American missionaries followed soldiers and merchants, driven by trade and manifest destiny.

Evidence

This construction was mediated differently in different spheres. In the late eighteenth century, hundreds of Oriental tales told the story of Easterners who were “incipient democrats” and could be “converted by free expression, honest love, and benevolent works.” In short, Orientals were not irredeemable. The underlying logic of these narratives was that American decency and democracy had the potential to change the world. This tone was also reflected in the work of American missionaries. Unlike English, Dutch, and Spanish missionaries who followed in the footsteps of soldiers, American missionaries were preceded by both soldiers and merchants. Trade and capitalist imperatives were central to US imperialism just as much as they were central to the British Empire. In addition to various religious notions, Shaban argues that missionaries in the nineteenth century took with them the frontier mentality as well as the American notion of “manifest destiny” based on the idea that the United States had a mission to bring civilization to the world. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 213

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the vault’s claims about Islamophobia as imperial project — US imperial logic ties missionaries’ civilizing mission to trade imperatives, paralleling pre-9/11 orientalist frameworks in Aziz/Razack/Rana of “saving” and civilizing Muslims. — connects to: American missionaries followed soldiers and merchants, not the reverse; Missionaries functioned as unwitting agents of Western Christian cultural expansion — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 733; American missionary institutions reproduced the imperial character of European counterparts (+6 more)
• SEED: Could feed an essay comparing the missionary-civilizing template with the post-9/11 ‘women’s rights’ / democracy-promotion justification for US intervention in Muslim lands.

Broader Connections

• Missionaries functioned as unwitting agents of Western Christian cultural expansion #expands (0.88) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 733
• American missionary institutions reproduced the imperial character of European counterparts #exemplifies (0.82)
• Postwar US empire relied on missionary children and oilmen for regional knowledge #expands (0.82)
• Civilizing missions demanded tutelage, training, and conversion to Christianity #expands (0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 754
• Missionaries interpreted imperial conquest as divine endorsement of Christianity. #qualifies (0.75) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 113
• Missionary conversion relied on state power more than persuasion #complicates (0.74)
• Missionary orders adopted disguises to serve Christian merchants in Muslim lands #corroborates (0.72) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1112