Pan-Americanism

For other uses, see Pan-American (disambiguation).

The Americas

Pan-Americanism is a movement that seeks to create, encourage, and organize relationships, an association (a Union), and cooperation among the states of the Americas, through diplomatic, political, economic, and social means.

History

Following the independence of the United States of America in 1776 and the independence of Haiti in 1804, the struggle for independence after 1810 by the nations of Hispanic America evoked a sense of unity, especially in South America, where, under Simón Bolívar in the north and José de San Martín in the south, there were co-operative efforts.[citation needed] Francisco Morazán briefly headed a Federal Republic of Central America.[citation needed] Early South American Pan-Americanists were also inspired by the American Revolutionary War, in which a suppressed and colonized society struggled, united, and gained independence.[1] In the United States, Henry Clay and Thomas Jefferson set forth the principles of Pan-Americanism in the early 19th century, and soon, the United States declared through the Monroe Doctrine a new policy concerning interference by Europe in the affairs of the Americas.[citation needed]

In the 19th century, South American military nationalism came to the fore.[citation needed] Venezuela and Ecuador withdrew in 1830 from Gran Colombia, the Central American Federation collapsed in 1838, Argentina and Brazil fought continually over Uruguay, all three combined in the Paraguayan War (1865–1870) to defeat Paraguay, and Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific (1879–1883).[citation needed] However, during that period, Pan-Americanism existed in the form of a series of Inter-American Conferences—Panama (1826), Lima (1847), Santiago (1856), and Lima (1864). The meetings' main objective was to provide for a common defense.[citation needed] The first modern Pan-American gathering was the or First International Conference of American States held in 1889-90 at Washington D.C., with the New York Evening Post first using the term in 1882 and creating traction for support of the term with its continuous usage, leading to other newspapers to use the term after the conference.[2] All countries invited joined the conference, except for the Dominican Republic because a treaty of arbitration and commercial reciprocity between the United States and the Dominican Republic in 1884 was never ratified by the United States, leading the Dominican to state they were not at liberty to enter a new discussion.[3] Treaties for arbitration of disputes and adjustment of tariffs were adopted, and the Commercial Bureau of the American Republics, which later became the Pan-American Union, was established.[citation needed] Subsequent meetings were held in various South American cities.[4]

In the 20th century, US President Franklin Roosevelt embraced a robust formulation of Pan-Americanism during World War II through the establishment of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.[5][6][7][8] Following his Good Neighbor Policy, Roosevelt endeavored to foster the development of peaceful commercial and cultural relations between the American Republics through the skillful use of cultural diplomacy.[9]

Evolution

Emblem that was already used in Pan-Americanism in 1909

The intended liberalization of commercial intercourse did not occur, but collaboration was extended to a series of areas, such as health (Pan-American Health Organization, established 1902), geography and history (Pan-American Institute of Geography and History, 1928), child protection and children's rights (International American Institute for the Protection of Children, 1927), rights of the woman (Inter-American Commission of Women, 1928), indigenous policies (Inter-American Indigenist Institute, 1940), agriculture (Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences), collective continental defense (Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, 1947), economic aid (Inter-American Development Bank, 1959), infrastructure works (Pan-American Highway) and peacekeeping (the Inter-American Peace Force after the invasion of the Dominican Republic, 1965), and human rights (Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 1979).

The American states also adopted a series of diplomatic and political rules, which were not always respected or fulfilled, governing relations between the countries like arbitration of disputes, peaceful resolution of conflicts, military non-intervention, equality among the member states of each organism, and in their mutual relations, decisions through resolutions approved by the majority, the recognition of diplomatic asylum, the Private International Law Code (Bustamante Code, 1928), the inter-American system of human rights (American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, 1948; Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 1959; and the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States).

Pan-Americanism and the Monroe Doctrine

Serving as a core principle of U.S. foreign policy in the 1800s, United States President James Monroe announced in 1823 the establishment of the Monroe Doctrine, which implied that any further imperial actions into the Western Hemisphere by European countries would be unilaterally opposed by the United States.[10] Subjugation under former imperial and colonial rule was a shared experience for most American nations, and this formed an important pillar of the Monroe Doctrine and consequently Pan-Americanism, where there was relatively unified opposition toward further inward imperial conquest by European nations.[10]

Although the Monroe Doctrine originally declared U.S. opposition to new European expansion in the Americas, the United States used its increased influence in the region to promote its own strategic interests. Throughout the 1800s, the Monroe Doctrine was invoked multiple times in the Americas, including during the annexation of Texas (1845), the Mexican-U.S. War (1845–1848), and the 1861 Spanish Invasion of Santo Domingo.[11] In almost all cases, U.S. influence increased in the region and the U.S. government's policy toward Latin America became more expansionist in nature.[12]

In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt added a "Corollary" to the Doctrine, which would later become known as the Roosevelt Corollary. Under this new interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, opposition to European expansion continued, but in the event of "bad behavior" on the part of Latin American countries, "is was [now] the obligation of the United States to intervene in order to prevent European action."[10]

Meanwhile, U.S. diplomats were also pursuing a contrasting policy of Pan-Americanism—a political movement that sought to promote the respect of national sovereignty, continental cooperation and further integration. These conflicting foreign policy objectives launched by the U.S. government created intense discourse among U.S. and Latin American leaders regarding hemispheric anti-interventionist policies and doctrines at future Pan-American Conferences.[10]

Despite the push by U.S. diplomats for further integrated and unified American continents, the U.S. government countered attempts by Latin Americans to enshrine the principles behind the Monroe Doctrine and Corollary in international law, instead favoring a form of American (United States) exceptionalism that allowed continued intervention by the United States in Latin American affairs to protect U.S. interests.[13] While many Latin American countries and intellectuals immediately criticized the Corollary and viewed U.S. foreign policy regarding national sovereignty as hypocritical, Washington continued to push back against any formal attempts by countries in Latin America to establish a standard interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine and its Corollary—that is, any attempt to "Pan-Americanize" the Monroe Doctrine and apply national sovereignty rights equally to all countries in the Americas.[13]

Economic Impacts

In 2019, 15.1 and 14.6 percent of all US imports were exchanged with Canada and Mexico, respectively.[14] A significant portion of these imports involved food products.[15] At 76%, the vast majority of all Canadian exports in 2021 were shipped South into the United States.[16] Of these exports, goods such as lumber, automotive and aircraft components, aluminum, wheat, and vegetable oils were among the top exported commodities.[17] Similarly, 76.4% of all Mexican exports, such as computers, cars, and crude petroleum, were destined for the United States.[18] In 2017, 12 and 10 percent of all US exports were exchanged with Canada and Mexico, respectively.[19]

Congresses and conferences

See also

References

  1. ^ Padilla, Ezequiel (1954). "The Meaning of Pan-Americanism". Foreign Affairs. 32 (2): 270–281. doi:10.2307/20031026. ISSN 0015-7120. JSTOR 20031026.
  2. ^ Lockey, Joseph Byrne (1970). Pan-Americanism: its beginnings. American Imperialism. New York: Arno Press. ISBN 978-0-405-02034-6.
  3. ^ Lockey, Joseph Byrne (1939). Essays in Pan-Americanism. Berkeley: University of California.
  4. ^ Gilderhus, Mark T. (1986). Pan-American Visions: Woodrow Wilson in the Western Hemisphere, 1913–1921. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-0936-0.
  5. ^ Dissonant Divas in Chicana Music: The Limits of La Onda Deborah R. Vargas. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2012 pp. 152–155 ISBN 978-0-8166-7316-2 OCIAA (Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs), FDR's Good Neighbor Policy, CBS, Viva America, La Cadena de las Americas on google.books.com.
  6. ^ Beyond the Black and White TV: Asian and Latin American Spectacle in Cold War America. Han, Benjamin M. Rutgers University Press, 2022 Pan-Americanism, La Cadena de las Americas, Edmund Chester, William S. Paley and the Carlos Manuel De Cespedes National Order of Merit on Google Books
  7. ^ In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting. Salley Bedell Smith. Random House Trade Publications, New York, USA, 2002, Chapter 18 ISBN 978-0-307-78671--5 William S. Paley and La Cadena de las Americas on Books.google.com See Chapter 18
  8. ^ Time – Radio: La Cadena, June 1, 1942 William S. Paley, La Cadena de las Americas on Content.time.com
  9. ^ Roosevelt, Franklin D., "Executive Order 8840 Establishing the Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs", July 30, 1941. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara
  10. ^ a b c d Rausch, Jane M (2018). "Santiago Pérez Triana (1858-1916) and the Pan-Americanization of the Monroe Doctrine". Historia y Sociedad. 35: 224–225 – via DOAJ.
  11. ^ Tucker, George (1885). Monroe Doctrine: Concise History of Its Origin and Growth. Boston: George B. Reed. pp. 116–118. ISBN 134039636X.
  12. ^ Scarfi, Juan (September 2020). "Denaturalizing the Monroe Doctrine: The Rise of Latin American Legal Anti-Imperialism in the Face of the Modern US and Hemispheric Redefinition of the Monroe Doctrine". Leiden Journal of International Law. 33 (3): 541–555. doi:10.1017/S092215652000031X. ProQuest 2431746834 – via ProQuest.
  13. ^ a b Grandin, Greg (February 2012). "The Liberal Traditions in the Americas: Rights, Sovereignty, and the Origins of Liberal Multilateralism". The American Historical Review. 117 (1): 84–85. doi:10.1086/ahr.117.1.68. JSTOR 23309883.
  14. ^ Sarah, Hansen (2022). "What Are the Top US Imports?". Investopedia.com. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  15. ^ "Food Products Exports By United States". worldbank.org. 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  16. ^ "Canada Exports By Country". oec.world. 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  17. ^ "Canada Country Economic Profile". oec.world. 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  18. ^ "Mexico Country Economic Profile". oec.world. 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  19. ^ Hansen, Sarah (2018). "What Are the Top U.S. Exports?". investopedia.com. Retrieved December 30, 2022.

Further reading