Routledge

Chapter Resources

Chapter 6: ‘Good Neighbours’? The United States and the Americas, 1900–45

Debates

Debating the origins of American interventionism

Maps

US intervention in the Caribbean and Central America, 1898–1941

Discussion Questions

  1. Why did the United States become an imperial power at the turn of the twentieth century?
  2. Compare and contrast the Latin American policies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
  3. Why did the United States annex the Philippines but not Cuba?
  4. What explains American interventionism during the Wilson presidency?
  5. Did the ‘Good Neighbor’ policy mark a significant shift in American policy towards Latin America?
  6. What role did local politics play in allowing US hegemony in Central America?
  7. Could the United States have exercised its influence without the aid of such men as Somoza and Batista?
  8. Was pan-Americanism merely another tool of US domination?
  9. What was the impact of the Second World War on inter-American relations?
  10. What do you think was the main driving force of US policy towards Latin America — national security or economic interests?

Weblinks

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~caguirre/uslatam.html
A University of Oregon website that gives a massive series of links to other sites dealing with US policy in Latin America.

http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/teddy.html
Another teaching site that gives links and summaries of US–Latin American relations. Notable for its interest in the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/chroncuba.html
A site devoted to Cuban-American relations. Contains a chronology, links to bibliographical data and other relevant information.

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/
Perhaps the easiest gateway for accessing primary documents from US archives. This is a digitalized version of the Foreign Relations of the United States series, divided by country or region and year(s). Several volumes deal with US policy towards Latin America in this period.