The Banana Wars: An Inner History Of The Spanish-American Empire

Intervention in Latin America, mainly Cuba, also led to the Spanish-American War. When the American naval ship, the USS Maine, exploded in the Havana Harbor, President McKinley immediately decided to go to war after being labeled a coward by yellow journalists. This is a prime example of how incidents in Latin American countries forced presidents to act rapidly and without much thought, causing America to form a bold and aggressive foreign policy.

Yellow journalism talked about Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, Philippines,etc. This gave motivation for Americans to go to war because they were being fed lies. Accusations of what happened in previous situations, led Americans to want to drive out the Spanish from Cuba, because they wanted to take over Hawaii and the Philippines. America soon ended up going to war with the Philippines and the Caribbeans, before signing the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War. Later on the Americans had an empire that included Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines (Ch 18. section

The Spanish-American War in 1898 was a point where American’s demonstrated their power and true colors. America wanted to free the Cubans from Spain, but it was not purely out of the interest of the Cubans. America was in it for the Philippines. Spain had control of the Philippines, and the Philippines were located in close proximity to China. The issue here was that the Philippines was not interested in having the U.S. around and rebelled against the American forces (47) .The U.S. wanted to capitalize on the economic struggles in China and the Philippines was

The Spanish-American war consisted of a series of influential battles that pitted America and many of Spain’s colonies against Spanish rule, and ended with Spain losing its colonies and America gaining control over more and more land. In 1898, America joined a war being pit against Spain to force the Spanish to relinquish all control of their colonies, including Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. This same war ended only a few months later, with Spain suffering huge losses and America gaining money and territories. The Spanish American war could be split into three main points of interest: How and why the Spanish American war started, The battles of Manila, Santiago de Cuba, Asomante, and Las Guasimas ( And the Rough Riders) , and the aftermath of the war. One of the most interesting territories was Cuba. Although the Spanish american war was not a long and costly war, it changed many people's lives indefinitely.

The Spanish-American War began as a humanitarian effort to free Cuba from Spain’s colonial grasp and ended with the United States itself acquiring territory overseas and fighting a dirty guerrilla war with Filipino nationalists who, like the Cubans, sought independence. Behind the contradiction stood the twin pillars of American foreign policy: The Monroe Doctrine made Spain’s presence in Cuba unacceptable, and U.S. determination to keep open the door to Asia made the Philippines attractive as a stepping-stone to China.

XII. President McKinley dealt with several important foreign policy issues during his term. One of the biggest was the Spanish-American War in 1898. This war initially started when McKinley sent ships and soldiers to have Cubans in their revolt against a tyrannical Spanish Government. After an American ship was sunk in the conflict, many Americans called for war against Spain, and McKinley obliged. In the Treaty of Paris, a result of America winning the short war, the United States gained the territories Puerto Rico and Guam, bought the Philippines, and remained in military control over Cuba, to which Spain renounced its claims. In

10, 1898), Spain renounced all claim to Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States, and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States for $20 million.” Cuba also became an United States protectorate. The treaty ended up causing a heated debate in the U.S. However, there were Philippine insurgents who fought the Spanish rule in the war who quickly turned against the new residents. Almost 10 times more American lives were lost subduing the insurgents than in beating the Spanish. “Nevertheless, President McKinley's expansionist policies were supported by the American public, who seemed more than willing to accept the blessings and curses of their new expanding empire.”

Through the last quarter of the nineteenth century the United States foreign policy set out to gain overseas power in an attempt to obtain the status of a global superpower capable of controlling international trade. The United States attempted to reach that status through military force, international trade and the obtainment of land. An example of this attempt to gain the global superpower status was the Spanish-American War, which was fought from April 1898 to August 1898. The United States achieved victory in this war and gained the ability to control the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. After this victory the United States was able to set its sights on gaining control in the Asian region of the world, which would have been a huge success and a game changer for the American region.

American imperialism began in 1898 with the Spanish American war and teddy Roosevelt’s policy of police power over the western hemisphere. This war one Americas greatest victories. The Spanish American war was great turning for America. They gained Cuba, Guam and Puerto Rico from Spain. Spain defeat showed America’s world power to other nations. This war prepared them to fight in Europe.

Throughout the early 1900s the Marine Corps was becoming acquainted with the island of Hispaniola that was split between two nations, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Both nations had a political tradition that dictated office holding as a political right and economic requirement for the political class known as the elite and the caudillos. Consequently, both governments acquired a considerable amount of debt during this time period in order to sustain the habits of this tradition. The United States developed an active interest in Hispaniola following the War with Spain and the construction of the Panama Canal. The Roosevelt and Taft administrations were primarily focused with the traditional tasks of protecting American lives and property. However, the US government shifted its focus to economic and strategic concerns as the State and Navy Departments engaged in gunboat diplomacy, a foreign policy that is supported by the use or threat of military force. Among these concerns was European intervention and establishing bases throughout the Caribbean. The US would have to protect Haiti and the Dominican Republic simultaneously by denying European activity in the American sphere of interest and to preserve foreign investments for both the United States and Hispaniola.

After the missile crisis both nations abandoned Latin America, leaving it in taters. This created a resentment for the United States in Latin America(lecture 5/21)

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the United States was the most dominant power in the Western Hemisphere. European nations conceded to the United States their right of any intervention in the Western Hemisphere and allowed the United States to do whatever they wanted. The United States took this newly bestowed power and abused it. The United States intervened in many Latin American countries and imposed their policies on to these countries against their will. A perfect example of this aggression is what occurred in the Dominican Republic in 1904. The United States intervened in this sovereign nation and took control of their economy and custom houses. A memorandum from Francis B. Loomis, the United States Assistant

Galeano portrays this moment in Latin American history as the instant U.S investors took control over the industries. He details the dangers they went through when producing one item to export for the benefit of foreigners, and how they later imported the processed goods from those same foreign countries, injecting money only overseas. The fact that Latin America needed imports to survive initiated the imperial link the U.S has upon it. As stated by Galeano, “The growing dependence on foreign supplies produces the growing identification of the interest of U.S. capitalists operating in Latin America with U.S. national security”11, bluntly showing the relationship between the United States and Latin America. “With petroleum, as with coffee or meat, rich countries profit more from the work of consuming it than do poor countries from the work of producing it”12. Because profit was not being retained in the Latin American countries, nationalization of the industries became of importance. The United States offered intervention in order to protect everyone’s interests with the proposal of free trade, but this was no more than another manipulation to continue having power over Latin America and its resources: “Latin America’s big ports, through which the wealth of its soil and subsoil passed en route to distant centers of power, were being built as instruments of the conquest and domination of the countries to which they belonged, and as conduits

1. Three arguments’ that Juan Gines de Sepulveda used to justify enslaving the Native Americans were for gold, ore deposits, and for God’s sake and man’s faith in him. 2. Three arguments that Bartolome de las Casas gave in attacking Spanish clonial policies in the New World were the Indians eating human flesh, worshiping false gods, and also, he believed that the Indians were cowardly and timid. 3. For comparisons that Sepulveda used, in lines 1-7, to express the inferiority of the Indians was their prudence, skill virtues, and humanity were inferior to the Spanish as children to adults, or even apes to men. Comparisons he used to dismiss the significance of the Indians

During the late 1900s, there was tension between the United States, the European Union, and the Eastern Caribbean in regards to banana trade. The Eastern Caribbean, which has a banana industry that is highly beneficial for its economy, had an exclusive trade agreement with the European Union for their bananas, otherwise known as the EU-Caribbean Banana Agreement. This agreement exhibited preferential trade between the Caribbean countries and Europe. This agreement allowed the banana farmers of the Caribbean to be protected from other competition, such as Latin America, whose bananas were cheaper due to the fact that they had a larger scale banana plantations. However, in the eyes of the United States, this preferential trade agreement was seen as a form of protectionism, and therefore a threat against free trade. Not only that, but the United States had big multinational corporations backing the banana industry in Latin America, so removing the exclusive trade between the European Union and the Eastern Caribbean would be favorable for the United States as the Latin American banana industry would benefit from the removal of the exclusive trade agreement. As a result, in 1997, the World Trade Organization (WTO), who was pressured by the United States, took action against the EU trade agreement, leading to the European Union to change its rules on the trade agreement. With the preferential trade agreement between the European Union and the Eastern Caribbean being altered, the