cou ldsemitro o ps totakecontrolofC ub aan ytime it
believed thatAm ericanmrcrcsts we reindange r - in
or hcrwords.wheneverit wan ted.
Itdidso m anytim es.In19()(j,forexample.Pr esident
Theodore Rooseveltsetup;mAmericanmiliear v
governmentinCuba(QStopa revolution .Thisran
thecou nrrv'saffairsunrill909.In 1912, 1917an d
192 1 A mericanm ar ineswere againsent tostop
revolutions inCuba.Formanyyear stheco unt ry
continuedtobelittlemoreth ana pro tectorateofthe
UnitedScares.
DollarDiplomacy
In economicandbusinessaffairsth e UnitedStates
has lo ngbeen stro n g lyinremario n alisr. American
foreignpolicy hasoftentr iedto provide business-
menw ith freshopportunities.In the earlyyears
o f the twentieth century, for example. thein-
dustrial nationsofEuropeweredi vidin gthetrade
o f C h inabetweenthem. T o ensureth at Americans
also profitedfromthisrichn ewm arkettheU nited
States'governmentworkedto ensurefreedomof
trade in China by persuad ing othe rnatio ns to
acceptapolicycalled the"OpenDoo r. "Thecloserelatio nshipbetweenAmerican foreign
po licyandAm erican businessInte restshas shown
itselfinotherw ays.Politicalleadershaveso m e-
tim es encouragedAmerican businessesto invest
abroad as a \vay ofstrengthen ing the poli tical
positio noftheUnitedStates. T hishappened in
th e early 1900s, whenPresid entTaft favored a
policyknownas "DollarD iploI1 13 CY. "T his en-
couragedA mericans to inves t in areasthatw ere
strateg icallyimportanttoth eUnitedStates, su ch
asLatin America.
American firmswhichhave establishedthemselves
inother count ries hav e oftell received amixed
welcome.T heir criticsaccusethem of using their
econ omi c powertoinfluen ceforeigngovern me nts
to follow policies that serve the political an d
econom icinteres tsoftheU ni tedStates rath er than
thoseofthecount ryin whichtheyart'working,
Hut foreig n lead ers often welcome A merican
investment.Theyseesuchin vest m ent as aw ;l'yo f
obtainingnewjobsandm owtechn o log y. and so of
improvi ng theircountries'livingstandards.20 ANA),H.~I(;i\NE.\olPIRE"ItookPanama"
In the early t 900sthe American govern me n t
w an ted to build a canalacross the Isthmus of
Panam a.T heisthmusis the neckofland thatjoins
N o rt h and South America and separates the
CaribbeanSea from thePacificOcean.Building a
canal acrossit wou ld mean thatAm erican ships
could t ravel quick ly betweenthecast and west
coastso f theUnited Sta tes instead ofhaving [0
makea lon g seajourney arou ndSouth America.
T h emainproblemwasth attheUnitedState sd id
notownth e isthmus; aLatinAm er icanco unt ry
calledC o lo m bia did. In 1 903 , w henth e Co lo m bian
government was slow to g ive the Americans
permissionto buildth e canal.P re sid entT heo do re
Roo seveltsent warsh ipstoPan am a.The warships
helped a sm allg ro u pofPanaman ian bus in essm en
torebel again sttheColombi angovernment.
T he rebel s d eclared rhar Pan am a was now an
indepen de nt state. Afewdayslaterth ey gaveth e
Americans control over a ten-and-a-half- m ile-
wid estripofland called the CanalZoneacross
their new country. T h e way wasclear for th e
Americanstobuild their cana l.They began dig-
gingin 1904 and thefirst shipssteame dthrough
th ecompletedcanal in 1914.
Most LatinAmericans th ou g htth atthe Panam a
rebellionhadbeen o rganizedbyRoosevelt.They
thou gh t soevenm or ewhenheopenlyboas ted:" I
to ok Pan am a. "87