Why did America intervene with Latin America?

Answer 1

They fought independence wars along several regions within Latin America. Not all of Latin America gained its independence at once. It took many years of fighting for each country to win their independence.

That being said, America only helped liberate Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spain (during the Spanish-American War). The remaining countries fought and won their independence wars on their own.

Answer 2

America intervened in Latin America primarily to protect American economic interests in the area. A number of American companies were already operating in the region by the early 20th century and with the United States having emerged victorious from a war with Spain in 1898, the idea of using the military to protect the nation's interests outside of its borders became more plausible. Also, American intervention was motivated by political fears of European Imperialism. Later intervention in the 20th century was motivated by Cold War desires to block the expansion of Communism at all costs.

Answer 3

It depends on which time you mean.

They first became involved under President Monroe, when the US stated that Europe should not try to meddle in New World affairs (especially in reestablishing old colonies that moved for independence) or the US would retaliate (they did say however that they wouldn't mess with current colonies). But since the US was a second rate power back then, nobody really took them seriously.

Since then, the US has been sporadically involved in Latin America. Notable examples are the Mexican-American war, in which the US waged war against the new nation of Mexico because they refused to sell land (in the end, the acquired almost 2/3 of Mexican land and more then doubled the size of their country. This land would eventually become California, Arizona, Utah,....)

Also, one could say they also became involved in Latin American affairs when they waged war against the Spanish and took control of some of their overseas colonies, although the only one technically in Latin America was Puerto Rico.

After that, and because it was obviously become a world power, the United States became more and more involved in LA affairs. For example, they conspired to get Panama to secede from Columbia in order to build the Panama Canal.

But US intervention in the area reached a climax during the Cold War, when the capitalist and communist countries were vying for control of the "Third World" as they called. This included South America, whose relatively unstable political climate led the US to constantly overthrow governments that were leaning towards the communist world. They even installed and then supported extremely oppressive regimes because, unlike the communist rebels, they were consistently capitalist. Also during that time was the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Answer 4

Cause the Latin American countries wanted independence and freedom