Imagining an Empire

The Hudson River School of Painting was one of the most celebrated American Academies of art and key to the imagining of an the Manifest-destiny movements. Both these paintings are by Thomas Cole- an immigrant from England who became one of the fathers of an "American" style in painting. This of course is an anglo vision of empire and expansion that is evident in Theodore Roosevelts ideology as well as the early European expansion and imperialism in the New World.

1.Both images bring to mind not only Roosevelt's speeches, but Columbus' journals discussing the end of the earth. What if any connection do you see between these paintings and the America envisioned by President Roosevelt? How do these earlier (than Roosevelt's speeches) images reflect Roosevelts words "[of course] the best that can happen o any people that has not already a high civilization of its own is to assimilate and profit by American or European ideas, the ideas of civilization and Christianity, without submitting to alien control; but such control, in spite of all its defects, is in a very large number of cases the prerequisite condition to the moral and material advance of the peoples who dwell in the darker corners of the earth"(67)?

2.Through the promotion of civilization and white expansion, Roosevelt also stresses that "The timid man, the lazy man, the man who distrusts his country, the over-civilized man, who has lost the great fighting, masterful virtues, the ignorant man, and the man of dull mind, whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty life that thrills 'stern men with empires in their brains'- all of these, of course shrink from seeing the nation undertake its new duties;shrink from seeing us build a navy and an army adequate to our needs; shrink from seeing us do our share of the worlds work, by bringing order out of chaos [...]"(69). In arguing for the "strenous life" Roosevelt places the United States in a way that echoes the Empires of Europe and highlights the virtues of expansion- how does this relate to the images above?

Despite the fact these images preceded Roosevelt's speeches, how do they relate to each other?

Thomas Cole's series entitled "The Course Of Empire" documents the rise of an Empire- I am including three Paintings below

Left to right

The Course of the Empire: The Savage State 1836 Oil on canvas 39 1/4 x 62 7/8 inches (100 x 160 cm) The New York Historical Society

The Course of the Empire: The Consummation 1836 Oil on canvas 50 7/8 x 75 7/8 inches (129.5 x 193 cm) The New York Historical Society

The Course of the Empire: Desolation 1836 Oil on canvas 39 1/4 x 62 7/8 inches (100 x 160 cm) The New York Historical Society

3.How does "The COurse of Empire" relate to "The Strenuous Life" and "Expansion of the white races"? How do these paintings relate to the "Concept" of America seen through Roosevelt's perspective?

Theodore Roosevelt's vision for America is reminiscent of the justification of conquering that we saw in previous readings (Columbus' journals).

The empire that Roosevelt envisions is not new- where have we seen this ideology in previous readings?