Because history today has been so Europe-centered, many people look at the imperialistic tendencies of European super-powers, while ignoring many of the Imperialistic actions of the United States. From looking at the readings as well as Professor Holt’s lectures, I think it can be pretty clear to see the motives behind United States intervention on foreign soil as well as the consequences that followed.
Looking at professor Holt’s second lecture about the three case studies of Latin America, we can see the numerous occasions in which the United States got involved in foreign governments for various reasons, with the overarching theme being for the benefit of the nation. First, its interesting to see the the power/influence communism had in the United States. I think it can be inferred the the Red Scare caused a numerous amount of foreign policy actions around the World, especially in Latin America. Looking at Chile and Cuba, the United States imposed their domain upon the two countries though economic means. They used their resources and territory to fuel economy. It could be seen that once leader of these countries started to work against the benefit of the United States, the US started to intervene in more concrete ways. This can be seen through the US’s attempts to assassinate Castro and well as their promotion of a military coup in Chile.
These US interventions, along with their European counterparts, caused major implications and consequences for Latin American countries. This can been seen in Professor Holt’s lectures as well as the Upside Down reading. Latin America today is stereotyped and characterized as a region of political corruption along with bad living conditions and working conditions. The extreme class and race disparities have caused major tensions in Latin America. Wealth inequality has been the spark for social change and protests but many times authoritarian governments have shut those down with violence which has sparked interest on the world stage.
Overall, Latin America can be seen as a microcosm to many other developments in the world. Professor Holt looked mainly at Africa and I think there is is one large difference when it comes to the Imperialistic tendencies of major super power countries. This is in the sense that labor in latin America was imported whereas in Africa, the Labor was indigenous people.