Right, you’ve compiled a list of pre-WWI annexations and a random smattering of other military actions. In those cases, America was recapitulating European colonialism and great powers, in turn. If we broaden our scope to that list, we’re still left with lots of stuff that’s unpleasant but far from unprecedented.
Fast forward to WWII, when the modern prohibitions on annexation emerged, and you find two countries doing most of the military annexing. (And America doing virtually none of it, the exceptions being around ISIS in the Middle East, where we de facto annexed strongholds as military outposts.)
Fast forward to WWII, when the modern prohibitions on annexation emerged, and you find two countries doing most of the military annexing. (And America doing virtually none of it, the exceptions being around ISIS in the Middle East, where we de facto annexed strongholds as military outposts.)