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The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934
The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934 offers a sweeping panorama of America's tropical empire in the age spanned by the two Roosevelts and a detailed narrative of U.S. military intervention in the Caribbean and Mexico. In this new edition, Professor Langley provides an updated introduction, placing the scholarship in current historical context. From the perspective of the Americans involved, the empire carved out by the banana warriors was a domain of bickering Latin American politicians, warring tropical countries, and lawless societies that the American military had been dispatched to police and tutor. Beginning with the Cuban experience, Langley examines the motives and consequences of two military occupations and the impact of those interventions on a professedly antimilitaristic American government and on its colonial agents in the Caribbean, the American military. The result of the Cuban experience, Langley argues, was reinforcement of the view that the American people did not readily accept prolonged military occupation of Caribbean countries. In Nicaragua and Mexico, from 1909 to 1915, where economic and diplomatic pressures failed to bring the results desired in Washington, the American military became the political arbiters; in Hispaniola, bluejackets and marines took on the task of civilizing the tropics. In the late 1920s, with an imperial force largely of marines, the American military waged its last banana war in Nicaragua against a guerrilla leader named Augusto C. Sandino. Langley not only narrates the history of America's tropical empire, but fleshes out the personalities of this imperial era, including Leonard Wood and Fred Funston, U.S. Army, who left their mark on Cuba and Vera Cruz; William F. Fullam and William Banks Caperton, U.S. Navy, who carried out their missions imbued with old-school beliefs about their role as policemen in disorderly places; Smedley Butler and L.W.T. Waller, Sr., U.S.M.C., who left the most lasting imprint of A
265 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 1983
About the author
Lester D. Langley
23 books4 followersLester Danny Langley is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Georgia.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 13, 2017
Lester Langley's The Banana Wars showcases American military adventurism in the first third of the Twentieth Century, from the Spanish-American War through FDR's Good Neighbor Policy. Langley advances under the idea that, far from upholding purely commercial interests (as Smedley Butler and others accused), America's enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine represented a sincere, if monumentally misguided effort at making the Caribbean safe for democracy. Which doesn't mean that he skimps on the brutality and counter-productiveness of America's interventions abroad: the constant dispatch of troops in Cuba, the Veracruz expedition to Revolutionary Mexico, the savage occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the war against Sandino in Nicaragua. Whatever the ostensibly noble motives, Langley shows, all of these interventions devolved into bloodletting and oppression that belied America's high-blown rhetoric. In short, the Land of the Free becomes Just Another Empire.
March 26, 2018
I enjoyed this book. It is a well researched book on the US military interventions in Central America basically from the end of the War with Spain to the final pull out in Nicaragua in the early 1930s. It focuses on the military operations and rule. It also touches on the overall US presidents policies towards the Central American countries. The author does show that while there issues with the policies, that the US military really did make honest attempts to improve the conditions for the people to include fair and honest elections, and improve roads, health, and education.
February 23, 2019
Picked this book from a reading list for a History class. Didn't read the full title and though it would have something to do with the economics of bananas. This was not the case.
Overall, a great read. Looks at different occupations and interventions of the USA in Cuba, Mexico, DR, Haiti, and Nicaragua from the perspective of Marines, Navy, and US Presidents.
Overall, a great read. Looks at different occupations and interventions of the USA in Cuba, Mexico, DR, Haiti, and Nicaragua from the perspective of Marines, Navy, and US Presidents.
August 26, 2009
Detailed history of US intervention in Latin America during the early 1900s. Yes, we like to control everyone. Did not finish it, maybe someday...
September 6, 2013
Interesting read on the first US wars based on protecting American capital interests in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews