Historical Context of USLatin American Relations

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Historical Context of US-Latin American Relations

• Part 1 Imperialism

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Four Broad Systems

• 1790s-1930s The Imperial Era
• The European Game
• The Gospel of Democracy
• 1940s-1980s The Cold War
• 1990s-2001 The Decade of Uncertainty
• 2001-Present The War on Terror

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Key Theme

• Each era has been shaped as much, if not more, by
  the basic conditions of the international system
  as they have any element inherent to the Western
  Hemisphere itself.

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The Imperial Era

• International System Dominated by Europe
• US Wants to Get into the Act
• THE CONTEXT
• Imperialism
• Mercantilism

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"The European Game"

• THE RULES OF THE EUROPEAN GAME
• States as actors
• Balance of Power
• Colonization
• Mercantilism
  
  
  
  
  

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"The European Game The US Gets Into The Act

• Early position
• From the beginning, the US was keen to reduce the
  influence of Europe over the hemisphere.
• This is well summed up in he Monroe Doctrine of
  1832
• US Imperialism I Territorial Expansion.
• Louisiana
• Florida

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"The European Game The US Gets Into The Act

• Portions of Mexico
• 1836 Texas independence, 1837, US recognition,
  1845 annexation.
• 1846 Mexican-American War and the resultant
  territorial additions (see 22)
• Gadsden Purchase
• Attempts at Cuba (pre Civil War)

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Monroe Doctrine (1823)

• With the existing colonies or dependencies of
  any European power we have not interfered and
  shall not interfere. But with the Governments who
  have declared their independence and maintain it,
  and whose independence we have, on great
  consideration and on just principles,
  acknowledged, we could not view any interposition
  for the purpose of oppressing them, or
  controlling in any other manner their destiny, by
  any European power in any other light than as the
  manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward
  the United States.

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The Olney Doctrine (1895)

• RICHARD OLNEY TO THE BRITISH
• Today the United States us practically the
  sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law
  upon the subjects to which it confines its
  interposition. Why? It is not because of the
  pure friendship of good will felt for it. It is
  not simply by reason of high character as a
  civilized state, nor because wisdom and justice
  and equity are the invariable characteristics of
  the dealings of the United States. It is
  because, in addition to all other grounds, its
  infinite resources combined with its isolated
  position render it master of the situation and
  practically invulnerable as against any or all
  other powers.

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"The European Game The US Gets Into The Act

• US Imperialism II
• Commercial Empire
• movement from creation of empire to creation of
  sphere of influence
• domestic challenges growing the economy
• -The Spanish-American War 1898 Guam, Puerto
  Rico and the Philippine Islands and Cuba fell
  under the protectorate of the US.
• Panama

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Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1904)

• Any country whose people conduct themselves
  well can count upon our hearty friendship. If a
  nation shows that it knows how to act with
  reasonable efficiency and decency in social and
  political matters, if it keeps order and pays its
  obligations, it need fear no interference from
  the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an
  impotence which results in a general loosening of
  the ties of civilized society, may in America, as
  elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by
  some civilized nation, and in the Western
  Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to
  the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States,
  however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such
  wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an
  international police power.

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The Gospel of Democracy

• Introduction
• As a justification of US imperialism
• As a manifestation of US mythology and ideology
• Interventions for Democracy
• Between 1898 and 1934 there were 30 military
  interventions in the region by the US.

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The Gospel of Democracy

• Manifest Destiny the providential place of the
  US in the order of things and a right to expand,
  and with a mission
• "We have it in our power to begin the world all
  over again" (Thomas Paine, as quoted on 40 of 2nd
  edition).
• Innate assumed superiority (see quote on 43, 2nd
  edition)
• Plus  racial dimension (51)
• A focus in the Caribbean

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The Gospel of Democracy

• Wilson  "I am going to teach the South American
  Republics to elect good men!" (51)
• The Mexican Revolution
• Dollar Diplomacy
• The Dominican Republic
• Nicaragua
• Haiti

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Mr. Roosevelts Neighborhood

• The 1930s and 1940s

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Between Eras

•  An interlude between the Imperial Era and the
  Cold War Era
•  No longer playing the European Game in terms
  of overt intervention
•  US hegemony still the target.
•  Context The Great Depression

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The Good Neighbor Policy

• I would dedicate this nation to the policy of
  the Good Neighbor--the neighbor who respects his
  obligations and respects the sanctity of his
  agreements in and with a world of neighbors
  (FDR, 1933 inaugural address, Smith 200068).
• Now there are no little nations (common Latin
  American response)

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Basics The Good Neighbor Policy

•  Military withdrawal
•  The US refrained from invention (No state has
  the right to intervene in the internal or
  external affairs of anotherstatement agreed
  upon at the inter-American meeting in 1933 in
  Montevideo, Uruguay).
•  SecState Cordell Hull the United States
  government is as much opposed as any other
  government to interference with the freedom, the
  sovereignty, or other internal affairs or
  processes of the governments of other nationsno
  government need fear any intervention on the part
  of the United States under the Roosevelt
  administration (Smith 200069).
•  Initiation of process of cooperation and
  consultation

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Quotes to Ponder

• In the campaign, Roosevelt accused the Republican
  administration of placing money leadership ahead
  of moral leadership and noted Single-handed
  intervention by us in the internal affairs of
  other nations must end with the cooperation of
  others we shall have more order in this
  hemisphere and less dislike (reference to
  interventions in Haiti and Dominican Republic)
  (source Smith 200068).
• That is a new approach that I am talking to
  these South American things. Give them a share.
  They think they are just as good as we are and
  many of them are (FDR, 1940 as quoted in Smith
  200063).
• Hes a son of a bitch, but at least hes our son
  of a bitch (FDR on Somoza)
• the Good Neighbor of tyrants (Peruvian
  reformist, Victor Raul Haya de la Torre)

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Latin American Responses to Imperialism (4
Options)

• The Bolivarian Dream
• External Powers
• Rivalry and Subregional Hegemony
• Doctrines and Diplomacy