Pan-Americanism

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Pan-Americanism is a movement which, through diplomatic, political, economic and social means, seeks to create, encourage and organize relationships, associations and cooperation between the states of the Americas in common interests.

Contents

[edit] History

The struggle for independence after 1810 by the Latin American nations evoked a sense of unity, especially in South America where, under Simón Bolívar in the north and José de San Martín in the south, there were cooperative efforts. Francisco Morazán briefly headed a Federal Republic of Central America. Early South American Pan-Americanists were also inspired by the American Revolutionary War, where a suppressed and colonized society struggled united and gained its independence. However, long before the U.S. could achieve its goal of a country made up of truly unified states, non-U.S. Pan-Americanists were planning to unite South America as one nation. In the United States, Henry Clay and Thomas Jefferson set forth the principles of Pan-Americanism in the early 1800s, and soon afterward the United States declared through the Monroe Doctrine a new policy with regard to interference by European nations in the affairs of the Americas. Initially welcomed as a source of protection from the encroachments of European powers, the doctrine later came to be seen by many Latin American intellectuals as a mask for U.S. imperialistic ambitions.

In the 19th century, Latin American military nationalism came to the fore. Venezuela and Ecuador withdrew (1830) from Gran Colombia; the Central American Federation collapsed (1838); Argentina and Brazil fought continually over Uruguay, and then all three combined in the War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70) to defeat Paraguay; and in the War of the Pacific (1879-83), Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia. However, during this same period Pan-Americanism existed in the form of a series of Inter-American Conferences—Panama (1826), Lima (1847), Santiago (1856), and Lima (1864). The main object of those meetings was to provide for a common defense. The first of the modern Pan-American Conferences was held in Washington, DC (1889-90), with all nations represented except the Dominican Republic. Treaties for arbitration of disputes and adjustment of tariffs were adopted, and the Commercial Bureau of the American Republics, which became the Pan-American Union, was established. Subsequent meetings were held in various Latin American cities.

[edit] Evolution of Pan-Americanism

The intended liberalization of commercial intercourse did not occur, but collaboration was extended to a series of areas, such as health (Pan-American Health Organization), geography and history (Pan-American Institute of Geography and History), child protection and children's rights (International American Institute for the Protection of Children), rights of the woman (Inter-American Commission of Women), indigenous policies (Inter-American Indigenist Institute), agriculture (Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences) collective continental defense (Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Attendance), economic aid (Inter-American Development Bank), human rights (Inter-American Court of Human Rights), infrastructure works (Pan-American Highway) and peacekeeping (Inter-American Peace Force).

The American states also adopted a series of diplomatic and political rules, which were not always respected or fulfilled, governing relations between the countries, like the following ones: arbitration of disputes, peaceful resolution of conflicts, military non-intervention, equality among the member states of each organism and in their mutual relations, decisions by means of resolutions approved by the majority, the recognition of diplomatic asylum, the Private International Law Code (Bustamente Code), the inter-American system of human rights (American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man; Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, along with its protocols and associate conventions; and the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States).

[edit] Congresses and conferences

[edit] Problems of Pan-Americanism

Pan-Americanism has been contradicted by the military interventions of the United States and the waging of hostilities of one American country onto another or with a foreign power.

In the first instance, the United States, primarily in the Caribbean and Central America, has intervened on the basis of its foreign policy interests, accentuated by the Roosevelt Corollary (1904) of the Monroe Doctrine that considers Latin America a zone of direct expansion and protection of US commercial interests. It lasted until the election (1933) of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who instituted the Good Neighbor policy. After 1945 and during the Cold War, the United States considers that the threat of the installation of communist or too–reformist regimes in America also necessitates intervention, albeit in a less direct manner.

[edit] Crises

[edit] Interventions

[edit] United States

The United States has made the following invasions and/or "interventions":

[edit] Foreign

[edit] France

[edit] Great Britain

[edit] Spain

  • Spanish-American War - 1898. The war began after the U.S. demand of Spain's peacefully resolving the Cuban fight for independence was rejected, though strong expansionist sentiment in the United States may also have motivated the government to target some of Spain's remaining overseas territories: Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam.

[edit] Coups d'état

Governments, particularly the United States government, have been accused of carrying false flag coups d'etat, in order to install friendly governments in foreign countries. Some coups that some believe may have been actively supported by the United States government include the following:

[edit] Conflicts in the Americas

[edit] See also