West Latin America

Superior Essays
Interactions between the West, Latin America, and Asia
The first industrial societies of the world began in the West which consisted of North America and most of Western Europe. These societies needed abundant raw materials and new markets to fuel their industrialization. The West turned to the preindustrial societies of Latin America and Asia to fulfill this need. The West used their tools, technologies, financial influence, and transportation networks to acquire natural resources from Latin America and Asia. The greed of industrialization brought unique political and economic interactions between the West, Latin America and Asia that lead to dramatic changes in their economic infrastructure.
The West first set its eyes upon Asia to fuel
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The Roosevelt Corollary added a more aggressive element to the Monroe Doctrine. Theodore Roosevelt thought the United States should be essentially the ‘policeman’ tasked with maintaining order in Latin America. He believed that the United States should intervene in conflicts between European countries and Latin America to administer legitimate claims of the European powers, rather than having the Europeans implement their own claims . The US used the Roosevelt Corollary to intervene in the Dominican Republic to protect the United States’ interests and to repay the debts the Dominicans owed to European nations. William Howard Taft, the successor of Roosevelt, replaced Roosevelt’s policy with a more indirect and constructive Dollar Diplomacy in Latin America. Taft believed that the power of capital would change the Latin American nations to become more politically stable . Taft encouraged and supported American bankers and industrialists to invest Latin American industries. Whenever America’s financial interests were threatened, the US used this policy to justify intervention of the nation’s economy and/or government. The US carried out the Dollar Diplomacy in Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Haiti. In Nicaragua a civil war broke out and threatened America’s financial interests. The US inserted Marines in Nicaragua to restore order …show more content…
The West sought to fuel its industrialization through the trade of raw materials and foreign investments. The greed of industrialization blinded the West to the implications of its interference. The West left China unable to industrialize and carved its economy into spheres of influence. On the other hand, Japan embraced Western philosophy and grew into a major world player. In doing so, Japan lost some traditional identity in exchange for some Western character of industrialization. In Latin America, the West developed policies that insured investments at the expense of the political structure of the country. The West manipulated Latin American governments to secure and protect their financial interests. The interaction between the West, Asia, and Latin America altered the world’s view on economic collaboration between two

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