Trump's new take on 250 years of American expansionism

Trump's new take on 250 years of American expansionismImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, An 1811 drawing depicts Louis and Clark's exploration of the American frontierByAnthony ZurcherNorth America correspondentPublished5 minutes agoIn the 250 years since the US declared its independence from Great Britain, the nation has grown from a sparsely populated collection of settlements scattered along the Atlantic coast into a global power spread over the breadth of a continent and beyond.Starting from the original 13 colonies that covered 430,000 sq miles (1.1m sq km), its geographic footprint has increased eightfold, to approximately 3.7m sq miles.America's population has undergone a similarly dramatic expansion. In 1790, the year of the first US Census, there were approximately four million Americans, including slaves. By 2025, the US population had grown to 343 million – an 8,475% increase.Even though the US today may be all but unrecognisable to the nation's founders 250 years ago, the cultural and political influences in the country would likely be familiar.In hindsight, one can trace many of President Donald Trump's key political promises - limiting immigration, and expanding American power and territory - to the country's earliest distinctions and divisions.To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedFigure caption, What does it mean to be an American in 2026?America's founders had high hopes for their new nation. Its success, however, was far from guaranteed. Heated debates over slavery, the constitution and the economic and political system created clear fractures among the population.While the nation nearly doubled in size following the purchase of the Louisiana territory from France in 1803, when the US went to war again with Britain in 1812 it was far from certain that the nation would hold."Anybody who was looking at the colonies trying to create this nation is sayi...