was expressed by south Korean leadership.

On June 13-15, 2000 leaders of the ROK and DPRK meet for the first time since the war. South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong-il signed an agreement calling for family reunions, economic cooperation, social and cultural exchanges and follow-up governmental contacts between the North and South to ease tensions.<ref name=":2" /> This is known as the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration or the 6.15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration.

The date "6.15" would subsequently become a popular reference among the Korean reunification movement. Additionally, the phrase ''uri minjok kkiri'' (Hangeul: 우리 민족끼리), which can be translated as "among our nation" or "between our people" can be found in the joint document signed by Kim Dae Jung and Kim Jong Il at the 6.15 talks. The phrase implies the idea of solving the questions of unification and peace on the Korean peninsula without the influence or meddling of outside powers. The numbers "6.15" and the phrase "uri minjok kkiri" can frequently be seen and heard in Korean unification-oriented media, publications, and activism.

===2000s–present===
[[File:Kim-Jiang.jpg|thumb|Kim Jong-il with [[People's Republic of China|Chinese]] president, [[Jiang Zemin]] in 2000.]]
In 2002, President Bush's State of the Union address singled out [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]] and DPRK as the so-called "[[Axis of Evil]]" for their supposed pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.<ref name=":2" />

According to Nodutdol, in 2018, 3,968 people in the DPRK, who were mostly children under the age of 5, died as a result of shortages and delays to UN aid programs caused by sanctions.<ref name=":3" />

Talks between General secretary [[Kim Jong-un]] and former U.S. [[President of the United states|President]] [[Donald Trump]] began on June of 2019 to discuss disarmament and potential reunification with the [[Republic of Korea]].

In January 2020, South Korean President [[Moon Jae-in]] expressed interest in developing tourism to People's Korea, but the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort. Harris claimed that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation. He emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions, demonstrating the extent of US interference in inter-Korean affairs.<ref name=":3" />

[[Yoon Suk Yeol]]'s presidency in the Republic of Korea (2022-present) marks a turn away from rapprochement with the North. Yoon has abandoned Sunshine Policy and strengthened ties with the US, shown most overtly in his April visit to the Pentagon.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Jim Garamone|newspaper=U.S. Department of Defense|title=South Korean President Yoon Visits Pentagon, Discusses Deterrence|date=2023-04-27|url=https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3377397/south-korean-president-yoon-visits-pentagon-discusses-deterrence/|retrieved=2024-3-3}}</ref> Since 2022, the Republic of Korea has stepped up joint military exercises with the United States,<ref>{{Web citation|author=Hyonhee Shin|newspaper=Reuters|title=Defence chiefs of U.S., S.Korea vow to step up drills to counter North|date=2023-01-31|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/austin-south-korea-yoon-seeks-greater-us-nuclear-assurances-2023-01-30/|retrieved=2024-3-3}}</ref> covertly sent artillery shells to Ukraine (via the United States to avoid official state policy against sending weapons to an active warzone),<ref>{{Web citation|author=Lee Bon-young, Kwon Hyuk-chul|newspaper=Hankyoreh|title=WaPo: Seoul supplied more shells to Ukraine than all of Europe|date=2023-12-06|url=https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1119320|retrieved=2024-3-3}}</ref> and suspended a military agreement with the North designed to deescalate tensions.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Jean Mackenzie|newspaper=BBC|title=North Korea spy satellite: South partially suspends military deal after launch|date=2023-11-22|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67494007|retrieved=2024-3-3}}</ref> In response to the ROK's apparent inseparability from US occupation, the DPRK announced in January that it was ending its long-standing policy of peaceful reunification with the ROK.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Justin McCurry|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Unification with South Korea no longer possible, says Kim Jong-un|date=2024-01-15|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/16/unification-with-south-korea-no-longer-possible-says-kim-jong-un|retrieved=2024-3-3}}</ref> This demonstrates a recognition that a "[[Library:The governance of China/Chapter 10: "One Country, Two Systems"|one country two systems]]" style reunification with the South is no longer possible, as the North would never accept such a reunification if the US military was still allowed to occupy the peninsula. Reunification is only possible with the end of US military occupation and dismantling of the ROK state.

==== Nuclear weapons program ====
The DPRK joined the [[Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons|Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]] in 1985. It withdrew in 1993 according to the terms of the treaty in order to preserve its sovereignty against U.S. aggression.<ref name=":11022">{{Citation|author=Stephen Gowans|year=2018|title=Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom|chapter=Byungjin|page=208–214|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaced4iiga4ngtxusr2civjxewbili5jne2sbpefbx2s3im2kphattzc?filename=Stephen%20Gowans%20-%20Patriots%2C%20Traitors%20and%20Empires_%20The%20Story%20of%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Struggle%20for%20Freedom-Baraka%20Books%20%282018%29.pdf|city=Montreal|publisher=Baraka Books|isbn=9781771861427|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8435F6FF91279531705764823FDC2A7F}}</ref>

Since the beginning of the DPRK nuclear tests in 2003, the [[George W. Bush|Bush]] and [[Barack Obama|Obama]] regimes respectively lifted some sanctions to facilitate negotiations around DPRK denuclearization, and then reinstated them when the negotiations failed to produce the results desired by the US.<ref name=":3" />

The DPRK detonated its first nuclear bomb on 2006 October 9. The invasions of [[Republic of Iraq|Iraq]] and [[Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977–2011)|Libya]] proved this decision correct when those countries fell to [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] occupation after giving up their nuclear programs.<ref name=":11022" />

==Economy==
The DPRK has maintained one of the most centralized economies in the world since the 1940s. For several decades, it has followed the Soviet pattern of five-year plans with the ultimate goal of achieving self-sufficiency. DPRK is also one of the most sanctioned countries in the world, and has been subject to sanctions since just after its foundation. The economy is heavily nationalized. Food and housing are extensively subsidized by the state, education and healthcare are free, and the payment of taxes was officially abolished in 1974.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Zak Brown|newspaper=Anti-Imperialism.org|title=Towards a concrete analysis of the DPRK|date=2023-11-18|url=https://anti-imperialism.org/2013/11/18/towards-a-concrete-analysis-of-the-dprk/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200118135119/https://anti-imperialism.org/2013/11/18/towards-a-concrete-analysis-of-the-dprk/|archive-date=2020-01-18|retrieved=2023-03-12}}</ref> The DPRK follows policy of ''[[Byungjin]]'', meaning it simultaneously develops its nuclear weapons program and the economy.<ref>{{News citation|author=Ankit Panda|newspaper=[[The Diplomat]]|title=Is North Korea’s ‘Byungjin Line’ on the US-China Strategic Agenda?|url=https://thediplomat.com/2015/06/is-north-koreas-byungjin-line-on-the-us-china-strategic-agenda/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321104122/https://thediplomat.com/2015/06/is-north-koreas-byungjin-line-on-the-us-china-strategic-agenda/|archive-date=2022-03-21|retrieved=2022-04-24}}</ref>

A 2020 book published in DPRK summarizes the DPRK's economic line of development as follows: "The DPRK has consistently adhered to the line of building an independent national economy in economic construction. In Juche 42 (1953) it put put forward the basic line of socialist economic construction, developing heavy industry preferentially and ensuring the simultaneous development of light industry and agriculture. True to this line, it laid solid material and technological foundations for an independent national economy. In the 1960s when the hostile forces’ moves of aggression became undisguised, the WPK advanced the line of simultaneously carrying on economic construction and building up defences, thus establishing a socialist industrial state while increasing its defence capabilities."<ref>[https://archive.org/details/dprk-photobook/page/n53/mode/1up "DPRK Photobook."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Printing Plant of Foreign Languages Publishing House, October Juche 109 (2020).</ref>

According to DPRK's constitution, the DPRK regards the steady improvement of the material and cultural standards of the people as "the supreme principle of its activities", and holds that the state "shall provide all the working people with every condition for obtaining food, clothing and housing." Furthermore, the constitution states that DPRK's economy relies on socialist relations of production and on the foundation of an independent national economy, with the means of production owned in some cases by the state and in other cases owned collectively by social cooperative organizations. The eventual goal of the DPRK is to "combine the two forms of property in an organic way", and to gradually transform the means of production owned by cooperative organizations into the property of the people as a whole (i.e., into state property), based on the voluntary will of the social cooperative organizations' members. While the means of production are under the ownership of the working class in the form of state property and social cooperative organizations, property that is owned and consumed by individual citizens is also legally protected, including products of individual sideline activities such as products from kitchen gardens and income from other legal economic activities. This type of personal property is protected by the state and guaranteed by law the right for people to inherit it.<ref name=":11">[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Socialist_Constitution_of_the_Democratic_People%27s_Republic_of_Korea_(2019) "Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (2019)."] Wikisource. [https://manoa.hawaii.edu/koreanstudies/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/DPRK-Constitution-2019-EN.pdf <nowiki>[PDF]</nowiki>] on manoa.hawaii.edu.</ref>

=== Socialist economic management ===
Throughout DPRK's development, systems of socialist economic management and methods of work have been developed, adapted to the country's particular needs. Notable among them is the Taean (or Daean) work system, an industrial management system which grew out of the Chongsanri agricultural management system. Each system has been described by north Korean author and politician [[Kim Byong Sik]] as implementations of the [[mass line]] in production, which were developed in response to DPRK's changing needs as it transitioned away from individualistic, bureaucratic capitalist-style management toward collective socialist-style management in production. As Kim Byong Sik explains, "the Daean work system means, in a word, to embody the mass line in economic control; to get rid of survivals of capitalism in economic management such as bureaucracy, over-centralization and individualism, and to implement the Chongsanri spirit and method, enabling workers to contribute to the maximum in accelerating [[socialist construction]]."<ref name=":9">[[Kim Byong Sik]]. [https://archive.org/details/ModernKoreaKimByongSik/ "Modern Korea: The Socialist North, Revolutionary Perspectives in the South, and Unification."] International Publishers, 1970.</ref>

Each method is named after a location in which it saw early implementation: Chongsanri refers to Chongsanri Cooperative Farm in Kangso county, South Pyongan province, while the Taean work system is named after Taean Electric Machine Factory.<ref name=":9" />

Kim Il Sung noted that in the DPRK's early development, the factory management system "still retained many capitalist elements" despite being socialist. These lingering capitalist elements in management led to bureaucracy, departmentalism, and individualism hampering the activity and initiative of the workers, as well as led to a lack of cooperative spirit between workshops and to insufficient worker participation in management. Quoted in Kim Byong Sik's ''Modern Korea'', Kim Il Sung described the problem as follows: <blockquote>It must be admitted that the old system of factory management, though socialist, still retained many capitalist elements. Bureaucracy, departmentalism, and individualism were found in large measure. Superiors shouted commands at their subordinates in a bureaucratic manner instead of going to help them; a spirit of cooperation between workshops was lacking; and among some people there was a tendency toward individualism of the “You attend to your business, I’ll stick to mine!” variety. Therefore, under the old system of work, it was not possible to give full play to the activity and initiative of workers, people busied themselves for nothing, and no sizable achievements were made in production.<ref name=":9" /> </blockquote>Kim Byong Sik adds that in factories administered exclusively by managers, the lingering capitalist elements were the most concentrated. In such factories, workers lacked interest in whether production was going well or not because they did not have sufficient participation in management. The managers who held sole decision-making powers engaged in arbitrary control, subjective discretion, and other bureaucratic methods, and so the workers felt their job was to "work for eight hours, as assigned, and then go home" which gave little room for stimulating their "political, moral and material interest" in their work or giving full play to their creativity and talent. Therefore it was necessary to bring factory management in line with a socialist management system. In contrast with the lingering capitalist style of management, in the Daean work system, the people cooperate with each other and work units help one another in economic management, with the essential purpose of the Daean work system being to enable people to give maximum play to their revolutionary enthusiasm and creative talent, to increase production, and to control and to manage the economy through promoting comradely accommodation and close cooperation among producers and producing units. Kim Byong Sik also notes that the Daean work system, as a socialist management system, is a prototype of communist economic management, stating "it is clear that economic management in a communist society will take the form of collective management by millions of conscious, communist working people."<ref name=":9" />

=== Special Economic Zones ===
Foreign trade surpassed pre-crisis levels in 2005 and continues to expand. The DPRK has a number of special economic zones (SEZs) and Special Administrative Regions where foreign companies can operate with tax and tariff incentives while DPRK establishments gain access to improved technology.<ref>{{News citation|title=Special Economic Zones in the DPRK|url=https://www.ncnk.org/resources/briefing-papers/all-briefing-papers/special-economic-zones-dprk}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|title=North Korea’s Special Economic Zones: Plans vs. Progress|url=https://www.38north.org/reports/2015/11/nk-sez-plans-vs-progress/}}</ref>

=== Economic sanctions ===
''See also: [[Economic sanctions#Democratic People's Republic of Korea]]''

The US first imposed sanctions on DPRK during the 1950s.<ref name=":2" /> The United States has repeatedly targeted the DPRK with sanctions, citing its nuclear weapons program as their reason.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=[[TeleSur]]|title=US Reps Pass "Harshest Sanctions Ever" Against North Korea|date=2017-10-25|url=https://wp.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Reps-Pass-Harshest-Sanctions-Ever-Against-North-Korea-20171025-0006.html|retrieved=2022-04-24}}</ref> Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, the US, EU, and others added more stringent sanctions, which have periodically intensified since then. In 2017, sanctions imposed by the UN caused thousands of DPRK workers who had been working abroad to be forced to return to DPRK as well as led to the closure of numerous DPRK companies and joint ventures.<ref>[https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html “North Korean Workers Leave China because of UN Sanctions.”] Asianews.it. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909073331/https://www.asianews.it/news-en/North-Korean-workers-leave-China-because-of-UN-sanctions-41942.html Archived] 2022-09-09.</ref> Sanctions now target oil imports, and cover most finance and trade, and the country’s key minerals sector.<ref>Galant, Michael. [https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ “CEPR Sanctions Watch, May-June 2022”] Center for Economic and Policy Research. July 8, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220907145545/https://cepr.net/cepr-sanctions-watch-may-june-2022/ Archived] 2022-09-07</ref> However, 49 countries, including [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]], [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iran]], and [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]] have violated these sanctions and traded with the DPRK anyways.<ref>{{News citation|author=Rishi Iyengar|newspaper=[[CNN]]|title=Report: 49 countries have been busting sanctions on North Korea|date=2017-12-06|url=https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508065837/https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/news/north-korea-sanctions-countries-violation/index.html|archive-date=2021-05-08|retrieved=2022-04-24}}</ref>

According to Foreign Policy in Focus, sanctions on DPRK have "demonstrably failed." FPIF notes that sanctions didn’t deter DPRK from pursuing a nuclear weapons program, nor have they been subsequently responsible for pushing it toward denuclearization, and adds that DPRK has been under sanctions for nearly its entire existence and it doesn’t have a strong international economic presence that can be penalized, and "has been willing to suffer the effects of isolation in order to build what it considers to be a credible deterrence against foreign attack."<ref>Feffer, John. 2021. [https://fpif.org/the-problem-of-sanctions-against-north-korea/ “The Problem of Sanctions against North Korea.”] Foreign Policy in Focus. November 22, 2021. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220909072424/https://fpif.org/the-problem-of-sanctions-against-north-korea/ Archived] 2022-09-09. ‌</ref>

==Government==

===Central government===
The highest organ of state power is the [[Supreme People's Assembly]], which is elected for a term of five years. It elects a Speaker and Deputy Speaker to preside over its sessions. While the Supreme People's Assembly is not in session, the Presidium is the highest organ of state power. It consists of a President, Vice-Presidents, and other members.

The Supreme People's Assembly also elects a [[State Affairs Commission]] consisting of a Chairman, multiple Vice-Chairmen, and other members and a Cabinet consisting of a Premier, Vice-Premiers, Chairmen, Ministers, and other members. The Premier organizes the work of the cabinet and is the head of government of the DPRK.<ref name=":6">{{Citation|author=12th Supreme People's Assembly|year=2016|title=Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea|title-url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Socialist_Constitution_of_the_Democratic_People%27s_Republic_of_Korea_(2016)|chapter=State Organs}}</ref>

===Local government===
Provinces, cities, and counties elect local people's assemblies for a term of four years. The local people's assembly elects a speaker to preside over its sessions and a local people's committee. Local people's assemblies and committees are subordinate to the Supreme People's Assembly and Cabinet.<ref name=":6" />

== Administrative divisions ==
[[File:Provinces of Korea.png|thumb|333x333px|Provinces of Korea.]]
DPRK is divided into nine provinces, the direct-administered capital city, and three special cities.

The nine provinces (Korean: 도; Hanja: 道) of DPRK are [[Chagang Province|Chagang]], [[North Hamgyong Province|North Hamgyong]], [[South Hamgyong Province|South Hamgyong]], [[North Hwanghae Province|North Hwanghae]], [[South Hwanghae Province|South Hwanghae]], [[Kangwon Province|Kangwon]], [[North Pyongan Province|North Pyongan]], [[South Pyongan Province|South Pyongan]], and [[Ryanggang Province|Ryanggang]].

Pyongyang is designated as the capital city, or the direct-administered city (Korean: 직할시; Hanja: 直轄市) while three other cities, namely [[Rason]], [[Nampo]], [[Kaesong]], are special cities (Korean: 특별시; Hanja: 特別市).

A 2014 demographic survey of DPRK, conducted as a joint project between DPRK's Central Bureau of Statistics and the [[United Nations]] Population Fund, found that the majority of the country's population resides in four contiguous provinces: South Pyongan (17% of population), Pyongyang (14%), South Hamgyong (13%), and North Pyongan (12%). Together, these four contiguous provinces account for over 55% of the country's population. The highest population density area was in the capital city of Pyongyang, while the lowest population density was in Ryanggang. It was also found that more than six out of ten persons reside in urban areas in the country, at 61.2% of the population, while 38.8% of the population lives in rural areas.<ref>Central Bureau of Statistics, Pyongyang and United Nations Population Fund. [https://archive.org/details/2014SDHSReportEFinal "Democratic People's Republic of Korea Socio-Economic, Demographic and Health Survey, 2014."] December, Juche 104 (2015).</ref>

DPRK's method of administrative division is similar to that in south Korea, as both are based on the common system in Korea as a whole, having its roots in the mid-Goryo dynasty in the 11th century.<ref>DPRK Explained. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWmNve0oUkU “DPRK Provinces EXPLAINED - Part One | North Korea’s Provinces.”] YouTube Video.</ref>

As a result of the division of Korea, three provinces, namely Hwanghae, Gyeonggi, and Kangwon, were split due to being on the line of division. The smaller portions of post-division Hwanghae and Gyeonggi provinces were mostly incorporated into nearby provinces, with the larger part of Hwanghae ending up in DPRK and the larger part of Gyeonggi in south Korea. However, Kangwon was divided roughly in half, and as a result, both DPRK and south Korea have a Kangwon province, romanized as Kangwon in DPRK and Gangwon in the south.

==Foreign relations==
Article 17 of the DPRK's constitution states that independence, peace, and friendship are the basic ideals of the foreign relations of the DPRK. Additionally, the constitution holds that the state "shall establish diplomatic as well as political, economic and cultural relations with all friendly countries, on the principles of complete equality, independence, mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s affairs and mutual benefit" and "promote unity with people all over the world who defend their independence, and resolutely support and encourage the struggles of all people who oppose all forms of aggression and interference and fight for their countries’ independence and national and class emancipation."<ref name=":11" />

DPRK does not reject foreign exchange, nor reject foreign knowledge, nor adhere to an [[Isolationism|isolationist]] policy, nor does it aim to promote national [[chauvinism]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Kim Il Sung|title=Collected Works Volume 17|chapter=On Further Developing the Chollima Workteam Movement|page=276|quote=In educating the working people in socialist patriotism, care should be taken to prevent the growth of tendencies to national chauvinism and restorationism. One may be apt to head for chauvinism on the plea of building an independent national economy by one’s own efforts and promoting national pride. If we steer in the direction of chauvinism as Regent Taewongun pursued a policy of national isolation, we will come to reject international exchange and advanced science and technology from other countries and, accordingly, hinder the development of our country.|pdf=https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/17.pdf}}</ref> Rather, DPRK upholds [[proletarian internationalism]], [[national liberation]], and [[anti-imperialism]], and aims for international exchanges based in mutual respect. Speaking on DPRK's attitude toward international exchange and the study and adoption of foreign knowledge, Kim Il Sung clarifies that it is not DPRK's position to reject foreign things, but rather to adopt them critically and non-[[Dogmatism|dogmatically]], with Korea's sovereignty and particular conditions in mind: "What we are opposing is the [[Nihilism|nihilistic]] attitude of looking down upon our nation, while looking up to foreign countries, as well as the dogmatist attitude of uncritically swallowing up foreign things in disregard of the actual conditions of our country."<ref>Kim Il Sung. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/17.pdf "On Improving Education in Universities."] April 18, 1963. Collected Works, Volume 17.</ref>

Kim Il-sung has said that completing the Korean revolution is the internationalist duty of the Korean people, and explained that, in the modern conditions where imperialism and borders still exist (as opposed to a stateless, communist future), and in conditions where Korea currently remains divided and antagonized by imperialism, DPRK's socialist patriotism is "indispensable for us who have to drive out the US imperialist aggressors and accomplish the national-liberation revolution", and that "the Korean revolution is the internationalist duty devolving on the Korean people. For this reason, only when the Korean people satisfactorily carry out the Korean revolution as their first priority, will they be performing their internationalist duty faithfully."<ref name=":13">Kim Il Sung. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/17.pdf "Our People's Army Is an Army of the Working Class, An Army of the Revolution; Class and Political Education Should Be Continuously Strengthened."] February 8, 1963. Kim Il Sung Collected Works, Volume 17. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230403214034/https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/17.pdf Archived] 2023-04-03.</ref>

Opposing chauvinism and promoting proletarian internationalism, Kim Il-sung has emphasized that care should be taken to prevent the growth of national chauvinism when promoting socialist patriotism, explaining that DPRK should not pursue a chauvinist policy or national isolation, and that Koreans should be educated in the spirit of internationalism "to fight in close unity with many other peoples of the world" against imperialism as well as against both right and left opportunism.<ref>Kim Il Sung. [https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/17.pdf "On Strengthening the Work of Factory Party Committees And Further Developing the Chollima Workteam Movement."] Collected Works Volume 17. May 15, 1963. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230403214034/https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/cw/17.pdf Archived] 2023-04-03.</ref> While in the present day, defense of national sovereignty and socialist patriotism holds importance in DPRK, Kim Il-sung notes: "Needless to say, it will be another matter after imperialism is completely overthrown and socialism and communism emerge victorious throughout the world in the future, and the boundaries of nations vanish and states cease to exist."<ref name=":13" />

=== Support for anti-imperialist liberation ===
[[File:DPRK Che Guevara poster.png|thumb|Korean poster of [[Ernesto Guevara|Che Guevara]]]]
The DPRK's revolutionary government has supported other liberation struggles around the world. The support has at times included material support such as providing weapons and military training to various movements, hosting delegations representing various liberation struggles, as well as gestures and expressions of solidarity such as in speeches at the UN General Assembly and support for liberation movements written about in official DPRK publications.

The DPRK trained two thousand guerrilla fighters from twenty-five countries from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, including members of the [[Japanese Red Army]], [[Palestinian Liberation Organization]], and the [[Official Irish Republican Army]]. The training in these camps lasted from six to eighteen months, and during that time, the DPRK military taught foreign revolutionaries Korean martial arts. The foreign revolutionaries were also put through training such as running through the mountains at night while carrying one hundred pound sandbags.<ref name=":7">[https://apjjf.org/2015/13/12/Benjamin-Young/4303.html “Juche in the United States: The Black Panther Party’s Relations with North Korea, 1969-1971.”] 2015. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325033325/https://apjjf.org/2015/13/12/Benjamin-Young/4303.html Archived] 2023-03-25. </ref>

DPRK has supported liberation struggles in [[Africa]] both materially and through expressions of solidarity.<ref>[https://libya360.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/president-kim-il-sungs-immortal-contributions-to-african-liberation/ President Kim Il Sung’s Immortal Contributions to African Liberation] APRIL 17, 2017 by Internationalist 360º on libya360.wordpress.com </ref> President Kim Il Sung was a staunch opponent of both [[Republic of South Africa|South African]] and [[Zionism|Zionist]] [[apartheid]].<ref name=":8">[https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1006972472015708160.html <nowiki>“Thread by @Uhusofree: ‘a Quick Thread on the DPRK and African and Diaspora Liberation Movements. I Hope It Reaches Someone Who Didn’t Know Before. President Kim Il […].’”</nowiki>] Threadreaderapp.com. Thread Reader. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230325040407/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1006972472015708160.html Archived] 2023-03-25.</ref>

When [[Kwame Nkrumah]]'s government in [[Republic of Ghana|Ghana]] was overthrown in a CIA-backed coup in 1966, Kim Il-sung sent a letter to Nkrumah shortly afterword, stating, "We are especially enraged at the reactionary coup d’état which took place in Ghana at the instigation of the imperialists [...] The imperialists engineer similar plots and perpetrate subversive activities against progressive countries everywhere. We resolutely condemn the machinations of the imperialists against the just cause of the peoples for national liberation, independence and progress. We express our unreserved support to your Excellency’s determination to fight for the freedom of Ghana on your return to Africa."<ref>Nkrumah, Kwame. [https://archive.org/details/san_0975/page/160/mode/1up?view=theater&q=Pyongyang ''Dark Days in Ghana''. "Appendix."] 1968.</ref>

On March 31, 1970, nine members of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) hijacked a Japan Air Lines plane and landed it in Pyongyang. These nine members eventually settled in a housing complex on the outskirts of Pyongyang and the DPRK government used the JRA connection to send money and arms to various Third World-oriented organizations, such as the PLO, the [[Red Army Faction]], and the [[Italian Red Brigades]].<ref name=":7" />

During the 1980s, the DPRK sent free weapons to Cuba.<ref>{{News citation|author=David Iocanangelo|newspaper=Latin Times|title=Fidel Castro Says North Korea Sent Cuba Free Weapons During Cold War|date=2013-08-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200118135109/https://www.latintimes.com/fidel-castro-says-north-korea-sent-cuba-free-weapons-during-cold-war-130279|archive-date=2020-01-18}}</ref>

DPRK Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong Ho's 2017 UN General Assembly statements of solidarity with Cuba, [[Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela|Venezuela]], and [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]] and condemning [[State of Israel|Israel]]:<blockquote>My delegation takes this opportunity to extend strong support to and solidarity with the Cuban government and people who are fighting to defend national sovereignty and realize international justice against the high-handedness, arbitrariness and unilateral embargo of the U.S.

We also express strong support to and solidarity with the government and people of Venezuela who are fighting to defend the national sovereignty and the cause of socialism.

The unjust and contemptible acts such as turning a blind eye to the heinous acts of Israel while condemning in every manner only the Syrian government fighting to protect its national sovereignty and security should not be tolerated any longer.

The DPRK government will certainly defend peace and security of the country with its powerful nuclear deterrence and also contribute to safeguarding world peace and security.<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>The DPRK representative Kim Song at the 2021 UN General Assembly spoke on the DPRK delegation extending "its full support and encouragement to the Cuban government and people who continue to move forward holding aloft the banner of socialism in the face of the U.S. moves to impose illegal sanctions and blockade and to undermine Cuba from within" and expressed "constant support to and solidarity with the independent countries including Syria and [[State of Palestine|Palestine]] and their peoples in their unyielding struggle to defend the national dignity, sovereignty and territorial integrity."<ref name=":1" />

=== Support for Black liberation in the United States ===
[[File:Korean BPP poster.png|thumb|Korean poster of [[Huey P. Newton|Huey Newton]]]]
Kim Il-sung praised the [[Black Panther Party]] (BPP) for their "just struggle to abolish the cursed system of racial discrimination of the US imperialists".<ref>{{Web citation|author=Tania Branigan|newspaper=The Guardian|title=How Black Panthers turned to North Korea in fight against US imperialism|date=2014-06-19|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/19/black-panthers-north-korea-us-imperialism|archive-url=https://archive.is/yJajx|archive-date=2022-09-13|retrieved=2025-08-21|quote=Meanwhile, the then leader Kim Il-sung hailed the American party’s “just struggle to abolish the cursed system of racial discrimination of the US imperialists”.}}</ref> The Black Panther Party sent a delegation to the DPRK to meet with President Kim Il Sung and other officials to exchange ideas.<ref name=":8" /> Numerous examples of writings in support of the DPRK and against U.S. imperialism can be found in BPP publications, while many articles in support of the BPP and denouncing U.S. imperialism and systemic racism can be found in DPRK publications.

In addition to specific support of the BPP, it is common to find DPRK publications calling out and denouncing the United States as racist, and voicing support for Black people and other racial minorities of the U.S. in their struggle against it. For example, DPRK state media commented on the shooting of [[Trayvon Martin]], stating: "The U.S. true colors as a kingdom of racial discrimination was fully revealed by last year’s case that the [[Florida]] Court gave a verdict of not guilty to a white policeman who shot to death an innocent Black boy." DPRK has also made commentary on the case of [[George Floyd protests|George Floyd]], emphasizing the hypocrisy for the US to preach about human rights while perpetrating racial oppression against its own citizens. An official from Central Committee stated via the state newspaper [[Rodong Sinmun]]: "Demonstrators enraged by the extreme racists throng even to the White House. This is the reality in the U.S. today" and further stated "American liberalism and democracy put the cap of leftist on the demonstrators and threaten to unleash even dogs for suppression."<ref>[https://www.youngpioneertours.com/dprk-black-civil-rights-movement/ “North Korea and the Black Civil Rights Movement.”] Young Pioneer Tours. December 23, 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221129235716/https://www.youngpioneertours.com/dprk-black-civil-rights-movement/ Archived] 2022-11-29.</ref>

===DPRK-US relations===
The core of US policy toward DPRK has been summarized in a 2008 book from DPRK as follows: "The US attempt to crush the DPRK and realize domination over the whole Korean peninsula constitutes the core of its policy towards the DPRK and the key to its building of a foundation on which to achieve world hegemony."<ref>[https://archive.org/details/terrorismwar/page/n1/mode/1up?view=theater "The United States: 'War Against Terrorism'."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea. Juche 97 (2008).</ref>

In a 2021 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, the DPRK's representative Kim Song stated, "In the course of the DPRK-U.S. showdown spanning over half a century, we have been very much accustomed to the U.S. military threats, and we know well how to deal with the U.S., the most hostile country. We have learned the mode of existence to cope with the U.S. hostile policy and accumulated rich experience."<ref name=":1" /> The representative further characterized the DPRK-US relationship in the following way:<blockquote>From the first day of the foundation of the DPRK, the U.S. has not recognized our sovereignty, treating us as an enemy state, and openly showed its hostility towards the socialist system chosen by our people. The U.S. designated the DPRK as a "communist state" and a "state of non-market economy", and it completely blocked, both institutionally and legislatively, the establishment of relations between the DPRK and the U.S. in the fields of politics, economy and trade, under the unreasonable pretexts of "human rights issue", "proliferation of the WMD", "sponsoring of terrorism", "oppression of religion", "money laundering" and etc.

If it is not a hostile policy, should it be called a "friendly policy"?

The U.S. hostile policy against the DPRK finds its clearest expression in its military threats against us. Not a single foreign troop, not a single foreign military base exists in the territory of the DPRK. But in south Korea, almost 30,000 U.S. troops are stationing at numerous military bases, maintaining a war posture to take military action against the DPRK at any moment. The DPRK has no record of having conducted a military exercise even a single time around the U.S., but the U.S. has annually staged all sorts of war drills on and around the Korean peninsula and in the Korean waters for the last several decades, by mobilizing army, naval and air forces across the world including the U.S. troops in south Korea, and it has threatened us through military demonstrations of intimidating nature while deploying numerous armaments to south Korea from time to time.<ref name=":1" /> </blockquote>The representative also noted that the possible outbreak of a new war on the Korean peninsula is contained "not because of the U.S.’s mercy on the DPRK" but because the DPRK "is growing reliable deterrent that can control the hostile forces in their attempts for military invasion".<ref name=":1" />

Kim Yo Jong, First Vice Department Director of Central Committee of Workers’ Party of Korea, in response to being called a “rogue state” by the US Defense Secretary, has been quoted by Nodutdol as saying, "the sufferings imposed upon us by the U.S. have now turned into the hatred for the U.S., and this hatred would drive us to break through the blockade of persistent sanctions led by the U.S. and to live our own way by our own efforts."<ref name=":3" />

The 2018 book ''Origin of the Korean Question'' published in DPRK analyzes the USA's long history of imperialist aggression toward Korea, even prior to the division of the Korean nation into north and south. The book explains: "From the first days of its emergence from the sea of blood of [[American Indians]], the US waged ceaseless wars of conquest with the ambition of territorial expansion. [...] Having accomplished transition from capitalism to imperialism by achieving [[Primitive accumulation of capital|forced initial accumulation of capital]] through aggression and plunder, in the 19th century the US and European powers made their colony of extensive regions in Africa, America, Southeast Asia and on the shores of the Pacific. Not satisfied with it, they plunged into a competition for seizing before anyone else Korea, [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|Qing China]] and Japan that had been still outside of any other country's influence. [...] The US, a latecomer in this competition, tried to contain the intervention of other powers in the Far East; its primary efforts in the Far East were directed to Korea." The authors further explain that towards the end of the Second World War, the US began to advocate a "new order of the US-led world," backpedaling on its commitments to the [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] Allied Powers, and that since then, it has openly pursued policy of stamping out socialism on the globe and seeking to achieve world supremacy. The authors note that the Asia-Pacific area has since become the center of global trade and that the US has a "huge economic dependence" on it. Due to the growing influence of Asian economies, the US is "hell bent on winning control over Asia", and has determined that it must dominate the Korean peninsula, a regional strategic point politically, militarily and economically, in order to complete its goal of hegemonic power. For this reason, the US regards it as a major goal to stamp out the DPRK and dominate the Korean peninsula as a whole, setting the DPRK as a major target in the "axis of evil", and "resorting to every means to internationalize the Korean question", treating the issue arbitrarily in international arenas such as the UN, in collaboration with its satellite countries.<ref name=":10">[https://archive.org/details/origin-of-the-korean-question-foreign-languages-publishing-house-pyongyang-juche-107-2018/ "Origin of the Korean Question."] Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Juche 107 (2018).</ref>

Describing the history of the USA's imperialist designs on Korea, which continues to this day in modern Korea-US relations, the book's authors note that the USA has had its eyes on Korea since the 1800s, due to the importance of Korea's strategic position, the Korean peninsula being good springboard for advance into Asia. Additionally, the authors explain that the USA was compelled toward imperialist expansion by the fact that its industry demanded overseas markets for selling its products, and that the USA saw Korea as a suitable market for its commodities. Finally, Korea was seen as a key location where ships from the USA could refuel on their way to China. Several incidents, such as the criminal intrusion of the USA's ship ''General Sherman'' into the [[Taedong river]] in 1866, which, demanding "trade" and refusing to leave, perpetrated theft, violence, and kidnapping and killing of Koreans until Pyongyang citizens finally were able to set the boat on fire and sink it, was followed by other incidents with USA's naval vessels continuing to intrude into Korean territory as well as conducting illegal gold prospecting in Korea.<ref name=":10" />

Eventually, after a Korea-US treaty was made in 1882, the US won many privileges including the extraterritorial right and "most favoured nation" treatment. Thus the US moved to reduce Korea to its commodity market, a source of precious metals and other raw materials, and an object of capital investment. The US capitalists brought surplus goods like old firearms, petroleum, tobacco and drops to sell them at exorbitant prices, meanwhile purchasing Korea's precious metals including gold and silver at low prices. Over time, [[Christianity|Christian]] missionaries promoted pro-US sentiment and sent "bourgeois sycophants" and "traitors to the nation" such as future dictator [[Syngman Rhee]] to the US to study, "at the expense of part of the colossal wealth obtained by bleeding the Korean people white."<ref name=":10" />

By 1905, in a meeting referred to as the [[Taft-Katsura agreement]], the USA's secretary of war and soon-to-be president, [[William Howard Taft]], and Japan's prime minister [[Katsura Taro]] had a confidential discussion in which they expressed their respective views on control over nations in the Pacific, with Japan emphasizing that it had no designs on the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], and the USA expressing that it would be "logical" for Japan to assert control over Korea. The USA's secretary of war and future president expressed his view that "the establishment by Japan of a [[suzerainty]] over Corea to the extent of requiring that Corea enter into no foreign treaties without the consent of Japan" would directly contribute to "permanent peace" in East Asia.<ref>[https://www.icasinc.org/history/katsura.html "The Taft-Katsura Agreed Memorandum, July 29, 1905."] ICAS Historical Document, Institute for Corean-American Studies. [https://www.icasinc.org/history/katsura.pdf PDF] of document. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230829070912/https://www.icasinc.org/history/katsura.pdf Archived] 2023-08-29.</ref><ref>[https://kls.law.columbia.edu/content/korea-legal-history "Korea: A Legal History: Taft-Katsura Agreed Memorandum."] Korean Legal Studies. Columbia.edu. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230829072908/https://kls.law.columbia.edu/content/korea-legal-history Archived] 2023-08-29.</ref> The authors of ''Origin of the Korean Question'' point out that in the Taft-Katsura Agreement, the US recognized Japan's protection of Korea and, in return, Japan promised not to interfere with the US supremacy over the Philippines. Placing this agreement in the context of the USA's series of aggressions and intrusions into Korea, its imperialistic trade relations, its promotion of pro-US bourgeois ideology through Christian missionaries, and its disregard for agreements made in the 1882 Korea-US treaty, it demonstrates the USA's longstanding record of aggressive, imperialist self-interest in its dealings with Korea as a key country for the US to subjugate on its path to imperialist world hegemony. In line with this history, the authors evaluate that the US of the present day spreads misinformation about the DPRK and misuses the UN and other international apparatuses to "isolate and suffocate the recalcitrant country that aspires after independence [...] to bring the Korean people to their knees by internationalizing the Korean question at all costs in pursuit of its world strategy."<ref name=":10" />

===DPRK-ROK relations===
[[File:Unification vs Peaceful Coexistence 2016-2021.png|thumb|Attitudes in South Korea towards unification vs peaceful coexistence with DPRK, according to the 2021 KINU Unification Survey.<ref name=":5">Dr. Sang Sin Lee, et. al. [https://www.kinu.or.kr/pyxis-api/1/digital-files/87cb5812-a81a-4fdc-824c-8d359544e8f7 "KINU Unification Survey 2021: Executive Summary."] July, 2021. Korea Institute for National Unification.</ref>]]
Among the political leadership, bourgeoisie, and working people of South Korea, there is variation in attitudes toward DPRK. For the majority of South Korea's history, its leaders have been far-right anti-communist military dictators as well as corrupt oligarchs. A handful of ROK presidents are notable for their "Sunshine Policy" stance toward DPRK, a stance of reconciliation. Most notably associated with this attitude are Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. The more recent president, [[Moon Jae-in]], has been described as having revived certain elements of the Sunshine Policy era. However, his presidency was followed by the right-wing [[Yoon Suk-yeol]] who took office in 2022, and has a much more aggressive pro-US stance.

In regard to public opinion in South Korea, the 2021 KINU Unification Survey<ref name=":5" /> reported that positive responses to the question “If North Korea open the borders to each other and cooperate on political and economic matters, such a state can be considered unification even if the two Koreas are not one country” have reached 63.2%. In addition, the survey found there is a growing tendency to be indifferent to DPRK and to "give up expectations" rather than a negative view for the future of inter-Korean relations. The IMF generation and millennial generations clearly show a high level of indifference toward the DPRK compared to the older generations. (IMF generation 68.3%, Millennial generation 74.1%).

According to the survey, the gap between ‘Prefers unification’ and ‘Prefers peaceful coexistence’ is very huge in the millennial generation. In the 2021 survey, the percentage of ‘Prefers peaceful coexistence’ was 71.4% and the percentage of ‘Prefers unification’ was 12.4%, showing a difference of 59%P. The summary of the results suggests that "the trend that younger generations view North Korea as the subject of coexistence and not unification will become stronger in the future." The younger generation tends to loosely favor confederations. The Millennial generation most actively preferred confederations and has the lowest percentage of preference for unitary state system at only 6.5%. The preference for unification in the unitary state system, which is the traditional unification view, was relatively high among the war generation (17.8%). However, more` than half of the War generation (52.1%) preferred confederations.

67.7% of survey respondents agreed to the statement “The agreements between the two Koreas should be continued regardless of the government's change” and 90.3% of the respondents said ‘necessary’ to the question “Do you think that U.S. Armed Forces in Korea is needed now?” 69% of respondents showed a positive attitude toward the question “Do you think U.S. President [[Joe Biden|Biden]] should hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un?” The survey also found that people under 30 are apparently more vulnerable to fake news about DPRK than those over 40. Income level, residence area, political ideology, and party identification also seem to influence the reception of fake news on DPRK and unification issues.<ref name=":5" />

The US consistently interferes in inter-Korean affairs and polices Korean reunification efforts by citing sanctions. According to Nodutdol, only a few months after the Korean leaders signed the Panmunjeom Declaration, the US-led UN Command which oversees the DMZ, blocked development of the inter-Korean railway. In January 2020, South Korean President Moon Jae-In expressed interest in developing tourism to People's Korea, but the US ambassador Harry Harris blocked this effort. Harris claimed that "independent" tourism plans would have to undergo US consultation. He emphasized that the items inside South Korean tourists' luggage could violate sanctions, demonstrating the extent of US interference.<ref name=":3" />

During Moon Jae-in's presidency, a number of inter-Korean activities took place, such as the 2018 inter-Korean summit. In the 2018 Winter Olympics, the teams representing DPRK and south Korea entered the Opening Ceremony marching under the Korean Unification Flag, while in women's ice hockey there was a single united Korean team. A music concert titled "Spring is Coming" was also held in 2018, in which a number of south Korean artists performed alongside People's Korean artists in [[Pyongyang]], DPRK.

Pro-DPRK voices in South Korea are stifled by the existence of the National Security Law. The National Security Law is a south Korean law enforced since 1948 following events such as the [[Jeju Uprising]] where Koreans opposed the division of the country into north and south. The National Security Law has the avowed purpose "to secure the security of the State and the subsistence and freedom of nationals, by regulating any anticipated activities compromising the safety of the State." Behaviors or speeches in favor of the DPRK or communism can be punished by the National Security Law. In an article from The Diplomat, it was referred to as a "Cold War holdover" that "allows the government to selectively prosecute anyone who 'praises, incites or propagates the activities of an anti-government organization'" which the article describes as "a deliberately vague clause that broadly implies the North Korean state and its sympathizers." The article continues, explaining "Under Article 7, individuals have been prosecuted and imprisoned for merely possessing North Korean publications or satirically tweeting North Korean propaganda. In recent years this clause has been harshly criticized by [[Amnesty International]] and [[Human Rights Watch]], who claim the government abuses the law to repress dissenting voices."<ref>Meredith Shaw and Joseph Yi. (2022-03-15). [https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/will-yoon-suk-yeol-finally-reform-south-koreas-national-security-law/ "Will Yoon Suk-yeol Finally Reform South Korea’s National Security Law?"] ''The Diplomat''.</ref>

According to the [[People's Democracy Party]] (PDP), a revolutionary workers' party in south Korea, the continued U.S. military occupation of south Korea is the primary barrier to peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.<ref>People's Democracy Party and Liberation School. [https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ “70 Years Too Long: The Struggle to End the Korean War – Liberation School.”] ''Liberation School – Revolutionary Marxism for a New Generation of Fighters'', 25 June 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.liberationschool.org/korean-war-70-years/ Archived]. ‌</ref>

On August 13, 2022, thousands of south Korean unionists and their progressive supporters rallied in downtown Seoul to protest against joint US-south Korea war game exercises. In a video uploaded by [[Press TV]], Oh Eun-Jung of the National Teachers Union was quoted as saying: <blockquote>"The threat of nuclear war is growing on the Korean peninsula, conservative forces of Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in the sky, the land, and the sea, and are about to start large-scale military exercises, aimed at the invasion of North Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces." </blockquote>In the same video, construction worker Lee Seung-Woo stated: <blockquote>"We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully."<ref>Frank Smith. [https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games “‘South Korean Unionists Protest US-South Korea War Games.’”] PressTV News. August 13, 2022. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220826124551/https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/13/687322/South-Korean-unionists-protest-US-South-Korea-war-games Archived] 2022-08-28.</ref></blockquote>[[File:Unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.jpg|alt=People stand in a row at a demonstration calling for a second repatriation of unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea. Their Korean-language sign reads "비전향장기수 송환 촉구". (Meaning "Call for repatriation of non-converted long-term prisoners")|thumb|A demonstration calling for a repatriation to DPRK for unconverted long-term prisoners in south Korea.]]

====Unconverted long-term prisoners====
{{Main article|Unconverted long-term prisoners}}

Unconverted long-term prisoners is a term which refers to political prisoners who have been imprisoned in south Korea, generally on charges of "anti-state" activities or views in support of communism or DPRK. The term commonly refers to people who were mostly arrested from the 1950s to 1980s and imprisoned and tortured for decades and who refused to sign a "conversion" statement renouncing communist or left-wing ideology, which had been a condition for their release. It can also refer to those who ultimately did sign the so-called "conversion" statement but do not consider it a true conversion as it was extracted under torture.<ref name=":4">[https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ "Still fighting for Korea’s liberation: An interview with Ahn Hak-sop"] ''Liberation School'', June 27, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240227201454/https://www.liberationschool.org/interview-with-ahn-hak-sop/ Archived] 2024-02-27.</ref><ref name=":16">Kim Dong-won. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xu2mEvU29Q ''Repatriation'' (2003).] Documentary.</ref>

In the 1990s, some of the elderly prisoners began being released, and began living in the south under difficult economic, legal, and social conditions. Many sought to be repatriated to DPRK, and 63 of them were allowed to do so in the year 2000. Many who participated in the repatriation in 2000 and many of those who remained in south Korea made their decisions based on their impression at the time that there was going to be more freedom of movement between ROK and DPRK thereafter. However, further repatriations have not taken place, despite a continued movement calling for it. Meanwhile, those who remained in the south have had to live under strict surveillance by the south Korean state.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":16" />

==Further reading==

*[[Library:DPRK Study Guide|DPRK study guide]]
*[[:Category:Library works about the DPRK|All library works about the DPRK]]
*[[:Category:Library documents from the DPRK|All library works from the DPRK]]

==External links==

*http://www.korean-books.com.kp/en/

==References==
<references />

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[[Category:Democratic People's Republic of Korea]]
[[Category:Targets of regime change operations]]
[[Category:Targets of bourgeois media]]
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