A Vast Consolidation: Agents of Empire, the United States Navy, and the Processes of Pacific Expansion, 1784-1861

This project explores the ways through which New England merchants, ship captains, sailors, and missionaries who were living and working throughout the Pacific’s oceanic space from 1784 to 1861 utilized the United States Navy to promote or safeguard their commercial, spiritual, and political interests to expand an American sphere of influence; promoting a nascent concept of American empire.