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The United States did not emerge accidentally as a global power. It was built through two foundational crimes: the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the system of chattel slavery. Both were morally indefensible, both were economically indispensable to the formation of the American state, and both were repeatedly justified—explicitly and implicitly—through appeals to Christian theology, racial hierarchy, and destiny.¹²

The founding of the United States did not mark the beginning of these crimes but their consolidation. Genocide and slavery were already well underway, embedded in colonial law, economic life, and social order long before independence was declared.³

Genocide and the Theft of a Continent

European settlers arrived at Plymouth Colony in 1620 and initially relied on Native American assistance for survival.⁴ That period of cooperation was short-lived. As settler populations grew and European weaponry, disease, and military organization proved decisive, Indigenous peoples were systematically displaced, massacred, starved, or confined.⁵