The Banana Wars
Originally, I wanted to create a list of the thirty most important wars in history with a breif explanation for why they earned that title. However, it soon occurred to me that everyone has heard of such conflicts as World War One and Two and the Russian Civil War and so forth, so I then decided to complete a list of the least important wars in history, as there would likely be many on the list that few people have heard of. However, I finally decided to just stick with the “Banana Wars,” as how many people actually know about those? It has been about a week, now, since my last history post, so just bear with me and while I set things up.
Essentially, the Banana Wars (1898-1934) were a series of conflicts and military interventions that always involved the United States of America and some region, nation or province in Central and/or South America. First, allow me to conduct some contextualization. The United States was fighting the War of 1898 when they endeavored upon the Banana Wars (the War of 1898 is also more commonly known as the Spanish-American War; however, most historians prefer the more technical term of the War of 1898 because other nations besides just the U.S. and Spain fought in the conflict).
To state it plainly, the United States had mainly only economic interests that prompted them to join the War of 1898. They did acknowledge that the Spanish, in Cuba, were literally sending civilians to death camps and so forth, but this acknowledgement was more as a way to inspire civilians to support the conflict.
In reality, the greatest reason that the U.S. wanted to go to war with Spain was because Spain held a lot of territories in the Pacific and the Southern Atlantic. More specifically, territories that were beneficial to U.S. trading interests. The United States would ultimately win the War of 1898, and after 1901, with the signing of the Platt Amendment, would pull most of their military out of Cuba. Though the U.S. did not own Cuba, the Teller Amendment basically affirmed that Cuba could not do anything without the consent of the United States.
However, the U.S. did gain a lot of other territories. These included Guam, Puerto Rico, and even the Philippines. (Interesting fact: when Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines in 1521, he named the isles after King Philip II of Spain). The United States would attempt to annex the Philippines in 1898, and that would spark the first of the Banana Wars, a rather bloody conflict that would last until 1902 and would kill more American soldiers and South Pacific civilians alike than had died in the War of 1898. The United States, of course, was easily the villain in this conflict, as the nation did commit a large number of horrific atrocities against the Philippine civilians.
In its essence, the Banana Wars were a wave of new U.S. interventions and annexations in Central and South America, and most of these are highly controversial or classified as minor genocides, more or less. In fact, one of the most famous U.S. interventions that ever occurred happened during these conflicts: the intervention of Panama.
Though the U.S. had interests in constructing a canal through present-day Panama since as far back as the 1880s, it was never really endeavored until President Teddy Roosevelt struck a deal with the French, who had interests in that area of South America. The French, who had failed to build a similar canal, promised not to oppose the U.S. during their intervention. Back then, Panama did not exist, instead, what is Panama today was part of Colombia. In order to construct the canal, the United States first had to shrink Colombia. Roosevelt used U.S. troops to help the local Panama civilians to pressure the Colombians into giving up their land (1903). Once an independent Panama was established, Roosevelt used the U.S. navy to pressure the government he had previously helped into allowing them to construct the Panama Canal.
The super-costly project (both in money and in human lives) concluded in 1914. Do understand, it was a very impressive project and one that has greatly benefited society, but it was still one gained through many immoral actions and policies.
I think that you are starting to get the idea: the Banana Wars were a very controversial set of conflicts that the U.S. endeavored. But before I wrap up this post, I would simply like to list a few of the other places and nations that the U.S. intervened in: the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Haiti, Honduras, and several others.
The Banana Wars would conclude in 1934, with the implementation of the “Good Neighbor Policy” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Once again, this set of conflicts is a highly controversial subject, even today (to the point where I am even a little bit weary of writing a post on it). But it is an important timeperiod nonetheless. I find that, as great a nation as the United States is, it is only fair to acknowledge that there were also instances where America was the villain.
Thank you for making it to the end of this post. If you have any recommendations for other history posts, please, request them in the comments (please do not hold back: I am running out of ideas). Also, if there is anything more you would like to add onto this topic, please add those to the comments as well.