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Drew Garrett
Jesse Cromwell
His 345: Caribbean History
May 1, 2015
Question #1
The United States and the Rest of the Caribbean
The Caribbean as a whole has had to deal with numerous problems dating back to the
colonial times, from European explorers, to slavery, revolution, and eventually harsh
dictatorships. All of these have been largely due to some other nation imposing its will on these
poorly developed countries. Many countries, if not every country, have acted on serving their
own interests when dealing with the Caribbean nations of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and
Puerto Rico, as well as others within the Caribbean and Latin America. The United States is no
different from these other countries, such as France, Britain, and Spain, who sought to control
these seemingly third-world countries for their benefit. The United States has shown its
dominance over the Caribbean through its economic, political, and military interventions over
the years, which has led to the Caribbean being called the "American Mediterranean."
The U.S. has had many economic opportunities within the Caribbean islands, and all have
been said to be "uniformly in the expansion of sugar plantations and sugar monoculture" (Palmie
and Scarano, 434). This period, which lasted from 1898-1934, was given the term "American
Sugar Kingdom", after America began implementing its sugar plantation system on the
Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic (434). The goal of the

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States was to gain large amounts of wealth through private ownership of these companies at the
expense of these island countries. The United States lured these countries into producing this
sugar through investments made by American businessmen and favorable tariffs placed on their
goods, which acted as incentives to allow these businessmen to own companies within their
homelands. These investments led to improvements within the nations' infrastructures in the
forms of railroads and improved methods of shipping in order to accommodate the wealthy
investors. These methods solidified U.S. ownership of many sugar plantations in these countries,
but that did not last. Returning to sugar plantations was a problem from the beginning but did
not become a real issue until around 1930 on most of the islands. The looming Great Depression
caused severe hardships for all American-owned businesses, which resulted in skyrocketing price
competition, causing quotas to be set within the Caribbean. The population grew restless from
the economic collapse and sought revolution against the U.S. industries, which they deemed as
the cause of their struggles. This ended badly for many of the American businessmen, who lost
not only their plantations in many of these countries, but also their investments within the
country. These lost investments led to political or military occupation of the nations in order to
provide protection to the wealthy investors. The economic interventions in some of the
territories would hurt them financially for years to come; even today, some of them are still
struggling.
Also, the United States' political domination over much of the Caribbean is evident
through its bills and policies passed regarding these islands. The U.S. has implemented several
policies over the years and even imposed itself onto some of the islands' governmental policies.
One of the first sets of policies passed regarding the Caribbean was the Monroe Doctrine in
1823, which stated the U.S. would intervene between any country who sought to take control of

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or dominate another country within the Western Hemisphere. James Monroe issued this doctrine
because he felt it was needed in order to protect Latin American independence from other
European powers. This started a trend that would be followed by the United States presidents
who took office after him. Cuba was a specific example of this political domination, which
started during the Spanish American War. The U.S. helped the Cuban people win their
independence from Spain in the Spanish American War but were not allowed to sign the treaty
between Spain and America, which insured their independence. Instead, the United States took
Cuba in as its own and established the Platt Amendment (1902-1934), which gave the U.S.
government the right to intervene at any point in Cuba's government whenever it felt it should.
Ultimately, this amendment discouraged the Cuban people from Democracy or trying to govern
themselves, which complicated the situation and paved the way for future historical events in
Cuba. Also, the Roosevelt Corollary, Dollar Diplomacy, and Gunboat Diplomacy policies
collectively set up a system of power and control over many of the Caribbean islands. These
policies all favored the States by giving it favorable conditions in the Caribbean for trade and
economic gains through military power, which is why America pursued the Caribbean so
relentlessly. Fidel Castro highlighted the U.S. interests in The Second Declaration of Havana
document, when he compared the U.S. to the first Spanish conquerors. Castro detailed the
interests of the Americans in the document when he said, "to guard that torrent of riches, to gain
more control of Latin America's resources and to exploit its suffering peoples - that is what is
hidden behind the military pacts, the military missions, and Washington's diplomatic lobbying..."
(Castro, 9).
Lastly, the United States has dominated the Caribbean and much of Latin America
militarily over the decades. Since becoming viewed as a superpower among the nations, the U.S.

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has extended its sphere of influence around the world, especially in the Caribbean. It has
occupied many Caribbean and Latin American countries including Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the
Dominican Republic, to name a few. The country has done this over the years for its own
benefit, whether it be for economic interests, military bases, or a short cut through land, which
was seen in Puerto Rico. In Palmie and Scarano's book, they discuss how and why this took
place when they wrote, "But Puerto Rico's strategic location protected key access routes to the
planned Panama Canal, and US forces invaded the island on July 25, 1898" (Palmie and Scarano,
538). The United States later ceded this territory from Spain by annexation in the Treaty of Paris
(Palmie and Scarano, 538). The book, The Caribbean A History of the Region and Its People,
also discussed that later Americans began using Puerto Rico during World War II as the main
military base for air, navy, and army forces (Palmie and Scarano, 543). Puerto Rico was one of
the very few that really never sought to break its ties with the United States but instead is owned
by it still today. This is just one account of when the U.S. moved into a Caribbean country and
occupied it for its benefit. Another example of military power being used was during the Cuban
Missile Crisis during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviets. The Soviets set up missile
sites in Cuba with Fidel Castro's approval. In the book, Cuba My Revolution, this is referenced
after Sonya is called back into service and tells Carlos, "American U-2s have discovered Soviet
missile installations under construction on our soil, and the U.S. has declared a threat to its
national security--sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis" (Lockpez, Part III). Luckily, war was able
to be avoided in this case through negotiations with the Soviet Union, but this was after the Bay
of Pigs operation had been an embarrassing failure for America. During the Bay of Pigs
operation, the United States CIA trained a group of counter-revolutionary forces to overthrow
Fidel Castro's regime, but they would be put down almost immediately after the revolution

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began. The fighting would only last a few days, and in Lockpez's book, the character Sonya is
initially in love with is seemingly one of these men who joined the counter-revolution. The
character's name is Flavio, and she feels like one of the wounded men she treated was this man,
which later caused her to go through a series of torturous tests and interrogations. She is
ultimately released in the book but shows the power of threats made by the United States by
setting off a sense of paranoia among the Cuban military force under Castro (Lockpez, Part II).
Cuba is probably the most talked about country in the Caribbean, as far as strained relations go,
because the U.S. still has an embargo act placed on trade with Cuba. The United States is still
wary from all the militant actions taken by Cuba to refuse American help, and this has sparked
military issues with both sides for many decades. Though relations are better between the U.S.
and Cuba today, Cuba is still a country America is not certain about due to all the power still
residing with the Castro regime. In 2014, President Obama and Cuba found a new deal of
understanding and are currently negotiating peace talks among the two nations.
In conclusion, it is clear to see how much history the United States and the islands of the
Caribbean and Latin America have together. The United States has taken advantage of these
countries as well as helped many of them become politically stable. There is such a fine line
between the two that it is often just a coin toss decision made by the citizens of the countries
whether or not they appreciate what the United States has tried to do for them. Various reasons in
the Caribbean have caused many of these countries to reject U.S. intervention, ranging from
feelings of being used economically to undesired occupation of their islands without consent. It
is quite possible that I show some bias towards supporting the U.S. in its decisions regarding the
Caribbean, but I do feel like we were trying to help ourselves as well as the islands off of our
coastline. There is no denying that the United States has shown how dominant it can be through

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its economic, political, and military interventions in the Caribbean, which is at least part of the
reason why the U.S. is touted as being the most powerful country in the world. The Caribbean
is, after all, where the U.S. was first able to display its power and be recognized as a superpower
following the Spanish-American War.

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Works Cited:
Palmie, Stephan, and Francisco A. Scarano. The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its
Peoples. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2011. Print.
Castro, Fidel. "The Second Declaration of Havana". Evergreen Black Cat Book, 1969. Print.
Lockpez, Inverna, Dean Haspiel, Jose Villarrubia, and Pat Brosseau. Cuba: My Revolution. New
York: DC Comics/Vertigo, 2010. Print.