1. Venezuelan Border Dispute By, Ashlyn Maurer, Nick Ricciardi, and Maria Van Buskirk

2. What is it?  Dispute over the boundary between Venezuela and Guyana  Grew more important after the discovery of gold in the disputed area  Venezuela finally sought aid from the United States and broke relations with Great Britain

3. How did the US get involved?  U.S. pressured Great Britain to participate in arbitration of the boundary dispute.  U.S. officials even went as far as threatening war.  Richard Olney, protested against the enlargement of British Guyana at the expense of Venezuela.  This meant that the British had already violated the Monroe Doctrine of 1823  Britain agreed to let an international tribunal arbitrate the boundary in 1897

4. What where the U.S.Motives?  Grover Cleveland, who was serving a second term as President, realized that he was losing popularity among workers everywhere in the country. He and his secretary of State, Richard Olney, decided to adopt a foreign policy and help Venezuela to divert attention from their own country’s problems.  Get the British out of the Western Hemisphere

5. Did they justify their motives?  The U.S. justified their motives by using the Monroe Doctrine to demand arbitration ( legal technique for resolving a dispute outside of court )  This use of the Monroe Doctrine helped to enforce it in the Western Hemisphere and push the British out, which was one of their motives for getting involved.

6. Superman  The United States acted as superman as opposed to a mafia don.  Assisted Venezuela in claiming their land.  Helped Venezuela more then it benefited the United States.  They substantially assisted in moving the British out of the land that was not rightfully theirs and for this Venezuela was very thankful.

7. Reaction of local population  The local population was happy with the U.S. help because it helped Venezuela gain land even though the British still had some control.

8. Final Result  In 1899, 94% of the disputed territory to British Guyana. Venezuela got only the mouth of the Orinoco River and a short stretch of the Atlantic coastline.  Venezuela was unhappy with the decision, a commission surveyed a new border and both sides accepted the boundary in 1905, thus creating the Schomburgk Line

9. MAPS

10. Work Sited  http://www.guyana.org/features/guyanasto ry/chapter84.html http://www.guyana.org/features/guyanasto ry/chapter84.html http://www.guyana.org/features/guyanasto ry/chapter84.html  http://www.historycentral.com/Industrialag e/BorderDispute.html http://www.historycentral.com/Industrialag e/BorderDispute.html http://www.historycentral.com/Industrialag e/BorderDispute.html  http://countrystudies.us/guyana/8.htm http://countrystudies.us/guyana/8.htm  http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedi a/venezuela_boundary_dispute.jsp http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedi a/venezuela_boundary_dispute.jsp http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedi a/venezuela_boundary_dispute.jsp  http://merln.ndu.edu/imguploaded/america map.jpg http://merln.ndu.edu/imguploaded/america map.jpg http://merln.ndu.edu/imguploaded/america map.jpg