Imperialism in Latin America

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism Introduction Nations in the Americas followed two divergent paths In Canada and the United States there arose manufacturing industries, powerful corporations, and wealthy financial institutions Latin America and the Caribbean exported raw materials and food stuffs and imported manufactured goods Free-trade imperialism: The economic dominance of a weaker state by a stronger one, while maintaining the legal independence of the weaker state

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism Railroads and the Imperialism of Free Trade Latin America’s economic potential was huge because it produced so many things that industrialized nations needed Starting in the 1870s, almost every country in Latin America acquired railroads These usually connected mines or agricultural regions with the nearest port All the materials needed to build these railroads came from the United States and Britain, as well as the engineers who designed them and the managers who ran them

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism Argentina gained the longest and best-developed rail network By 1914, 86% of their railroads were owned by British firms, 40% of the employees were British, and the official language of the railroads was English

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism American Expansionism and the Spanish-American War, 1898 Europeans avoided territorial acquisitions in Latin America for four reasons They were overextended in Africa and Asia There was no need for invasions because the Latin American governments provided political backing for economic arrangements Latin American had shown themselves capable of resisting invasions (Mexico against France in the 1860s) The United States claimed to defend the entire Western Hemisphere against all intervention This claim, made in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, did not prevent the U.S. itself from intervening

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism America had long had interests in Cuba, the closest and richest of the Caribbean islands American newspapers printed fabricated stories about terrible atrocities committed by the Spanish in Cuba In February of 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine accidently blew up the Havana harbor, killing 266 American sailors in the process The U.S. government immediately blamed Spain and issued an ultimatum that the Spanish leave Cuba forever The Spanish agreed to these terms but the U.S. press and Congress were eager for war

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism The Spanish-American War was over quickly By August of 1898, Spain was suing for peace The U.S. purchased the Philippines from Spain but took over Puerto Rico and Guam as well

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism American Intervention in the Caribbean and Central America, 1901-1914 The nations of this region were small and poor and their governments were corrupt and unstable They seemed to offer and open invitation for foreign intervention These nations borrowed money from European nations or the U.S. to pay for railroads and electric power but could not repay their loans The lending banks in the U.S. or Europe would then ask for their governments assistance in receiving their payments, sometimes threating military force

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism Cuba was forced to accept the “Platt Amendment” in 1901, giving the U.S. the “right to intervene” to maintain order on the island This led to several military occupations of the nation Cuba had essentially become a territory of the United States Similar interventions happened in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Haiti

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism After acquiring Hawaii and the Philippines, the U.S. recognized the strategic advantage of a canal that would link the Pacific and Atlantic oceans Columbia would not cooperate with the U.S. The U.S. government then supported a Panamanian rebellion in 1903 and quickly recognized the independence of Panama In exchange, it obtained the right to build a canal and to occupy a zone five miles wide on either side of it Work began in 1904 and the Panama Canal was opened in August of 1914

The World Economy and the Global Market

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism Expansion of the World Economy The growing needs of the industrial world could not be met by traditional means of production and transportation of the nonindustrial world Imperial powers had no choice but to improve the colonies they extracted resources from Steamships became more common and, as their size increased, deeper harbors had to be built Railroads were built all over India, Latin America, Canada, China, and Australia

Chapter 29: The New Imperialism Transformation of the Global Environment Natural environments were often destroyed to achieve imperialistic goals For example, the British destroyed large areas of tropical rainforests in northern India in order to grow more tea to try to satisfy their insatiable appetite for the drink Valuable plants like tobacco, sugar, and coffee were spread to new areas of the globe where they could be grown and sold back to Europe Rubber, originally from Hevea trees in Brazil, found its way to Southeast Asia and became essential to the world’s economy Irrigation transformed landscapes across the tropics as well, allowing for more crops to be grown across parts of the world than had ever been grown before