17-2+USH

Abby Regan 5/11/12 USHCP Mr. Masterson

Key Terms: Good Neighbor Policy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policy of promoting better relations with Latin America through mutual respect. Nationalize: To assert government control over something. Caudillos: Military leaders who used force to maintain order.

Key People: Emiliano Chamorro: A general in Nicaragua who overthrew the government and caused a bad civil war. Henry Stimson: A long-time public official sent by President Coolidge to negotiate an end to the civil war in Nicaragua. Augusto Cesar Sandino: A general who opposed Chamorro and didn't like Stimson's suggestion. Adolfo Diaz: The successor of Chamorro. Anastasio Somoza: The commander of the US national guard who ordered Sandino's assassination. Lazaro Cardenas: Mexico's president in 1938. Josephus Daniels: The US ambassador to Mexico.

Summary:

Intervention in Nicaragua
 * The United States aided in Nicaraguan politics in the 1920s and 30s, as the civil war there due to an overthrown government threatened the US commercial interests, and Henry Stimson suggested a peace treaty in which they would get rid of Nicaragua's armed forces and the US would then train a new National Guard.
 * In 1923 Sandino began working for a US owned oil company in Tampico, Mexico, where he read about Simon Bolivar, who helped Latin American win independence.
 * Sandino also wanted to get rid of the Americans in Nicaragua, because he wanted to allow the native Nicaraguans to run the country.
 * Sandino's forces relied on farmers for food and shelter, and the US Marines couldn't defeat them.
 * After Anastasio Somoza got Sandino assassinated, he took control of the presidency of Nicaragua for the next year, and his family continued to rule until 1979.

A Change in Policy
 * When the US refused to become involved in events in Europe and Asia, Presidents Coolidge, Hoover, and Roosevelt tried to improve relationships with Latin America.

The Good Neighbor
 * President Roosevelt created the Good Neighbor policy.
 * In order to show how genuine the plan was, Roosevelt signed a treaty with Cuba that cancelled the Platt Amendment, which meant that the US could no longer interfere with Cuban affairs.
 * After WWI the US increased investments in banana, coffee, and sugar plantations in Latin America and the Caribbean, and some of these govts. primarily existed to serve the interests of the foreign countries.
 * The United Fruit Company, the largest US company in Latin America, established plantations and built roads and railroads, and controlled the ports.
 * In addition to having a big role in Latin American economics, US companies also had a lot of political power and often helped govern the countries where they were located.

Relations With Mexico
 * Although Mexico was suppose to own all underground resources, the Americans and the British continued to own and operate oil companies in Mexico, and when the companies refused to meet the demands for higher wages of the workers, the Mexican president nationalized the oil industry.
 * Josephus Daniels tried to advocate for a compromise, in which Mexico had the right to control it's oil resources, but the US should be compensated for lost property.
 * Most Mexicans supported their President's actions, yet some thought that the US would invade Mexico to get their property back, but Roosevelt decided to go with Daniels's compromise.

New Latin American Leaders
 * The Great Depression also affected Latin America, because it meant lower prices for coffee, bananas, and other crops, and farmers wages dropped.
 * As workers lost their jobs, the gap between the wealthy and the poor people of Latin America got bigger.
 * Caudillos took power in some Latin American countries