History of Latin America. Lecture Notes: Week 4-11

Week 4: Puerto Rico post-Spanish-American War In-Class Readings ● Henry Billings Brown (1901) – “A territory appurtenant and belonging to the United States ● Roberto Todd et al. (1905) – “Puerto Rico enslaved’ ● Isabel Gonzalez (1905) – “Let them learn a lesson from Great Britain” Discussion Questions ● How did the newly-acquired island of Puerto Rico factor into evolving issues of US empire in the first years of the 20th century? ○ Supreme Court decisions, attempts to legislate and legally install Puerto Rico in the US ● What relationships did Puerto Ricans have to these dynamic changes and developments? What attitudes did they hold towards US rule? ○ Ambivalence at first towards the US, when they ○ “Don’t be like Great Britain” ○ Examples to Central and South America American Empire at the Turn of the Century: Reshaping US Territorial Boundaries, Economic, Citizenship in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean ● The War of 1898 ○ Cuban multiphase war from independence from Spain (1870s-1898) ○ Cuban provisional government ○ Expatriates living in the US Spain’s sustained control over Cuba ● Resistance to recognize and intervene in Cuba’s revolutionary cause ○ Could lead to all out war ○ Feared a return to economic crisis of the early 1890s with costs of war, would need to coin more silver, would cheapen the dollar, threaten overseas credit ○ Constitutional questions regarding annexation -- could Manifest Destiny work overseas? ○ Racial questions? Could US successfully integrate Cuba’s multi-racial society? ● USS Maine and the Path to War (1898) -- it’s blamed on the Spanish and leads to a declaration of war, but later found to be an incident where the ship self-combusted ● The debate over Cuban Annexation ○ Could the US fight a war with Cuba against Spain without granting Cuban independence? ● Influence of the American Media ○ Yellow Journalism ■ Led by the papers of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer ○ 1898 – mass production of the “penny press” ● US Policy towards Cuba in the Aftermath of the War ○ Cuba as a US protectorate ○ Teller Amendment grants independence to Cuba (1898) ○ Platt Amendment -- comes post occupation ● Platt Amendment (1901-1934) ○ The US lease of Guantánamo Bay/Base (99 years) ○ US could intervene at any time to protect Cuba’s independence ○ Cuba’s debt needed to be limited so that foreign credits could not take advantage of Cuba’s independence ○ Sanitation program on the island to “protect” Cubans and make the island more desirable to foreign investors ○ Sugar industry ● War in the Philippines ○ US Admiral George Dewey’s naval fleet defeats Spanish in Manila Bay ○ Filipino revolutionaries declare independence ○ 1899 Treaty of Paris ends the war with Spain ○ US annexation of the Philippines ■ The first time the US orders troops outside the Western Hemisphere ● Filipino Revolutionaries and Extended War ○ US prolonged war with Filipino revolutionaries (1899-1901) ○ Emilio Aguinaldo ● Empire and the Transformation of Citizenship ○ Would the newly acquired residents of the Philippines (as well as Puerto Rico) become citizens of the United States? ■ Development of a two-tiered legal framework, consisting of full and parietal membership in the American policy, the consular cases debate this ● Ultimately no, they will not be full citizens and will still apply trade taxes, etc. ● Citizenship Debates in Puerto Rico ○ Foraker Act (1900) ■ Establishes new civil government governed by the US Congress ■ Restrictions on suffrage and trade ○ Insular Cases (1901-1904) ■ Defines territories as “foreign to the United States in a domestic sense” ■ Establishes “territorial incorporation” ■ “Foreign to the US in a domestic sense”—Supreme Court ■ Constitutional precedent for growing US empire ● Non-Citizen National Part of a New Legal Framework ○ New citizenship category of “US national” ○ Jones Act (1917) finally grants Puerto Ricans citizenship ○ Puerto Rico transitions to commonwealth status (1952) Week 6: Managing, Policing, and Extending the American Empire in Latin America in the Early 20th Century Framing Questions ● How did the US manage and police Latin America during the Roosevelt Administration? ● What role did the Panama Canal play in the larger hemispheric politics of American empire during this period? ● How did the Roosevelt Corollary represent both an expansion and a departure from the Monroe Doctrine? Theodore Roosevelt (R. 1901-1909) ● Former ○ VP under President William McKinley (2nd term) ○ Governor of New York ○ Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President McKinley ● Establishing “Order”, and the Middle Way ○ Maintained “order” both in domestic and foreign politics ○ “Trust-buster” ○ Anti-individualism/competition/social Darwinism ○ Exerted economic power abroad ○ Contributed to increased foreign political and economic stability ● Presidential Power and “Stewardship” ○ “Steward” of the people ○ Expanded executive power ○ White House as a “bully pulpit” ○ Use of executive agreements ○ Military force and the roots of the “imperial presidency” ○ In 1890 -- Negale Supreme Court to protect expanded executive power Threats to the Monroe Doctrine: The Case of Santo Domingo ● (1904) Intervention in Santo Domingo led to the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine ● Interest in Santo Domingo’s harbors and customhouse ● Foreign powers attempt to collect debt ● US seize customhouse ● Executive agreement for US influence made with President Carlos Morales ○ Importance of protecting US property and citizens abroad, but to also collect debt from Latin American countries from “foreign predator control” The Roosevelt Corollary ● Protect the “welfare” of Latin American nations ● Allowed the US to intervene when a country’s “inability or unwillingness to do justice at home and abroad had violated the rights of the US or had invited foreign aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations” ● “International police power” ● Fear of political uprisings in the hemisphere The Roosevelt Corollary vs. Monroe Doctrine ● Did not support Latin American revolutions ● Urged US direct intervention in these nations in order to maintain “civilized” order ● Intended to control the marketplace of these home countries ● Specifically argued for military force ● Led to constitutional problems -- the separation of powers The Search for an Isthmian Canal ● Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850) ● Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901) Where to Build the Canal? ● Nicaragua or Panama? ● Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901) ● Spooner Amendment (1902) US Intervention in the Colombian Civil War ● The US and Colombia ● After Colombia rejects the initial transfer of the land, the US supports Panamanians with force against the Colombians ● Recognize Panama’s independence and make deal for a ten mile wide strip The Panama Canal (1914) ● An example of American exceptionalism and hemispheric hegemonic power The Business of Empire: Foreign Investment and the Case of the United Fruit Company Dollar Diplomacy ● The belief in and practice of sending US money overseas in the forms of loans and investments to maintain “open door” economic policies and “order” in places like Latin America ● Used to develop unindustrialized nations ● Downplayed emphasis on the US government’s use of military force ● Brought up by Howard Taft (R. 1909-1913) ● Connect the resources of the South with the manufacturers of the North ○ Nicaragua (1909) ○ United Fruit Company Evolution of Economic Imperialism in Latin America ● From British to American control ● From private business as the driving influence to the federal government taking more of an active role ● Roles of private industry and the federal government overlapped Railroads and Bananas: The Rise of the United Fruit Company ● Minor Keith gains control of the Costa Rica’s Atlantic Railroad ● (1899) UFC came to be when Ketih’s tropical trading and transport company joined forces with Andrew Preston’s Boston Fruit ● Feat of vertical integration ○ Own plantations, contract farming system, and use of railroads ● (1904) -- Guatemala signed a similar agreement as Costa Rica with the newly consolidated UFC ● (1910) -- UFC had become the largest agricultural enterprise in the world, owning 7% of Costa Rica’s entire country Week 7: The Caribbean with Occupations and Invasions Questions to Consider ● In the years surrounding The First World War, what did US military invasions and occupations in the broader Caribbean region have in common? ● What differences characterized these efforts? Week 8: Good Neighbor Policies & Brazil Primary Sources ● To what extent does US policy seem to shift towards Latin America during the 1930s? ● What tensions or contradictions do you notice in these relationships? From Occupation to Nonintervention Politics ● Latin American resistance in occupied nations ● US anti-occupation sentiment ● Broader Latin American press criticize US occupation ● European diplomats and the press point out US hypocrisy ● Inter-American diplomacy’s critique of US military intervention ○ (1902) - Drago Doctrine ■ Doctrine asserted by the Argentine foreign minister, Luis Drago that foreign armed intervention to enforce the payments of public debts was illegal ○ (1928) - Sixth International Conference on the American States ■ Denounce US interventions against Sandino ● US Congressmen (pacifists, isolationists, and xenophobes) ● Changes at State ○ Clark Memorandum re. the failures of the Monroe Doctrine ○ More acknowledgment that occupation doesn’t work ● Negative effects of anti-American sentiment and resistance to US trade ● Aftermath of WWI: ○ Germans are no longer a threat in Latin America ○ Panama Canal ○ Isolationist movement in general ● Presidential Politics: ○ Harding specifically criticizes Wilson’s interventions in the Caribbean and agree to nonintervention by USMC ○ Coolidge attempts to shorten USMC intervention in Nicaragua’s Civil War ○ Hoover with his 10-country visits, promises non-intervention and the Good Neighbor Policy ■ Publishes the Clark Memorandum ■ Reduces and eliminates the policy overseers in the US ■ Believes US military should only be used for self-defense ■ Refused to help US businesses in Mexico with oil issues ○ FDR ■ Mentioned “Good Neighbor Policy” in inaugural address ■ Reinforced sympathetic understanding of Latin American nations at the PanAmerican Union (1933) ■ (1933) Seventh Inter-American Conference ● Secy. Hull declares that “no government need to fear any intervention on the part of the US under the Roosevelt Administration” ■ (1936) Signed statement at a Buenos Aires conference that condemned intervention by one state in the internal or external affairs of another state and declared illogical the forcible collection of debts ● Obscure loophole of multilateral intervention Week 11: Mexican-American Borders and Migration Framing Questions ● What factors transformed Mexican migrants in the US from desirable laborers to undesirable threats? ● How did this xenophobia influence the construction of a new racially-based legality? ● Whiteness by law (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - 1848) ● Legal (and illicit) transfer of land -- Court of Private Land Claims (1891) ● “Juan Crow” Mexican Labor Recruitment ● Growth of industrialization and big agriculture ● Between 1900 and 1930, nearly 1.5 million Mexicans migrated to the US ● And in the 1920s, Mexicans made up almost 11% of all immigrants ● Laborers were recruited by southwestern farmers, mine operators, railroad corporations, and other large construction firms ● Together, these American business interests crafted economic and racial justifications for recruiting and supporting Mexican labor in particular Economic and Racial Narratives of Mexican “Fitness” ● Considered useful laborers, but not good potential American citizens Labor Shortage Favored Mexican Laborers ● Business interests also argued that Mexican labor was needed to fill the labor vacuum in many growing American industries ● The lobbying and support of American business interests were a major factor in exempting Mexicans and others from the western hemisphere from these quotas ● By 1927, Mexicans were second only to Germans, in terms of total numbers of new immigrants arriving to the US Increasing Nativism ● Despite these economic and political incentives, many Americans began to point to the various perceived costs of Mexican migration ● And despite their legal status of whiteness, many anti=immigrant and eugenic groups also argued that Mexicans should be barred from naturalization, for many of the previously mentioned reasons ● The “invasion” narrative also used by many nativists during this time also erased the historic presence of Mexicans in the US southwest, recasting them as foreigners causing a “mexicanization” of the US Public health arguments ● Criminality arguments ● Johnson-Reed Immigration Act (1924), still no quotas for the Western hemisphere Mexican Repatriation ● Between 1931-34, over half a million Mexicans were deported back (⅓ of the US=Mexican population) ● Included US citizens ● Deportation drives organized by local relief agencies ●