Hierarchy in the Caribbean and Central America

Abstract

This chapter examines the international hierarchy created by the United States to govern the region and the politics of resistance within the Caribbean and Central America. It primarily focuses on the potential for opportunism and the rules imposed by the United States before considering the subsequent forms of resistance in the region. Though regional elites were powerful, they were not powerful enough to impose their policy preferences on the mass of society. Thus, the United States changed the politics and possibilities within its client states through indirect rule. However, the United States faced resistance from the mass public, mostly in the form of anti-Americanism.