CHAPTER 10
	Building the Military Forces of a World Power, 1899-1917
	Great White Fleet on its globe girdling cruise during 1907-1909. TR sent the fleet to test US the range and readiness of warships and to impress other powers, notably Japan. After returning to the US the ships were painted a more business-like battleship gray. Magazine and Bunker temperature alarms from USS Olympia, Commodore Dewey's flagship at Manial Bay, 1898. The ship is now moored on Delaware River in Philadelphia.
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	10.c.2 Dependency Relationships Scroll down for xword solutions
	[c.2]		DEPENDENCY RELATIONSHIPS
	US intervention led to dependencies		Dependency theory stands as the most provocative way to view US-Central American relations. In short, dependency is a relationship in which the economies of Latin America became dependent--or subordinate--to US financial and economic interests. Historically, a dependency relationship was one in which a US corporation(s) forced the cultivation of one or two "cash" crops, such as sugar, coffee, or bananas, or reduced a particular Central American economy to the mining of one type of ore. By robbing the Central American republics of economic diversity, they became dependent on global markets. Dependency cripples the host country: Children are malnourished because too much land is occupied by cash crops. Prices of cash crop exports are dependent on international prices. They must be sold on the global market because their is no demand for massive amounts of sugar, coffee, and bananas on the domestic market. People are divested of land while wealthy elites, in collusion with the foreign companies, reap windfall profits.
	A closer look		When these conditions become intolerable, liberation doctrines such as Marxism become attractive. For this reason, revolution has been a part of Central American life for years, especially since the 1970's. The following list shows the effects of dependency among the 5 Central American republics as seen in the 1980's.
			Guatemala--per capita income is $81 a year, and the Indians of this region are among the poorest and most isolated in the western hemisphere. When they formed revolutionary bands, the 20,000 man, US backed army made them the targets of rape, torture, and execution. Honduras--The original "Banana Republic," Honduras is the most underdeveloped country in the western hemisphere next to Haiti. The dire poverty has been caused by foreign exploitation, internal corruption, and exhausted mountainous soil. A Honduran legislator once dropped a crumpled sheet of paper on his desk and said, "That is an outline map of Honduras." El Salvador--For decades, 14 families (2% of population) controlled nearly all the fertile soil and 60% of the land. Erosion is ruining the land. Between 1980-81, the El Salvadorian army, backed by the US, murdered 30,000 people. That the proportional equivalent of 2 million Americans. Nicaragua--The backed Somoza family ruled this country from 1934-79 and expropriated a land area equal to Massachusetts. Nicaragua is only the size of North Carolina. The 200,000 peasants who didn't own land were died regularly from parasitic diseases and malnutrition. The Sandanistas (communists) overthrew Somoza in 1979, making Nicaragua a target for US military intervention until the 1990's when the Sandanistas were voted out of power. Costa Rica--Dependent on coffee, banana, and sugar exports, Costa Rica is the only Central American state with an illiteracy rate lower than 44%. Land is distributed well, but declines in coffee prices threaten the stability of this more peaceful Central American republic.
	How a dependency operates
	Are there dependencies today?		Writers such as Noam Chomsky say dependencies--or neocolonialism--exist today and that this is all part of the industrialized nations' globalization schemes. David S. Landes also says yes, there is exploitation, but that it has not necessarily been caused by Western aggrandizement. In particular, Africa teeters on catastrophe due to difficult climate, the cultural inhibition against birth control, and political corruption. For example, Indonesia (oil exporter) earned less per capita income than Nigeria (oil exporter) in 1965. By 1990, Indonesia was three-times higher (Wealth and Poverty of Nations, 499).
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