The Caribbean and Central America: The views of Alfred T. Mahan, Andrew Carnegie and Elihu Root

Abstract

The main axis of this proposal is to analyze the stances of milítary strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, of entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie and of the lawyer and politician Elihu Root regarding the United States' foreign policy towards the Caribbean in the dawn of XX century. The stance and opinion of these important men were the expression of the ruling Republican Party's conservative wing and of the nations's expansionist project implemented by the White House. Thus the relevance of studying the Caribbean and Central America through the speeches of these three men in light of the political processes taking place in the United States and in Caribbean land after the 1898 war.