1898-1918 ~ The Spanish-American War to The Great War: The Beginnings of Empire

04 Mar 2009 1 Comment

by Marvin Lance Wiser in U.S.-Latin American Relations Tags: American Foreign Policy, American History, Central America, Latin America, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Panama, Panama Canal, Pancho Villa, Platt Amendment, Teddy Roosevelt, U.S.-Latin American Relations, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson

This is entry #3 in a series of entries that can be found in the category U.S.-Latin American Relations.

The remainder of the 19th Century, after the United States’ own civil war, saw a massive increase of U.S. intervention on (and off) the continent.  Between 1869 and 1897 the U.S. had sent warships to Latin America ports some 5,980 times (Grandin’s EW, 20). Not to mention the U.S. backed revolutions that were underway at the same time in the Pacific that would eventually lead to the toppling of Hawaii’s monarchy and its ultimate annexation. It would appear that the U.S. not only heeded the call of William Walker, but took notes concerning his expeditions.

In 1898, from April to August, the U.S. with the expansionist McKinley at its helm was at war with Spain (Spain, for occupying states within the American continent, was in violation of the Monroe Doctrine).  After thousands of mortalities and even more thousands left diseased-stricken, the U.S. annexed Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Hawaii.  As well the U.S. began to occupy Cuba at this time. This event initiated direct military control of both the Caribbean and Central America by the United States.  A new empire was being birthed.

After 3 years of occupying Cuba, U.S. forces left it to its independence- under one condition: that it sign the Platt Amendment, which gave the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs as the U.S. deems fit to.  At this time Cuba was also obliged to cede Guantanamo Bay to the U.S.

Much could be said of the early 1900s and one of the States’ most adored Presidents: Teddy Roosevelt.  However, for the sake of brevity, I will only mention his taking of Panama from Columbia.  In 1903, Teddy, disgusted with the french failure at engineering a canal (which resulted in the loss of nearly 22,000 lives), teamed up with banker J.P. Morgan to create the separate state of Panama for the sole purpose of creating such a canal.  Columbia was later compensated $25 Million USD for playing along. In 1905, Teddy went so far as to declare the United States to be “the policeman” of the Caribbean. This announcement and the example he set by taking Panama and leaving Congress to quarrel, would set the tone for “Big Stick” American foreign policy for years to come. For more on the U.S. and its Panamanian excapades, I recommend How Wall Street Created a Nation: J.P. Morgan, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Panama Canal, by Ovidio Diaz Espino, a native of Panama.

In 1910, under Porfirio Diaz’s rule, Mexico fell into an all-out revolution that took the country into civil war, lasting until 1920. At the time 27% of all of Mexico’s territory was owned by U.S. citizens and 45% of Mexico’s industrial investment was from the U.S.  By 1911, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil owned virtually all of Mexican oil and was well into operations in Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil when it was finally broken-up by the U.S. Supreme Court. The protection of these interests pushed both Presidents Taft and Wilson to intervene in Mexico on various accounts.

In 1912, Taft ordered the U.S. Marines to re-invaded Nicaragua, which began an occupation that lasted 22 years. And in 1914, Wilson allowed the U.S. Navy to capture the Mexican port city of Veracruz.  It is said that this incident was instigated by the refusal of Mexicans to salute Old Glory. The U.S. would stay there occupying Veracruz for some 20 years using it as a base to protect U.S. business interests throughout the country in its time of political unrest.  Meanwhile, the U.S. invaded the island of Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic) and would stay there for the same length of time. In the same year, 1914, the Panama Canal was completed and opened under U.S. control.

In 1916, in retaliation to U.S. interventions and its backing of the Carranza regime, Pancho Villa, a Mexican revolutionary general from the state of Chihuahua that commanded el Division del Norte, crossed the U.S.-Mexican border and invaded Columbus, New Mexico with 500-700 men. They attacked a U.S. Army regiment, killed 18 Americans, stole 100 horses, and set part of the town afire. Under pressure, President Wilson then order 10,000 U.S. troops into Mexico to capture the revolutionary.  The campaign was unsuccessful.

The Mexican Revolution, the centennial celebration of its commencement only one year a way, produced such legendary heroes as Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and Alvaro Obregon, but most importantly it produced the Constitution of 1917, allowing agrarian land reform (so much for U.S. interests) and women’s rights among other revolutionary ideals.

The close of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century laid the ground work for a new imperialism.  Not colonial, as was the European style, but one that was dictated by, as President Taft so eloquently put it: “Dollar Diplomacy.”

“The day is not far distant when three Stars & Stripes at three equidistant points will mark our territory: one at the North Pole, another at the Panama Canal and the third at the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally.” -President William Howard Taft, 1912

-MLW