ABSTRACT
It is argued here that three distinct episodes can be seen as essential to the basis on which demographic and thereby political domination was established in the USA. First was the drawing of the frontiers of the country, enclosing areas we now associate with the USA while leaving other zones aside. This was not a foregone conclusion, especially during the period of the Mexican War of 1846-1848. Territories for incorporation were selected by their potential for settlement by Anglo-Saxons and only once the demographic predominance of the core ethnic group was assured were they granted the status of full member states of the Union. Second was the strict limitation in the years after the First World War of immigration from areas deemed to harbour undesirable populations. Third was the manipulation of the boundaries of identity to incorporate and co-opt groups into the Anglo-Saxon core. Whereas the Irish Catholics are found to have been incorporated for demographic reasons, it is not judged that demographic engineering is underway currently in the expansion of criteria by which Americans are considered to be ‘white’. A fourth episode is also considered here, namely the ‘Back to Africa Movement’ which is judged to be a failed case of demographic engineering. Although its demographic effects were limited, the attitudes which underlay it reveal a good deal about the ethno-demographic orientation of a part of the political class. Collectively, demographic engineering has been foundational in shaping the United States we recognise today.
