19th-century plan for a slaving empire based in US deep south and Caribbean resonates with Trump’s foreign policy today

Seal of the president of the Knights of the Golden Circle. NARA, Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army), Record Group

One year into his second term of office, Donald Trump’s foreign policy aspirations have led him to variously lay claim to Canada, the Panama Canal and, most contentiously at present, Greenland. He has kidnapped the head of state of Venezuela, saying that the US can run the country and exploit its oil, and he has issued threats against the sovereignty of Colombia, Mexico and Cuba.