164 ChaPter 3
schools, went to Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and elsewhere to “advise” the
local governments on how to set up and run their economies—and their
advice was always to allow as many American companies in to their countries
as possible without barriers or requirements. With so much involvement, and
so much money flowing back to the U.S., it was not surprising that many
Latin Americans were not pleased with the arrangements, with many calling
America “the new Rome.”
When dollar diplomacy did not work as easily as intended, the U.S. was
more than willing to act like a traditional empire and use force, which it did
often in the Caribbean and Latin America. In 1915, Haiti was in turmoil, with
the government under attack from various rebels. Germany and France had
ownership shares in the Haitian National Bank, and this alarmed the president
who feared [as Americans had since the 1823 Monroe Doctrine] that Paris and/
or Berlin would come in and take control of a country near America’s area of
domination. So Wilson sent in the U.S. Marines, who put the Haitian
Customs House [where all international trade and finance exchanges took
place] under American receivership [like trusteeship, a form of control] and
then went after the rebels, killing over 2200 Haitians while losing 16 of their
own. At that same time, American troops and warships traveled to Nicaragua
to show support for a pro-U.S. government in Managua. With American
money and weapons, the government maintained power and U.S. Marines
kept a presence there from the early 1910s until the 1930s, keeping the oli-
garchy in power and eventually fighting against a rebel movement led by
Cesar Sandino, whom they captured and killed. During that time, U.S. invest-
ment, $4.5 million in 1914, nearly tripled to $13 million by 1930.
U.S. troops, sent to “preserve order” or “protect human rights,” were in fact
in these countries to safeguard the investments and property of U.S. business-
men there, to defend wealth. Closer to home, the U.S. played a major role in
a revolution in Mexico, where Wilson sent American troops to the port of
Veracruz to support a group fighting for power led by Venustiano Carranza,
whose main rival was guerrilla leader Ernesto “Pancho” Villa. One arms ped-
dler from Brownsville, Texas, working secretively, sent over $600,000 worth of
weapons to the Carrancistas. The U.S. support, along with preventing Villa
from obtaining arms, was vital to Carranza’s success and Wilson extended
official recognition to his government in October, 1915. Though the Mexican
Revolution would continue with many twists and turns, the U.S. had decided