U.S. Imperialism In 20th Essay Example for Free

U.S. Imperialism In 20th Essay The United States’ first attempt at imperial expansion can be traced back to 1898. Feeling the effects of economic recession and depression up to 1897, many felt the future security of the U. S. capitalist system rested heavily on expansion, not only on the North American continent but even into the Caribbean, Hawaii and Asia. Given the United States’ agenda to expand its territorial boundaries their involvement in Cuba, beginning at the Spanish-Cuban-American war, comes as no surprise. The implications of the United States’ involvement in Cuba, however, have been quite considerable. The argument that the U. S. imperialism was the primary cause of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, therefore, bares some amount of weight. The United States’ presence in Cuba, the de facto power they wielded over that country’s economy and politics, was one of the major forces that drove the Cuban people to rebellion and fuelled the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro. Before any further discussions it must be pointed out that, long before the United States began its territorial, economic and political expansion outside its continental borders, the Cuban people were opposing colonialism in all its forms. While it would be useful to determine just how influential the U. S. was on Cuba’s political and economic landscape and to understand what historical events contributed to this state of affair, it must necessarily be understood that imperialism was nothing new to the Cuban society. Beginning in 1894 nationalist sentiments arose in Cuba not only among the elites and colonists, but even among the working class. All desired to see a liberated Cuba, free from the colonial control Spain had long wielded over the island. According to Spalding this struggle â€Å"represented a class war as well as an anti-colonial and anti-imperialist one. † The struggle between the European colonial power and its colony was heated but up to 1898 seemed no where near resolution. Popular sentiments among the United States populace were that U. S. intervention in the struggle between Spain and Cuba was necessary. Simons argues that the United States’ perspective was that â€Å"the Spanish presence in the Western hemisphere was an impediment to economic expansion of the US. † It is with this that the United States entered the struggle. The Cuban people of course may have assumed that U. S. intervention in the war had no strings attached. But the U. S. government saw such intervention as a way of advancing its â€Å"Manifest Destiny. † As Cordero highlights â€Å"†¦ the principle of Manifest Destiny and the pursuit of economic expansion made Cuba a target of opportunity. † Lazo believes that U. S. involvement in other nations’ affairs is inevitable because of â€Å"the great power which it wields by virtue of its prestige, wealth, and strength† . At the time of the Spanish-Cuban war, the U. S. was just rising to super-powerdom and thus successfully defending Cuba against its imperial aggressor was an unavoidable move by the U. S. government. The economic and political power that the United States wielded over the Cuban economy subsequent to the Spanish-Cuban-American war of 1898 is probably the most significant factor that contributed not only to the 1959 revolution, but to the other failed revolutionary attempts prior to 1959. After successfully winning the war for the Cubans, the United States, on paper, promised political freedom to the Cubans. This, however, was not practiced in principle and did not prevent the United States attempting economic expansion on the island. In fact, one of the United States’ first order of business in Cuba was to open up the Cuban economy to U. S. investors. Additionally, even though the U. S. turned over political rule to the locals, they maintained a strong influential hold over the leadership of the country. As a matter of fact, the U. S. ’ political influence was so strong that after their approved candidate lost elections the Platt Amendment was imposed as a condition for independence. Therefore, though the U. S. government was not successful in maintaining direct control of the local government, they were able to control the island’s foreign relations via this new plan. The Platt Amendment gave the U. S. the final say in foreign related issues. This meant that the country could not independently enter into foreign treaties or borrow on the international capital market. Above every other provision of the Platt Amendment was the unilateral right the U. S. took to intervene militarily in Cuba whenever it saw fit. Essentially all these provisions meant that, even though the United States did not exercise direct control of the island in the political arena, in terms of foreign affairs, militarily and economically the U. S. had a tremendous amount of control over the island. Ibarra, in the first chapter entitled â€Å"Finance Capital and Economic Structures of the Republic,† demonstrates how critical U. S. investments became to the Cuban economy. With the boom in the sugar industry in the 1920s a number of U. S. investors were attracted to the Cuban agricultural economy specifically as it relates to sugar production and export. During the period of greatest economic prosperity for the sugar industry a number of U. S. investors offered reasonable prices to Cuban plantation owners. Unwilling to resist these attractive rates, many planters quickly transferred their property to U. S. investors. Overtime U. S. investors controlled a significant portion of the country’s economy. Ibarra mentions the increasing importance of â€Å"U. S. investments in all sectors of the Cuban economy, agricultural exports, transportation, banking, utilities, and industry. † This economic control severely hindered the island’s economic development as, not only were local planters unable to compete with the U. S. investors, but the Cubans at the lower class found themselves to be benefiting very little from the growing sugar industry. When the price of sugar began to fall in the early 1930s because of international shifts in the demand and price of sugar, the country suffered even further. It is therefore not surprising that, with the growing economic downturn in the country, the population became increasingly disgruntled with the status quo. In their struggles for independence against Spain they had cried for a free Cuba ? Cuba Libre! What they got instead was a substitution. They were traded one imperialist power for a next. In the same way that Spain had exploited the country’s prospering sugar industry and reaped the profits without it filtering down to the masses that needed it the most, so the economic presence of the Americans in Cuba did nothing to improve the situation. The American policy of opening up the country’s economy to U. S. investors, and the later disgruntlement with the diminishing returns that were being filtered into the island from these investments contributed significantly to increasing calls for not only political but also economic and military independence.