Speaking of the role of violence in the expansion of America, in a way, it was the critical point of establishing power over some territories. First, multiple atrocities were carried out against the Native Americans. Although the spread of diseases was one of the leading causes of the decrease in the Indian population, the Indian Removal Act was indeed one of the greatest crimes of those times. Secondly, the expansion of power and the state-building spread only on the male part of the population. In other words, the will of a specific part of the population, discriminating against other races and ethnic groups as well as the other sex, and that is a form of violence. Therefore, the period of the expansion of America was, in many ways, full of violent events.
Despite the common understanding of the crimes of the American expansion, violence is still present in American society and foreign policy. For instance, Washington is actively engaged in military campaigns abroad, the collateral damage of which is quite reasonable. Civilians in Syria and Pakistan suffer from the American bombings. Meanwhile, the U.S. seems to participate in these operations not exclusively because of altruistic intentions. Moreover, imposing sanctions on the countries, the regimes of which conflict with the White House like Iran, Russia, or North Korea primarily affects not the political elites but the population. As a result, people face unemployment, and the level of life decreases significantly; however, it rarely affects the political regime. Hence, violence is still present and even institutionalized in American external relations as a natural means of foreign policy.