How did U.S. Policy affect the development of Llatin America?Who? What? When? Where? And How?

U.S. foreign policy in Latin America can be summarized
from any high school textbook.  In the earliest part of the nineteenth century, as Latin
American nations asserted their independence from Spain, the United States insituted the
Monroe Doctrine.  This doctrine stated that the United States would seek to dissuade
European involvement in the Americas.

At the time, no one
could have conceived that the United States would swiftly grow during the nineteenth
century into an industrial and economic powerhouse. Before the Civil War, the U.S. had
already conquered or annexed land from Mexico and by 1880, the United States developed a
policy that sought to open up trade in Latin America (Lens and Zinn,
2003).

Later, Theodore Roosevelt expanded the Monroe
Doctrine with his Corrolary to the Monroe Doctrine which further asserted American
rights to intervene in Latin America.  The turn of the Twentieth Century therefore
witnessed both militaristic intervention and economic infiltration of Latin American
markets.  American corporations seeking sources of raw materials and new markets
eventually helped create a dependency economy in Latin America.  The U.S. regularly sent
troops to protect economic interests during this period leading no doubt to some
resentment which simmers to this day.