need help with Latin American History

[Curtis24]

My friend has a test coming up, here are some of the essay questions on it. Any history buffs who would indulge me? the more detailed, the better. Thanks!


1) Take the position that Cuban revolution was inevitable. Why was it?

2) What were the chief accomplishments, and failures, of Castro's regime. In what respects, if any, can Castro claim his revolution fulfilled the legacy of jose marti(I guess you can argue it either did or didn't).

3) How did Peron's policies represent populist traditions, and what were their limitations?

4) Why was Guatemala's revolution more vulnerable to overthrow?

5) Compare and contrast the role of foreign influence in Porfirian Mexico, pre-Aravelo Guatemala, and pre-Castro Cuba. How did foreign influence lead to revolutions in each place?

[outmywindow]

Yep, this is definitely what INTPc is for: helping "your friend" with his history test.

Play a record, Karl.

[Curtis24]

No, it really is a friend :p considering I'm blatantly asking for help, why would I pretend it was my friend thinking it would make a difference?

[Peguy]

Sure I can help you on some of these questions. Give me a minute.

[Madrigal]

I'd like to read the answers to these questions.

edit: If your friend really didn't know how to answer these questions, I'm assuming he slacked off for a whole year. They are not exactly simple.

[Curtis24]

I ended up throwing some shit essays together based on Wikipedia. Madrigal, here they are, in case you want to critique or just read them out of interest:

Causes of the Cuban Revolution

There is great debate amongst historians over whether or not the Cuban Revolution could have been stopped by the United States. This essay will take the position that the revolution could not have been stopped; that, by the time Castro and his army revolted, the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba had deteriorated so much that there was nothing the U.S. could have done to stop a Communist takeover. Following the Spanish American War, the U.S. ruled Cuba as an imperial possession. Politically, the U.S. passed the Platt Amendment, giving America legal authority to intervene in Cuban affairs. The U.S. also at times supported dictators such as Marchado or Batista. Economically, U.S. companies monopolized Cuban industries and created a mercanilist economy focused on the export of sugar. It was this exploitation of Cuba politically and economically by America that caused the Cuban Revolution.

To first understand why and how the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba led to the communist takeover in Cuba, one must first understand why the U.S. was compelled to dominate Cuba. Cuba is geographically strategic to the national security, and economy, of the United States. Because of its close distance to the U.S. mainland, its natural harbors, and its crops able to sustain armies, Cuba has always been a possible station for launching an invasion against the U.S. Furthermore, whatever power control Cuba also has great naval control of the Caribbean - including control of the West Indies trade. Finally, the U.S. wanted control of Cuba's sugarcane fields. Thus, control of Cuba has always been a goal of the U.S.

The U.S. sought to achieve this control through the Platt Amendment. After the Spanish-American War, in which the U.S. military occupied Cuba, America promised the Cubans it would leave and give them their independence. However, before doing so, the U.S. Congress passed something called the Platt Amendment. The Platt Amendment was a law designed to give America control of Cuba. Amongst its provisions were: the U.S. could militarily intervene in Cuba to protect its own interests; Cuba was not allowed to negotiate with foreign powers without the U.S.' permission; and the U.S. could keep a military base at Guantanamo. Furthermore, Cuba had to ratify the Platt Amendment before it gained independence. This effectively made the U.S. ruler of Cuba, even though Cuba would technically gain its own government.

Besides the Platt Amendment, the United States also supported Cuban dictators who looked after U.S. interests. In 1925, an elected leader named Machado decided to extend his term past constitutional limits. The United States did not stop him, despite the fact that technically, according to the Platt Amendment, the U.S. had a duty to protect Cuban democracy. Later, the U.S. provided economic and intelligence support to Batista, a dictator who

Besides dominating Cuba politically and militarily, the U.S. also controlled the country economically. U.S. corporations dominated in huge percentages(usually upwards of 60 %) in most Cuban industries. These included electric services, public services, sugar industry, and silver ore industry. And just like old mercantilist economies, the U.S. shaped Cuba's economy to fit the needs of America, not Cuba. One example of this is that the U.S. industries focused on creeating a large output of sugar to the detriment of other services, since Cuban sugar was in high demand in America and around the world.

Finally, by exploiting Cuba economically, the U.S. caused Cuba to develop social and economic inequality. There was a huge gap in living standards between the Cuban rich and the Cuban poor. The rich owned most of the land. The poor, on the other hand, had to deal with illiteracy, poor sanitation, disease, and rampant crime.

In conclusion, the U.S. could not have stopped the Cuban revolution because it was a response to almost 60 years of imperialism on the part of the U.S. This imperialism was both political and economic. Politically, the U.S. dominated Cuba by using the Platt Amendment, giving the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuban affairs, and by supporting Cuban dictators, specifically Batista. Economically, the U.S. corporations monopolized Cuban industries and created a mercantilist economy centered on sugar.



Essay #3 Group Two

For much of the 20th century, the relationship between the United States and Latin America has defined Latin American politics. We see this in the number of revolutionary movements in Latin America that were primarily caused by U.S. influence. To show this, I study three examples: U.S. influence in Cuba, Mexico, and Guatemala, and how this influence caused three different revolutions in each respective country.

Cuba may be the most drastic example of the United States shaping a Latin American revolutionary movement. Because of its strategic position close to the U.S., the United States felt that domination of Cuba was crucial to its own interests. During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. militarily occupied Cuba. Before leaving, the U.S. passed a law called the Platt Amendment, which allowed the U.S. to militarily and politically intervene in Cuban affairs. U.S. companies monopolized Cuban industries, especially silver ore and sugar, and created a mercantilist economy that was meant to provide U.S. and world markets with sugar. The result of this was an upper class that was made fabulously rich by cooperating with the U.S., while most Cubans remained poor. Towards the end of U.S. rule over Cuba, the U.S. supported a dictator, Batista, who massacred thousands of political dissidents and suspended constitional rights.

The result, of course, was the Cuban Communist Revolution. As a result of U.S. policy, Castro and his compatriots not only revolted against the U.S., but against capitalism as well, due to the American economic exploitation of Cuba. The communistic, anti-American nature of the Cuban revolution was a direct result of both U.S. political domination as well as economic domination of Cuba.

The second example is Mexico. During the second half of the 19th century, the U.S. did business with a Mexican dictator who ruled Mexico for 30 years. This man's name was Porfirio Diaz, and the U.S. cooperated with him because he allowed massive U.S. business investment in Mexico. To maintain power, however, Diaz employed some tactics that would later backfire. Some of these tactics were manipulation of votes as well political assasination and violence towards political dissidents. Diaz created a "terror squad" of Mexican cowboys to keep the Mexican masses in line. Diaz was also known for playing different ethnic/political/economic groups against each.

Diaz' reign led to the Mexican Revolution. The Mexican Revolution began as an uprising on the part of the lower classes against the upper classes, but it soon degenerated into a civil war that was fought between different segments of Mexican society. This degeneration was due to the way that Diaz ran things. First, the society that Diaz created was very fragile, kept alive through a combination of repression and playing different sectors of society against each other. Second, Diaz created a huge amount of wealth in the hands of a small amount of people.

So, at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution, Mexicans united against the Porfirian reign and the wealthy people who supported it. However, after time, Mexicans began fighting against each other instead of the "elite". This was due to ethnic and socio-economic differences. As mentioned, Diaz had maintained power by playing different groups against each other. During the Revolution, these groups vented their grudges agaisnt each other. One example would be the southern Indians against mestizos, or the northern "rancheros" against other Mexicans.

The third example is Guatemala. For much of its early 20th century history, Guatemala was dominated by the United Fruit Company. United Fruit owned vast acreage within Guatemala, and also bought many of the public services in Guatemala such as electric utilities and roads. United Fruit ran these services to benefit themselves, which often resulted in the peasants of Guatemala getting a short shrit. One example would be United Fruit opposing building highways because it would decrease profits of United Fruit's railroad monopoly. United Fruit was able to control the Guatemalan government through funding political candidates as well as its investments in Guatemala.

It was the United Fruit Company's huge influence in Guatemala that would shape Guatemala's own short-lived revolution. A Guatemalan soldier, Arbenz, came to power and began initiating a land reform that would seize most of United Fruit's land away from it, and redistribute it to the peasants. This was unacceptable to both United Fruit and the U.S. government. President Eisenhower sent an envoy to collude with the army and ruling class of Guatemala to put an end to this.

In conclusion, we've seen how U.S. foreign policy created revolutions in three different Latin American countries. In Cuba, U.S. political and economic domination created a communistic, anti-U.S. revolutionary movement. In Mexico, U.S support of a dictator who allowed U.S. business investments created a fractured, unequal society that degenerated into first revolution and then civil war. In Guatemala, the policies of the United Fruit Company led to land reform.