Pro Imperialism

The United States annexed the philippines because they didn't not want the Philippines to be taken over by somebody else. The article states “Shall we abandon them with Germany, England, and Japan hungering for them?” This means that the United states should have taken them before someone else took them or before the Spanish took them back. The article also states “That would be cowardly and dishonorable.” This means that the United states just fought a war to get the philippines and it would be cowardly to just give them back to who ever was wanting to take them.

The United States embargo of Cuba has its roots planted in 1960, 53 years ago, when “the United States Congress authorized President Eisenhower to cut off the yearly quota of sugar to be imported from Cuba under the Sugar act of 1948… by 95 percent” (Hass 1998, 37). This was done in response to a growing

When Fidel Castro took over Cuba by means of a revolution, he quickly established his government as the first openly Communist government in the western hemisphere. He petitioned the Soviet Union for aid, which was cheerfully given him. These events went against our current policies, as well as the Monroe Doctrine, which established us as the police force of the western hemisphere. Ninety miles away from the greatest bastion of Capitalism was now residing its greatest foe. This tense situation was brought to a boiling point by the arrival of

US-Cuban relations have not been the friendliest since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Only recently during President Barack Obama’s second term in office did the US really try to resolve the Cuban issue and only then did it become such a priority. US-Cuban relations have always been a mixed bag of plenty of good and evil deeds. The US needs all the allies it can get and it needs to refocus in Latin America. Cuba is no real challenge to American power but Cuba represents a sore spot for American foreign policy. The US must work as one with Cuba in order to normalize relations with Cuba and bring Cubans into the 21st century. There are plenty of Cuban-Americans who want desperately to see family and friends on the island and the US must work together with Cuba to achieve these goals. Cuba has been a hot topic of debate ever since the Cuban Revolution and it continues to be one which is why there is no better time to study Cuba. Cuba has a long cultural history which makes it interesting to study and now that the US is finally working with the Cuban government on normalizing relations, more scholars will be traveling to Cuba. More information about Cuba and the Cuban culture will become available as the US moves to being better neighbors. This is important for researchers and others to gain new insights on Cuba which have not been available for the past fifty to sixty years. The renewed Cuban-American relations and the so-called, “Cuban Thaw”, is the right approach by President

The United States’ and Cuba’s relationship has always been very volatile and open to change. Since the early twentieth century, the two countries have been close but separated at the same time. For a country that is as close as it is to the U.S., Cuba couldn’t be has isolated. Now this relationship wasn’t always bad, but do to the policy decisions of both countries they have a rocky relationship. In recent times, the United States has begun rethinking its harsh policy against the small island nation. In this essay, I will explain the history of the embargo, the issues with it, and what the future looks like for both countries. The Cuban Embargo has been ineffective at spreading democracy, solving human rights issues, and has harmed the economy,

We have committed ourselves to Cuba. We have businesses, money, and our people devoted to that country and America has an obligation to fight for them. In the same way, we made the decision to fight against Britain, they made the decision to fight against Spain.

The United States and Cuba have been in bad relations since the past four decades. There are various reasons that could be behind this situation. One of the main reasons is the economic sanctions and embargo placed on Cuba by the United States. The embargo states that the United States are prohibited from doing any sort of trading with Cuba and to eliminate all business relations. This includes all the imports and exports Cuba receives and sends to America. Even further any sort of tourism from America to the Cuba and vice versa are completely banned. There are many reasons for placing an embargo on Cuba, the main being that the United States wanted Cuba to follow the free market economy and have a democratic leadership. However, the question

In the heat of the Cold War, communism has spread its influence across the world and the United States stand fearing the worse from the Soviet Union. The United States’ objective was to expand the sovereignty of capitalism, but this was in the way of the USSR’s plan to overthrow capitalism entirely. With this struggle to keep their intentions active, the Cold War is primarily about who can be able to control the end results of World War II. Now the fear was creeping up among the U.S., with the events of the Korean War and the tension between the free enterprise versus the socialist. So while the Cold War continued to advance, the corruption of Cuba caused by General Fulgencio Batista, elected president of Cuba who has dictated the Cuban

The treaty that came from the Spanish-American War gave Puerto Rico and Guam with American and allowed America to purchase the Philippines. While the Spanish-American Treaty brought division within America, the Anti-imperialist argued against annexation of the Philippines and declared it unconstitutional and the Imperialist or expansionist was in favor of the treaty supporting America’s growth and power. Both imperialist and anti-imperialist did not want the Philippines to become a “non-white” state to enter the union. The Supreme Court made decisions also known as the “Insular Cases”, which gave the Philippines an “unincorporated territory” of the United States. By winning the hearts and minds of the Filipino people (Burns) America had the

In 1962 the United States Embargo against Cuba was put into effect in response to “revolutionary communist” actions taken by the Cuban government in which the Cuban government commandeered control of United States land holdings. The United States government then determined that Cuba’s interests were incompatible with U.S. interests. Thus, the United States government decided to take advantage of Cuba’s economic dependence on them by restricting and ultimately banning transactions between the U.S. and Cuba in an attempt to damage the Cuban government and essentially the Cuban economy.

It must be noted that the America’s security interests in the Caribbean include maintaining friendly states. The realist theory of international relations shows that the new policy takes care of America’s national security interests because it is only through reconsidering its relations with Cuba can the United States truly keep its southern border free of any hostile military power. Nevertheless, beyond the rhetoric, the United States can only hope that the Caribbean and Latin America will contribute to its efforts to encourage Cuba to democratize its governance and modernize its economy. Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Peru are the potential partners in this regard. From the foregoing, it should be apparent that the resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba is for the most part informed by the need to protect America’s interests, confirming the realist assumption that the state serves as the rational sovereign actor in pursuing its self-interest with the goal of ensuring its security and

The United States, being a world power, is seen as responsible for keeping the world as peaceful and safe as possible. When a civilization is in dire need of assistance to stay out of any threats, the United States, more often than not, steps in. While Cuba is struggling to gain independence from Spain, the US intervenes and tries it’s hardest to help Cuba. In 1898 the United States of America entered war with Spain in hopes to find a positive resolution for Cuba.

The dispute between the U.S and Cuba dates back more than two centuries. Centuries within which some say conflict primarily arose due to the United States’ attempts to exercise and impose its governing concepts upon Cuba; ignoring the islands own right to independence and sovereignty (Hernandez, 2008). Following relentless turmoil, in the year 1960 the United States broke off relations with Cuba and imposed a trade embargo-a ban on trade. Most recently, President Obama issued the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba, relations of which have been non existent now for a little over the half century that the embargo has been in place (Baker, 2014). This restoration of relations will now allow for the U.S exportation of telecommunications and goods, as well as permit expanded travel for Americans and open banking relations between the nations (Spetalnick & Hughes, 2015). I believe this ultimate policy shift could do one of two things, potentially help the seemingly socio-economically stagnant Island of Cuba globalize or destroy its sovereignty and exploit its members. Thus I raise the question of: will having the United States of America restore ties with Cuba serve to benefit the Caribbean Island?

Jon Lee Anderson’s, “Cuba and America: The End of an Estrangement” is an article written in favor of the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States of America. Anderson begins with suggesting that US-Cuba relations are out of date by providing details of the two countries past history of conflict. Secondly, the author states that Cuba has abandoned most of its uncompromising positions and is better prepared for restoring relations with the US than ever before. Lastly, it is mentioned that US President Barak Obama has the intentions to restore relations and has publically denounced the 1962 embargo with Cuba- a grand gesture in hopes of normalizing relations.

The political, economic, social and military facets of Cuba have been extremely volatile over the last six centuries, beginning with the settlement of the Spanish colonies in the 15th century. For several decades, Cuba desperately sought independence from Spain and after a series of rebellions the country was finally freed. From 1903 to 1959, Cuba was technically declared ‘independent’, but in reality was still a colony belonging to the United States. During this period, the U.S. provided little opportunity for the Cuban economy to grow; under the Platt Amendment, the provision that allowed the U.S. to maintain autonomous intervention on the island, the non-sugar industries were completely controlled by the U.S. Further, the U.S. instilled a “sugar quota” which directly mandated how much sugar Cuba was allowed to sell at a government subsidized price. By the 1950s, a majority of Cuba’s telephone and electrical services, public service railways, raw sugar production and non-sugar production were U.S. owned (Brenner, 2014). The U.S. provided itself a desperately needed economic crutch being Cuba’s largest export market.