Ms. Sheets
University High School
WWII was not a critical event; LA only moderately involved (Brazil aided US steel industry) New definitions:
First World: capitalist industrialized nation
Second World: communist industrialized nation
Third World: developing nations, usually less
economically powerful
Latin America, despite regional variety, mostly fits the
Third World definition because of its slow industrialization and lingering reliance on Western markets.
Post-WWII: surge of radical socialist unrest
(Bolivia, Guatemala, Cuba)
1930s – 2000: Mexico controlled by
Party of Institutionalized Revolution
(PRI).
1994: Zapatistas emerged (guerilla movement) but were put down by the
PRI.
PRI becomes corrupt and repressive
1994: Mexico joined the North
American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA).
US; Canada; Mexico
Make North American trade competition for
European markets; strengthen North
American markets
2000: Vicente Fox (National Action
Party: PAN) won national election
Guatemala’s struggles: illiteracy; poor health; high mortality; land and wealth unfairly distributed; economy depends entirely on bananas and coffee
President Jacobo Árbenz (1945-1951) used programs that conflicted with American companies in Guatemala (esp. United Fruit
Company).
Decree 900: Guatemalan land reform act
(redistributed land to peasants; increased cultivation and moved Guatemalan economy to capitalism)
US CIA invaded Guatemala to overthrow
Árbenz and installed a pro-US government.
Construed Decree 900 as communist threat
New American-backed military government reversed land reform.
Cuba was dependent on American imports and the export of sugar.
US is leading trade partner with Cuba
Disparity between middle classes and lowest classes
1952-1959: Fulgencio Batista ruled Cuba as military dictator.
Little actual reform; opposition movements rise
Fidel Castro (young lawyer) and Ernesto “Che”
Guevara (militant Argentinian revolutionary) joined in Mexico to create a small military force to overthrow Batista.
Pledge real democracy, justice, freedom
1959: “26th of July Movement” drove Batista from
power while rebels take Havana
Support from students, labor organizations, and rural workers.
With Castro, Cuba now socialist state
Achievements of socialism are
accompanied with restrictions on freedoms.
Collective farms, confiscated property
1961: US and Cuba cut off relations with each other.
Castro aligns Cuba with USSR
A U.S.-sponsored intervention by Cuban exiles failed
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
USSR installed missiles in Cuba to taunt the
US.
Tension between US (Kennedy) and USSR
Cuba became increasingly dependent on the Soviet Union throughout the
Cold War.
After WWI, US is dominant power in West.
Private investments by U.S. companies and loans from the
government were the chief means of influence
The United States intervened periodically in Latin America to protect investments and contain communism.
More than 30 interventions before 1933
After interventions, US helped to create Banana Republics
Conservative governments (often corrupt dictatorships) that would be friendly to the US and US financial interests.
Called this because of dependence on export of tropical products
(Guatemala)
Foreign intervention created a growing nationalist reaction.
1937: FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy
Promised to deal more fairly with Latin America and stop
direct interventions; ignored during the Cold War.
1961: Alliance for Progress launched by US
Aimed to develop regions and eliminate radical political
solutions
1970s: US cedes Panama Canal to Panama
1990: Panama dictator overthrown by US
1989: US invasion of Panama ends Noriega dictator government Notorious for human rights violations; involvement in drug
trade
After 2000, US concerns with Latin America continued to focus on issues of commerce,