Anti-Imperialism
This Peruvian political leader argued that Latin America must unite politically and economically to resist “Yankee imperialism.”
Who is Victor Haya de la Torre.
Haya de la Torre believed U.S. economic power was dominating Latin America. He proposed a continental movement called APRA (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) to unite Latin American workers and political movements against imperialism.
This U.S. Secretary of State defended American intervention by arguing that the United States simply wanted peace and stability in the hemisphere.
Who is Charles Evans Hughes.
Hughes claimed the U.S. did not seek conquest but rather wanted to maintain order and protect international law when instability threatened the region.
This Nicaraguan revolutionary led a guerrilla resistance movement against U.S. Marines in the late 1920s.
Who is Augusto César Sandino.
Sandino refused to accept a U.S.-mediated peace agreement and instead organized an armed resistance movement against American occupation forces.
Peter Smith argues that Latin American leaders developed multiple strategies to respond to U.S. imperial power.
What are political and diplomatic responses to imperialism.
Latin American leaders tried many approaches including diplomacy, economic reform, nationalism, and international law to resist U.S. influence.
Haya de la Torre argued that this foreign power had expanded its financial and economic influence throughout Latin America after World War I.
What is the United States.
He wrote that U.S. capital flowed into Latin American industries like mining, oil, and agriculture. For him, economic influence was a key form of imperial control.
Hughes argued that intervention could be justified in order to protect this group of people living abroad.
What are American citizens.
He claimed that when American lives or property were threatened, the United States had the right to act to protect them.
Journalist Carleton Beals traveled to Nicaragua to report on this anti-U.S. insurgency.
What is Sandino’s guerrilla movement.
Beals interviewed Sandino and wrote about the rebellion from a perspective sympathetic to the anti-imperialist struggle.
One response to U.S. power was the idea of uniting Latin America politically, inspired by this historical figure.
Who is Simón Bolívar.
Bolívar’s vision of a united Latin America became known as the Bolivarian dream, which later thinkers revived as a strategy to resist outside domination.
Haya de la Torre believed Latin American land and industry should be controlled by the region itself rather than by foreign investors.
What is nationalization.
One of APRA’s main goals was nationalization of land and industry, meaning that Latin American nations should control their own natural resources instead of foreign corporations.
Hughes insisted that the United States supported this principle for all American republics.
What is national sovereignty or independence.
Ironically, Hughes claimed that the U.S. respected sovereignty and independence for all nations, even while defending intervention in some circumstances.
Sandino argued that foreign troops had no right to intervene because Nicaragua was fighting for this.
What is national sovereignty or independence.
Sandino insisted that Nicaraguans were defending their own country and that foreign forces had no legitimate authority to interfere.
Another response to U.S. power was seeking alliances with these other global powers.
What are European nations.
Some Latin American leaders hoped that closer ties with Europe could balance the growing influence of the United States.
Haya de la Torre believed Latin American elites were often allied with this external force.
What is U.S. imperialism.
He argued that wealthy landowners and political elites in Latin America often cooperated with foreign capital, allowing U.S. influence to dominate their economies.
According to Hughes, intervention might occur when a country faced this type of internal situation.
What is political instability or inability to maintain order.
Hughes argued that if a government could not maintain order or protect citizens, outside action might be justified to restore stability.
Sandino famously argued that he would never accept this type of political reward from the government.
What is holding public office or political power.
Sandino said he was fighting for national independence rather than personal political gain. He claimed he would refuse government positions.
Smith argues that U.S. economic expansion often worked through this relationship with Latin American elites.
What is collaboration with local elites.
Local elites sometimes cooperated with foreign investors, helping facilitate U.S. economic penetration in the region.
Victor Haya de la Torre believed that the economic relationship between the United States and Latin America created this condition in which Latin American countries became economically dependent on foreign capital.
What is economic dependency or economic imperialism.
Haya de la Torre argued that U.S. investment in industries like oil, mining, and agriculture allowed foreign capital to dominate Latin American economies. Even though countries were politically independent, he believed their economies were controlled by outside powers, which created a form of economic imperialism.
In his defense of intervention, Charles Evans Hughes argued that the United States was not trying to dominate Latin America but rather acting according to this principle of international law that allowed states to protect their citizens abroad.
What is the protection of nationals or protection of citizens abroad.
Hughes argued that when American citizens or property were threatened in another country, the United States had the legal right to intervene. He framed intervention as a legal responsibility rather than imperial expansion, even though critics argued it often served American interests.
Sandino justified his rebellion against U.S. forces by arguing that Nicaragua was fighting not just for itself but for this broader principle shared by many Latin American nationalists.
What is national sovereignty or national independence.
Sandino claimed that foreign military occupation violated Nicaragua’s sovereignty. He believed that resisting U.S. intervention was part of a larger struggle for Latin American independence from foreign domination.
According to Peter Smith, one major strategy Latin American leaders considered for resisting U.S. dominance was forming alliances or strengthening connections with this region of the world.
What is Europe?
Some Latin American leaders hoped that stronger diplomatic or economic ties with European powers could help balance the growing influence of the United States in the Western Hemisphere.