Seminar: US interventions
In this seminar, we will examine the increasing influence and presence of the USA in the Caribbean in the first few decades after the 1898 Spanish-American War by focusing on specific societies - Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Seminar questions
- Why was the Caribbean region of concern to the USA?
- What methods did the USA employ to maintain its hegemony in the Caribbean between 1898 and 1945?
- What were the immediate and longer-term consequences of US intervention in the Caribbean? Discuss with reference to at least two different Caribbean societies?
Required reading
Everyone should read the following:
In addition, everyone should read one of the following (about the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Haiti respectively):
Gott, Richard, Cuba: A New History (New Haven, 2004), chapter 4.
Further reading
See lecture on 'America's backyard'.
Relevant web-site
Almanac of Theodore Roosevelt, http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/. See especially the cartoons relating to Caribbean policy.