Your topic essay should answer the following two questions: What were the consequences of the European “conquest” of Amerindian civilizations? What internal problems are mostly responsible for the region’s present-day socio-economic problems?

(One of the most enduring images of U.S. economic penetration in Latin America and elsewhere in the world)

Middle and South America – U.S. Influence In the last lecture we looked into how the Middle and South Americas were conquered and exploited by European conquistadors. In the 19th century, however, the U.S. emerged as the dominant power in the region. Here, we are going to analyze the historical events that deepened America’s involvement and influence in the region. The Monroe Doctrine (1823): This doctrine was a unilateral declaration by the U.S. that external powers, i.e. European powers should not expand their influence in the region. This doctrine laid the foundation of the U.S. supremacy in the region. (The image to the left well reflects what the Monroe Doctrine meant for the U.S. and its power.) Independence of Texas and the Mexican-American War (1846-48): In the middle of the 19th century, U.S. was griped with hysteria to conquer more land to the west and beyond arguing that doing so was the nation's destiny. This so- called Manifest Destiny contributed to the declaration of independence by the American settlers in Texas, which at that point belonged to Mexico. Texans successfully fought for their independence, and soon thereafter joined the union as a state. Then followed the Mexican-American War over a border dispute between the U.S. and Mexico. The U.S. victory led to Mexico’s ceding nearly one-third of its territory to the U.S., including what is now California. The Spanish-American War (1898): Spain’s brutal suppression of Cuban revolutionaries seeking independence eventually led the U.S. to declare war against Madrid. This “splendid little war” as the jingoist Theodore Roosevelt called, ended in U.S. victory. As a result, the U.S. acquired Cuba, Puerto Rico, as well as the Philippines. The war effectively ended Spain’s political control in the region. (To the right is a glamorized image of Theodore Roosevelt leading the Rough Riders against Spanish soldiers in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.) The Panamanian Revolution (1903): The U.S., a two-ocean power, built all-important Panama Canal through Isthmus and connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the early part of 20th century. However, that only possible only after U.S. instigated the Panamanian Revolution. Originally, Panama belonged to Columbia, which refused to lease the land through which the U.S. hoped to build the canal. The U.S. recognized the provisional government of Panama, and it became an independent nation. Panama ceded the Canal Zone to the U.S, which completed the construction of the canal in 1914. The Panama Canal (left) was the most obvious symbol of America’s economic and political domination of the Western Hemisphere.

Economic Penetration and Military Intervention: The U.S. relations with Middle America in the 20th century were a mixture of economic expansion and military expeditions that went hand in hand. Under government protection U.S. corporations invested in the region’s commercial agriculture, mining, transportation and communication. When American investments were threatened, the U.S. did not hesitate to intervene militarily. The notable examples are U.S. interventions in Mexico, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, and Honduras. Let me say a few words here on what happened in Guatemala in the 1950s, which epitomized the U.S. interest in and domination of the region. Guatemala was typical of what was called “Banana Republic.” A large share of the country’s arable land was owned by U.S. agricultural corporations that produced Bananas they exported to the U.S., utilizing cheap local labor. When a nationalist government of Abenz declared that Guatemala’s agricultural lands would be

nationalized, which meant the ownership of the land would be taken away from private owners and turned into public property, the U.S. government secretly (actually not-so-secretly) instigated a revolution against the Abenz government, which Washington claimed as a Communist government. In this “covert” operation, America’s Central Intelligence Agency financed, trained, and equipped

a rebel army that attacked the presidential palace. The government fell, Guatemala continued on as a Banana Republic, heavily dependent on the U.S.

In 1961, in Cuba, another of Latin American Banana Republics, the Communist insurgents led by Fidel Castro succeeded in toppling the dictatorial and corrupt Batista regime supported by the U.S. Before the revolution, Cuba was known for more than sugar plantations and cigars that were exported to the U.S. Havana, capital of Cuba, was also known for prostitution, gambling, and organized crime. In any event, Castro, after taking over power nationalized foreign investments properties in Cuba, prompting U.S. to initiate an organized attempt to destabilize the government of Cuba. Finally, in 1962 the U.S.-instigated invasion by Cuban exiles known as Bay Pigs. This invasion, of course, was justified in the name of rescuing Cubans from Communism. (Here we two heroes of the Cuban Revolution, Che Guevara, above, and Fidel Castro, right.)

Despite the Cuban Revolution, and establishment of a socialist Cuba did not diminish America’s influence in the region. In the 60, 70, and 80s, Latin American countries more or less relied on agricultural exports and extractive industries that heavily depended on the U.S. capitalism. (Left is

president John F. Kennedy who declared in his inaugural speech that “let every other power know that this (Western) Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.” Three months thereafter Kennedy authorized the failed invasion of Cuba better known as “Bay of Pigs.”)

In this period Latin American most of Latin American countries experienced repressive military dictatorships that were supported by the U.S. In these countries, the landowning class allied with the military and church monopolized political and

economic powers. This form of government is known as oligarchy, a government by a tiny portion of the population. This structure is most compatible to aristocracy. The interest of the militico- oligarchy was intertwined with the American economic interest in the region because of the fact that those rightwing governments managed to suppress socialist influence in the region that is the greatest threat to the U.S. economic interests. Such countries where a mixture of (1) plantation economy dominated by foreign corporations, (2) rule by oligarchy, and (3) the vast gulf between social classes is rather typical of the Latin American Banana Republics. Let us take a look at a typical Latin American dictator who was supported by the U.S. To the right is the infamous Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet. When a socialist, Allende, was elected

president in 1973, the U.S. (CIA) supported a coup that led to assassination of Allende and installing of Gen. Pinochet as the country’s leader. The general wielded iron-fist against Chileans, thousands of whom were tortured, killed, and disappeared under his military dictatorship. The Pinochet dictatorship, which ended in 1990, was so brutal and violent, he was arrested for crimes against humanity in England.

Starting in the late 1970s certain Lain American dictator supported the U.S. came under challenges from guerrilla movements, notably in El Salvador and Nicaragua. In case of Nicaragua, when the left-learning Sandinista insurgents successfully toppled the government of the dictator Samoza, the Reagan Administration in Washington financed an anti- Sandinista insurgency called Contras, throwing Nicaragua into civil war that exhausted that country. Eventually, the Sandinista government was replaced by a democratic government, but Nicaragua remains one of the poorest countries in the world due in no small part to the internal conflict that lasted throughout most of the 1980s. Another example of U.S.

intervention in Latin America at this point is invasion of the tiny island of Grenada during, again, the Reagan Administration, when a Communist government was established on the island. That was not tolerable to the U.S. (The picture to the left shows a Sandinista guerrilla soldier about throw a Molotov cocktail.) In the final analysis, for more than a century and half, the U.S. upheld the Monroe

Doctrine in dealing with Latin American countries. In other words, the U.S. positioned itself as the defender of “freedom” in the hemisphere, and sought to maintain that freedom through financial capitalism, support of rightwing military regimes, and military intervention. In the process many in Latin America had to sacrifice their freedom as human beings and nation. (The picture to the right showing a casualty of the civil war between the Contra forces supported by the United States and the Nicaraguan government forces. Nicaragua symbolized Latin America’s turmoil in the 1980s when many young people died on the both sides of the ideological divide. In recent years, Latin American has seen the rise of another controversial leader like, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela (left) who is now dead. Venezuela has a large oil deposits. Chavez used to insist that the United States is an imperialist

power that undermines development of Latin America. His anti-American, socialist ideology did attract supporters who believe that the United States uses Wall Street bankers to control and exploit Latin Americans. In their view, history has not changed very much.