The conventional argument by scholars is that the relationship between the United States and Latin America was acrimonious in the late nineteenth century. Here, scholar Paul Parobek seeks to present an alternative view – that the relationship between the United States and Latin America in the nineteenth century was not acrimonious, but rather, was harmonious.
Elihu Root in 1902.
‘Pan-Americanism’ refers to the sense of solidarity between the United States and Latin America. It is often overlooked in the scholarship, however, there is a plethora of archival evidence that can attest to it as this scholar found during his research. Pan-Americanism became a policy of Secretary of State James G. Blaine (March to December 1881, and 1889-1892) sought to solidify American relations with Latin America by using trade.
Secretary of State from 1905-09 Elihu Root was aware of the growing distrust of the United States by certain segments of Latin American. This can be attributed to a sense of cultural superiority known as American Exceptionalism among certain segments of American society and Secretary of State Richard Olney’s reinterpretation of the Monroe Doctrine that made the United States fiat in the hemisphere. Secretary Root explains in a letter to Senator Tillman why Latin Americans were distrustful of the United States:
The South Americans now hate us, largely because they think we despise them and try to bully them. I really like them and intend to show it. I think their friendship is really important to the United States, and that the best way to secure it is by treating them like gentlemen (Jessup, 1938, p. 469).
A tour of Latin America
Secretary Root took a tour of Latin America that covered a large part of coastal South America (see footnote [1]) that was previously neglected by American policymakers but had numerous American corporations after carefully examined the situation in Latin America in 1906. The opening session of the Pan-American Conference started off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Secretary Root gave his interpretation of Pan-Americanism in a long speech where he pronounces the equality and solidarity of all the nations of the western hemisphere and international security while in Brazil:
No nation can live unto itself alone and continue to live. Each nation’s growth is a part of the development of the race…It is with nations as it is with individual men: intercourse, association, correction of egotism by the influence of other’s judgement, broadening of views by the experience and thought of equals, acceptance of the moral standards of a community the desire for whose good opinion lends a sanction to the rules of right conduct - these are conditions of growth in civilization… To promote this mutual interchange and assistance between the American Republics, engaged in the same great task, inspired by the same purpose, and professing the same principals, I understand to be the function of the American Conference now in session. There is not one of all our countries that cannot benefit the others; there is not one that cannot receive benefit from the others; there is not one that will not gain by the prosperity, the peace, the happiness of all… (Peter Myers, 1916, pp. 3-4).
Secretary Root used the Third Pan-American Conference to further rectify any misunderstandings the Latin Americans had towards the United States:
We wish for no victories but those of peace; for no territory except our own; for no sovereignty except the sovereignty over ourselves. We deem the independence and equal rights of the smallest and weakest member of the family of nations entitled to as much respect as those of the greatest empire, and we deem the observance of that respect the chief guaranty of the weak against the oppression of the strong. We neither claim nor desire any rights or privileges or powers that we do not freely concede to every American republic (Bacon and Scott, 1917, p. xv).
Significance
The trip was significant as it was meant to clear up any perceived misunderstandings and to restore relations between the United States and Latin America. Further, Bacon and Scott point out that the trip was “it was intended to be a matter of international importance” (Bacon and Scott, 1917, p. xiii). They further explain that the trip had two objectives:
And by personal contact, to learn the aims and views of our southern friends, and to show also, by personal intercourse, the kindly consideration and the sense of honorable obligation which the Government of the United States cherishes for its neighbors to the south without discriminating among them, and to make clear the destiny common to the peoples of the western world (Bacon and Scott, 1917, p. xiii).
Finally according to Bacon and Scott, the trip “was the first time that a Secretary of State had visited South America during the tenure of his office, and the visit was designed to show the importance which the United States attaches to the Pan American conferences…” (Bacon and Scott, 1917, p. xiii).
The election of President McKinley appeared to have affected Latin American perceptions of the United States as the solidarity was not one-sided. The Brazilian ambassador to the United States expressed his gratitude to Secretary Root for stating that “in nothing else since you came to your high post you have taken a more direct and personal interest. You seem to divine in the spirit that animates you with regard to our continent the mark that your name will leave in history” (Bacon and Scott, 1917, p. 4). Dr. Luis M. Drago of Argentina welcomed Secretary Root, stating in his opening speech that “…the traditional policy of the United States, without accentuating superiority or seeking preponderance, condemned the oppression of the nations of this part of the world and the control of their destinies by the great powers of Europe” (Bacon and Scott, 1917, p. 96). Similar sentiments were found throughout his tour of Latin America.
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[1]. According to Bacon and Scott, Root travelled to Sio Paulo and Santos in Brazil followed by Montevideo, Uruguay; Buenos Ayres, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; Lima and University of San Marcos, Peru; Panama; Cartagena, Columbia; and San Antonio, Nuevo Laredo, City of Mexico, Puebla, Orizaba, and Guadalajara all in Mexico Bacon, R. and Scott, J. B. (eds.) (1917) Latin America and the United States: Addresses by Elihu Root. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
