With dramatically accelerated industrial expansion, financial prosperity, and power after the Civil War, the United States began to follow an expansionist pattern laid down by Europe since the mid-sixteenth century.  American dreams of territorial expansion were realized with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the acquisition of Mexican territories during the late 1840s and 1850s.  By the 1840s the popular term for such expansion was “Manifest Destiny,” a phrase coined at that time by New York journalist John O’Sullivan.  Though this notion faded somewhat during the Civil War and Reconstruction years, it resurfaced again in the 1880s as politicians and businessmen asserted that (in addition to the idea that the Americas were the domain of the U.S.), the destiny of the United States was world-wide.

In 1897 Great Britain celebrated Queen Victoria’s sixtieth year as ruler of that nation and the fact that the “sun never set on the British Empire.”  By the 1890s, other western European nations, including Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy were busily gobbling up territories in Africa and throughout the South Pacific in a fiercely competitive military buildup.  Likewise, Japan was expanding its territorial influence and military capabilities.  For many Americans (especially Protestant missionaries),  it appeared that the time was at hand to establish an American empire abroad too (Reverend Josiah Strong, for example, proclaimed that God’s divine purpose for the United States was to spread its version of Protestantism worldwide.  Moreover, his (and similar) messages asserted that Anglo-Saxon Americans were superior to supposed “weaker races,” furthering commonly held racist attitudes on the part of Americans).

The United States thus set out to establish its own imperial presence, and forcibly acquired the following Pacific Island territories:

 

1) Baker Island (1857) 2) Howland Island (1857) 3) Jarvis Island (1857) 4) Kingman Reef (1858) 5) Palmyra Island (1898) 6) Midway Islands (1867) 7) Guam (1898) 8) Hawaiian Islands (1898) 9) Johnston Island (1898) 10) Philippine Islands (1898) 11) Wake Island (1899) 12) American Samoa (1899)

With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1898, the Spanish-American War came to a formal end.  As part of the settlement, the United States gained possession of Puerto Rico, and attained exclusive rights to engage in the various commercial enterprises mentioned above that involved additional Caribbean and Central American nations.

Such involvement in the foreign affairs of other nations appealed to expansionist elements in the United States, who asserted that America’s greatness required an empire.  U.S. war-hawks, such as Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914), president of the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, asserted in several published works that naval power was crucial to a nation’s success n international affairs (and trade).  Thus, beginning in 1890, the American “Great White Fleet” was built, ready to establish a U.S. economic, military, and political presence around the globe.
 

This idea of a strong navy, as Mahan suggested, required the establishment of military bases worldwide, which would be used to repair and re-supply ships with essential provisions and fuel.  To this end, Mahan called for the United States to acquire territories to establish docks and bases.  His published works influenced international leaders (particularly those in Germany); in the United States, Mahan influenced the Republican U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (and Harvard history professor), Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924) and his good friend President Theodore Roosevelt.

Lodge and Roosevelt both welcomed war with Spain and the subsequent acquisition of the Philippines in order to establish naval bases there (despite the efforts of Filipino nationalists who were duped into thinking that the U.S. was aiding in their liberation - The Filipino nationalists were led by Emilio Aguinaldo; they fought a brutal guerrilla war known as the Philippine Insurrection (1899–1902) that was extremely costly for the United States).   In addition to the Philippine Islands, American statesmen also sought the American domination of the Caribbean region and Central America.
 

At the close of the Spanish-American War, the following Latin American regions came under the direct political/ military influence of the United States and U.S. corporate/ business interests:
 

1) Cuba (1898)  2) Honduras (1900: U.S.-established banana      plantations)  3) Panama (1903)  4) Guatemala (Washington Conference:1907) a) Central American Court of Justice, created by the United States (and financed - $100,000.00 by billionaire Andrew Carnegie) as a means to deal with increasing anti-U.S. opposition to pro-U.S. regimes.  When the court ruled against the U.S. in 1912 and 1916, the U.S. refused to recognize its validity and abandoned it. 5) Nicaragua (beginning in 1909; U.S. military occupation of this      Central American nation between 1911 and 1933; the      U.S.-supported Samoza “dynasty” ran from 1934 to 1979). 6) Mexico (military interventions: 1914 & 1916) 7) Costa Rica (1918) 8) El Salvador (1920s)

In 1900, U.S. Senator and presidential aspirant William Jennings Bryan was quoted as saying during his campaign for President, “the Caribbean is our bathtub.”
 

Theodore Roosevelt and Latin America:

An important focus of the Teddy Roosevelt administration was its progressive involvement in Latin American affairs, employing Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” diplomacy.  Accordingly, the Roosevelt government was concerned with justifying U.S. intervention throughout the region under the pretexts of maintaining stability.  Roosevelt’s Latin American policies are a diplomatic legacy that still exists today.

In 1898, the Spanish-American War, which was instigated in large part by U.S. expansionists during President William McKinley’s administration, began and ended in three months time.
 

The Spanish-American War was instigated in part by two New York newspapers, the Journal, owned by William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951), (in which the sensational cartoon character “The Yellow Kid” became the source of the term "Yellow Journalism": in the U.S., Hearst owned 18 newspapers and 9 prominent magazines, including American Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and Harper’s Bazaar), and The World, owned by the Hungarian-born journalist Joseph Pulitzer (1847–1911).  In their efforts to gain the greater portion of the market, these journalists published wildly sensational reports that inflamed the American public against the last vestiges of Spain’s former New World empire.  When the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, killing 266 sailors, it was officially assumed that a “Spanish mine” was the source of the explosion, prompting an anguished President William McKinley to seek a declaration of war from Congress the following April.

Out of that conflict, Theodore Roosevelt, who successfully managed a publicity campaign in Cuba during the war, came forth in the eye of the American public as a prominent political figure - Theodore Roosevelt led the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, better known as the “Rough Riders,” who supposedly spearheaded the famous assault of Spanish positions at San Juan Hill, in eastern Cuba, on July 1, 1898.  The core of this bravely executed cavalry charge, however, was composed of African-American “Buffalo Soldiers,” and not the RoughRiders.

As the result of the Spanish-American War, the United States emerged for the first time as an international power, free to develop its enterprises and defenses in Panama and elsewhere throughout Central America and the Caribbean.

Panama held particular importance to U.S. interests, dating back to the time of the American Revolution.  Like the other European nations that held claims in the Americas, The United States longed for the creation of an isthmian canal through Central America that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and provide a shorter and safer alternative to the arduous journey around “the Horn.”
 

In 1821, Panama (like most of Latin America) achieved its independence from Spain.  Panama was itself not independent, however; it became a part of the independent nation of New Granada (Panama and Colombia).

Americans had long been traveling to the Pacific side of the Western Hemisphere for the purpose of trade.  With westward expansion, Americans frequently made the costly voyage by sea.  During the 1840s, Americans were traveling by sea to Oregon.  By 1849/ 1850, the California Gold Rush was in full swing, and the gold fields could be reached either overland or by sea.  As mentioned above, the sea route was dangerous and expensive.

Since the ocean route around Cape Horn involved a voyage of four to eight months, the Isthmus of Panama became the favored route, requiring a relatively short trip from an East Coast U.S. port, and by crossing overland at Panama, voyagers could then pick up a ship traveling north on the Pacific side.   Steamships regularly ran from Boston and New York City, through the Caribbean to the port of Chagres.  From Chagres, people traveled up the Chagres River on a two-day trip through steamy, mountainous jungles until reaching Panama City on the Pacific coast.  There, they had to wait until a ship was available to pick them up.

During the California Gold Rush, hundreds of the gold rushers died of yellow fever during the Panama part of the journey to San Francisco.  Most ships were outfitted to carry about 250 passengers, but during the gold rush. It was common for these vessels to take on as many as 450 or more people.  Of the 100,000 or so forty-niners, about 25,000 took the trip from the east coast of the United States, “around the horn” or through the Isthmus of Panama.  The Pacific Mail Steamship Company ran regularly between Panama City and San Francisco.

To facilitate the trip across the isthmus, the Panama Railroad was built between 1848 and 1855, by W. H. Aspinal, an American, using United States dollars, invested for the purpose.  It was at this time that the issue of a canal became paramount.  The idea for a canal was suggested back during the Spanish Colonial period.  The idea for a canal was suggested back during the Spanish Colonial period.  The United States was interested in building a canal beginning in the eighteenth century.

During the 1840s, the main route favored by the U.S. for a canal, was through Nicaragua, and the rivalry that ensued between Nicaragua and New Granada (present-day Panama and Colombia) was finally settled by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (April 19, 1850, and named after U.S. Secretary of State John M. Clayton and British “plenipotentiary” (diplomatic agent) Sir Henry Bulwer).  Secretary Clayton was in the Franklin Pierce Presidential administration – additionally, President Pierce appointed Nathaniel Hawthorne to a diplomatic post in Liverpool, England.
 

The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850)

The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty stated:

“. . .that neither [nation] . . .will ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control over the said ship canal . . . that neither will ever erect or maintain any fortifications commanding the same . . .or occupy, or fortify, or colonize or assume, or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central America.”

Later U.S. Secretaries of State attempted unsuccessfully to amend the treaty in order to pursue the construction of an isthmian canal.  Between 1899 and 1901, President William McKinley’s Secretary of State John Hay (1838 – 1905)  secured a series of treaties with Great Britain.  Known as the Hay-Pauncefote Treaties (also named after the British ambassador to the United States, Lord Julian Pauncefote (pons-foot) of Preston (1828 – 1902), who also was a key figure in the settling of the Venezuela Boundary Dispute - The Venezuela Boundary Dispute caused much friction between the United States and Great Britain, almost to the threat of war.  At issue was the question of the placement of the international boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana.  The discovery of gold in the disputed region caused further complications, and in 1887, Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Great Britain and requested aid in the matter from the United States.  Despite some talk of war, both sides finally backed down, Great Britain recognized the validity of the Monroe Doctrine, and the new boundary line as drawn up was favorable to British interests after all).

The Hay-Pauncefote Treaties modified (during the Roosevelt administration in 1901) the issues surrounding the construction of an isthmian canal in a way favorable to the United States and by implication, to fortify said canal as well.
 

Earlier, in 1881, a French company was granted concessions to build a sea-level canal through Panama, but its efforts failed, finally becoming bankrupt in 1889.  The United States long-favored a Nicaraguan route for the canal, but an American associated with the French effort succeeded in getting the Panama route approved under the McKinley and Roosevelt presidential administrations, and secured the rights for an American company to build it.

Secretary Hay failed in an attempt to gain a narrow strip of land from the Colombian government, in the Hay-Herrán Treaty (January, 1903), named also for Colombian foreign minister Tomás Herrán.  The U.S. Congress approved this treaty, but the Colombian Congress refused to ratify it, in an effort to raise the price from the U.S. offer of $10 million (with an additional $1/4 million annuity to begin in nine years).  Colombia’s congress also rejected the treaty because of “Yankee Imperialism,” and the U.S. intrusion upon its national sovereignty.  In response to Colombia’s demands, Theodore Roosevelt condemned the Colombians, calling them “greedy little anthropods.”

The United States nonetheless insisted on achieving its own aims.  To this end the U. S. supported [or rather engineered] an armed insurrection, led by the French engineer Philippe Jean Bunau-Varilla (1859 – 1940).  Bunau-Varilla conspired with Panamanian insurrectionists, who successfully pulled off a revolution resulting in the independence of Panama in 1903, and the United States gaining rights to the Panama Canal Zone (between Colón and Panama City).  With a regime favorable to the interests of the United States, the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (November 17, 1903) was drafted, which granted the United States exclusive control “in perpetuity” over the Panama Canal.  Panama was received the same amount of money and annuities that were previously offered to Colombia.  By a treaty in 1921, Colombia eventually received $25 million in settlement from the United States for the loss of Panama, and recognized its independence.

The Panama Canal was built between 1904 and 1914 (it formally opened on August 15, 1914, and was dedicated formally on July 12, 1920).  Its total cost was $336,650,000.00.  This artificial waterway runs for forty miles south to southeast from Limón Bay, at Colón on the Atlantic side, to “Panama at Balboa” on the Pacific side.  Via Gatun Lake, it “crosses the Continental Divide through Gaillard (formerly Culebra) Cut, rising on the east, and descending on the western slopes of the divide through a series of locks.
 
 

The government of the independent Panama was beset early on with internal problems.  The treaty between the U.S. and Panama allowed for U.S. intervention into Panama’s affairs, and thus, American troops invaded the isthmian nation in 1908, 1912, and 1918.  To this end, Theodore Roosevelt was a firm believer that the United States was the “natural protector” of Panama and all of Central America, but that the U.S. “should [also] be the main beneficiary – of Central American affairs.”  Unlike his nineteenth-century predecessors, Theodore Roosevelt was blunt in his statements, aims and attitudes toward Latin America.  Derisively referring to some Latin Americans as “Dagoes” who were incapable of “governing themselves . . .or . . .maintaining order,” Roosevelt sought to expand U.S. markets and industrial/ financial enterprises throughout the region.  Roosevelt unabashedly proclaimed U.S. dominance throughout the region, without regard for its people, or their rights to their own self determination.

 

U.S. investments in Central America: - $21 million in 1897 - $41 million in 1908  - $93 million in 1914

Like Panama, Cuba was changed by the events of the Spanish-American War of 1898.  Prior to the war (and since Latin American independence in the 1820s), Cuba and Puerto Rico remained the only Spanish possessions in the New World.  Prior to the 1898 conflict, the Ten Years War (1868 – 1878) was brought about by reformers who desired change.  Of particular note, slavery was abolished in Cuba in 1886 as a part of reforms brought about after the Ten Years War.  Most of the promised reforms, however, were not met.

In 1895, exiled rebels under the leadership of the intellectual and writer and poet (he was the “precursor’ of the Modernismo movement in Latin American literature) José Martí (1853 – 1895), began a new war for independence.  Martí’s life was “devoted” to the ideals of Cuban independence.  While living in exile in the U.S., Martí made a living writing for popular American periodicals including the newspaper, the New York Sun.  He regularly wrote critiques on U.S. political life and the arts and literature, and he was likewise a regular contributor to various South American periodicals. Martí was a “great admirer” of the United States, but he feared how the U.S. would affect independent nations in South America.  While living in the United States between 1881 and 1895, Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party.  In his effort to win Cuban independence, Martí was killed in the Battle of Dos Rios (May 1895), three years before the Spanish-American War.

After the Spanish-American War, the United States attempted to install a pro-U.S. provisional government in Cuba in 1899 under U.S. General Leonard Wood (1860 – 1927).  The United States military occupied the island until 1902, and under General Wood, the precedent for U.S. “gunboat diplomacy” and “dollar diplomacy” in Latin America was established.   With U.S. backing, the independent Republic of Cuba was “launched” in 1902.  Its first president was the 67-year-old Estrada Palma, though his administration was closely watched and intervened upon by the United States under the Platt Amendment.

Named after U.S. Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt, the Platt Amendment was attached to the 1901 Army Appropriations Bill.  Reflecting the sentiments of many of the major U.S. politicians of the day, it stipulated that the United States would be allowed to intervene at will in Cuban affairs to protect U.S. interests. President Palma signed the treaty relinquishing the Isle of Pines and Guantanamo Bay to the U.S.

A conservative coalition, calling itself the “Moderate Party,” carried Palma to power in the elections of 1905.  The following year (1906), and anti-U.S. revolt rocked the capital city of Havana.  U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was unable to go to Cuba because of his involvement in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War (Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, for negotiating terms of peace between Russia and Japan aboard his yacht, while anchored offshore from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  The document ending this international conflict was the Treaty of Portsmouth (1904).

Thus, Roosevelt sent his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft (1857 – 1930) to the island to subdue the hostile situation.  In the aftermath of the political disturbances in Cuba, Cuban President Palma resigned, forcing Roosevelt to send U.S. troops to occupy the island nation.  Taft set up a new government in Cuba, under Charles E. Magoon, who had earlier served the United States as the first governor of the Canal Zone in Panama.  The corruption of his administration is reflected in the word “magoonism,” meaning; corruption.  This corruption was centered in, and identified with, the U.S. occupational forces.

Between 1901 and 1923, U.S. investment in Cuba increased from $80 million to $1.5 billion. Sugar was the main product under development in Cuba at that time.  In 1908, General José Miguel Gomez came to power, leading a government that was friendly to the President Taft government in the United States.  Gomez however, preferred American luxuries, and spent most of his time at his mansion in Miami Florida, where he was frequently visited by his friend, U.S. President Taft.

Theodore Roosevelt’s Secretary of State Elihu Root (1845 – 1937) assured Latin American nations in 1906 that “the northern and southern hemispheres were perfectly suited [to] each other.”  According to Root (the “premier corporate lawyer” in the U.S.), North America needed Latin America’s resources, while they needed U.S. manufactures.  Moreover, Root made racist characterizations of and generalizations about Latin Americans, comparing them to an idealized vision of what an American supposedly was – one was thrifty, the other spends; one is organized and inventive, and the other not, etc.

In agreement with his “natural protector” argument, Theodore Roosevelt enhanced the powers of the Monroe Doctrine in his Roosevelt Corollary (1905) (corollary to the Monroe Doctrine) which stipulated the “policeman” role of the United States in the Western Hemisphere.  As Secretary of State Richard Olney (in the administration of U.S. President Grover Cleveland) stated ten years earlier: the United States is “practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat [arbitrary order or decree] is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition,” Roosevelt likewise asserted.

Roosevelt promoted United States corporate and financial interests in Latin America, cloaking them in the rhetoric of American democratic ideals.  He claimed that by through U.S. military power, order was brought to the region.  Underneath this pursuit of war to maintain peace and order, was the protection of U.S. interests, even if these were at the expense of human rights.  Central American freedom fighters and patriotic liberators were labeled terrorists.  According to an American Navy officer; Latin American revolutionaries “small bandit nests of a wicked and inefficient type.”  Likewise, Theodore Roosevelt claimed that the patriotic efforts of such rebels, in their efforts to win gains for their people, as simply the “struggles between different crews of bandits for the possession of the customs houses – and the loot.”

Using such prejudicial justifications as the excuse for an increased U.S. military presence in the region, Theodore Roosevelt set the precedent for future United States intervention (“police actions”) and the support of pro-U.S. revolutions in Latin America, throughout the twentieth century.  Even as late as 1989, President Ronald Reagan maintained the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt’s Latin American policies.  And, as American historian Walter LaFebre observes, “Reagan could sympathize . . .[with Roosevelt’s “famous remark”]: These wretched republics cause me a great deal of trouble.”