체성의 또 다른 딜레마 -제국주의적 본성의 자유로운 아메리카인- = Another Dilemma of the American Identity: The Imperialistic Nature of a Free American

국문 초록 (Abstract)

미국적 정체성에 관한 딜레마 중 하나는 반(反)식민주의 투쟁으로서 미국 혁명에도 불구하고 미공화국 초기부터 제국주의적 정체성이 확연하게 드러난다는 사실이다. 하지만 미국의 제국주의적 정체성이 혁명 이후 갑작스럽게 형성되어 등장한다는 가정은 비(非)역사적일 수밖에 없다는 점에서 미국 혁명의 본질에 대한 전통적해석은 재고될 여지가 있다. 사실 식민지 건설 초기부터 북미영국식민지의 백인 정착민들은 스스로를 대영제국의 주권자로서 간주하며 원주민들의 추방과 학살에 토대를 둔 영토적 팽창을 민주주의적 평등과 자치의 필수적 요소로서 요구하였고 따라서 이들에게 자유와 제국주의는 결코 모순되는 개념이 아니었다. 정착민들은 제국에 반대하는 입장에서 자치권을 요구하거나 제국의 합법성을 부정했던 것이 아니었으며 오히려 제국을 공화주의적 자유와 인민의 동의라는 이념에 부합하는 것으로서 바라보았다. 게다가 북미영국식민지들은 모두 직⋅간접적으로 노예제에 의존하면서 사회적⋅ 경제적 토대를 구축해 이미 노예제의 제국으로서 성격을 확연하게 드러내었다. 노예제는 식민지에서 엄청난 수의 비(非)자립적 빈민들을 노예화하여 오직 자립적유산계급에게만 정치적 권력을 허락함으로써 공화주의적 자유의 실현을 가능하게만들었다. 한편 보편적 자연권 개념으로만 이해되는 정착민들의 자연권 개념도 노예제와 모순되는 것이 아닌 제국주의적 뿌리를 가진 것으로 이것은 정착민들이 영제국의 동등한 일원으로서 신세계의 영토로 자유로이 이주하여 그들 자신만의 정치적 권위와 재산권, 국가 및 자유를 수립할 수 있는 정치적 권리를 의미하였다. 식민지 정착민들이 이러한 자유와 자연권을 부정당했을 때 남은 선택은 결국 독립을 위한 혁명이었다. 애국파는 노예제 메타포에 기초하여 혁명을 정당화하였고 대영제국의 앞잡이이자 동맹세력으로서 인디언과 흑인들에 대한 인종주의적 억압과학살을 자행하며 백색 국가의 탄생을 예고하였다. 혁명 후 서부 식민화에 몰두했던 정착민들과 토지 투기꾼들, 그리고 노예소유주들은 억눌려 있던 에너지를 발산시킬 수 있었다. 혁명 속에서 탄생한 것은 아메리카의 자유가 아니라 아메리카제국, 즉 인민주권에 기초한 정착민 식민제국이었다. 미국적 정체성은 그 역사의 출발부터 자유와 평등의 이념에 토대를 두고 있던 것 이상으로 훨씬 더 ‘제국주의적’ 이었던 것이다

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Another dilemma regarding American identity is that in spite of the American Revolution as an anti-colonial struggle for universal freedom and equality, an imperialist identity was quite evident in post-revolutionary America. Therefore, the traditional interpretation of the nature of the American Revolution is need to be reconsidered.
As settlers in the British North America saw themselves as sovereign subjects of the British Empire and demanded territorial expansion based on the expulsion and genocide of indigenous peoples as an essential component of democratic equality and self-government from the earliest days of colonization, so freedom and imperialism were not contradictory for them.
The settlers were not demanding autonomy in opposition to empire, but as citizens of the British Empire, and they were not rejecting the legitimacy of empire as a political form, but rather viewing it as consistent with the republican freedom and the consent of the governed.
Moreover, all thirteen colonies were already characterized as the empire of slavery, as they had built their social and economic foundations on slavery. Slavery made republican freedom possible, for by eliminating the great bulk of the dependent poor from the political nation, it left the public area to men of propertied independence. Also, the American concept of natural rights also had imperialist roots that did not contradict slavery. The settlers’ concept of natural rights basically meant the political right of settlers to freely migrate to the New World as equal members of the British Empire and establish their own political authority, property rights, nation, and freedom.
When the settlers were denied them, their choice was separation from the British Empire and revolution to achieve it. For this reason, the revolutionary ideology of the patriots effectively justified the revolution based on slavery metaphor and encouraged the racist oppression and genocide of Indians and blacks as a proxies of the British in the name of freedom, heralding the birth of a white nation. After the Revolution, the new American republic was able to unleash the pent-up energy of colonizing settlers, land speculators, and slaveholders. It is American empire, or a settler colonial empire based on popular sovereignty, not American freedom, to be born in revolution. American identity was far more “imperialistic” than it was founded on the idea of freedom and equality from the start.

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