Nicaragua

Question 1

What had distracted the Spanish attention from the Caribbean in the sixteenth century?

Answer 1

sixteenth-century discovery of precious minerals in Mexico and Peru

Question 2

Francis Drake, Johns Hawkins, and Henry Morgan were what?

Answer 2

pirates

Question 3

Britain’s chief goal in the Caribbean was what?

Answer 3

economic

Question 4

Europe’s approach to Caribbean

Answer 4

“informal imperialism,” whereby Europe’s chief investor and trader avoided the expensive link of territorial control—with its potential military entanglements

Question 5

Monroe Doctrine

Answer 5

US’ first attempt to assert its authority

originally aimed at czarist Russia’s potential
encroachments on the American NW

the doctrine became better known for its challenge to Europe’s conservative Holy Alliance, apparently planning to help Spain reconquer its former colonies

Question 6

President James Monroe

Answer 6

firmly declared that “the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subject for colonization by any European powers”

America was for the Americans

Question 7

“European lake”

Answer 7

late nineteenth century, with the exception of Hispaniola (Haiti + DR), every single island was a European colony

Question 8

black legend

Answer 8

exaggerated accounts by British historian-publicists about Spanish atrocities in the Americas

Question 9

Dollar Diplomacy

Answer 9

US assumed responsibility for the debt payments—so long as Europe would keep its gunboats home

particularly during President William Howard Taft’s term— was a form of American foreign policy to further its aims in Latin America and East Asia through use of its economic power by guaranteeing loans made to foreign countries

Question 10

What effect did the Panama Canal have in regard to US influence?

Answer 10

strengthened US determination to convert the Caribbean into an “American Lake”

Question 11

Two reasons for American influence in Latin America

Answer 11

one impetus for continued military presence, and even military intervention, stemmed from the US “war on drugs”
another concern focused on illegal migration

Question 12

Central American economic developments in the Caribbean forged

Answer 12

plantation societies

exception to this: Costa Rica

Question 13

Principal crop in the Caribbean

Answer 13

sugar, sugar = king of the Caribbean

Question 14

two export products came to dominate economic life in Central America

Answer 14

coffee and bananas

Question 15

Coffee growing environment

Answer 15

grown in the cool highlands, along the mountain slopes, it did not necessarily require large-scale usurpation of land from lowland peasants

Question 16

Coffee development

Answer 16

also many coffee plantations were modest in size, and they were usually owned by Central Americans

foreign investors came to play an important part in coffee production in Nicaragua, and Germans acquired substantial amounts of coffee-growing land in Guatemala
but in general, coffee production remained in Central American hands

Question 17

labor for coffee cultivation

Answer 17

mostly Indian and mestizo peasants

colonos, who lived on the plantations and leased small plots of land for subsistence cultivation, and journelos, day laborers who worked for wages while living at home and retain control of small plots of land

Question 18

United Fruit Company (UFCO)

Answer 18

Boston Fruit Company + Tropical Trading and Transport Company

Lorenzo Baker

established a virtual monopoly on the production and distribution of bananas

owned International Railways of Central America

Question 19

great white fleet

Answer 19

la frutera possessed a large number of ships, widely known as the “great white fleet” and exerted enormous influence on marketing in the US

Question 20

coffee countries

Answer 20

Guatemala El Salvador and Nicaragua

Question 21

Jose Santos Zelaya

Answer 21

resisted foreign control in negotiations over a canal route

1909 Zelaya had ordered the execution of two North American adventurers

Question 22

Philander C. Knox

Answer 22

Secretary of State

denounced Zelaya as a “blot on the history of his country” and expelled Nicaragua’s ambassador from the US

subsequent US support for an anti-Zelaya revolt helped force the president to resign

Question 23

William Walker

Answer 23

small army that invaded Nicaragua in 1855

won a quick victory, named head of armed forces, and settled as the country’s authoritative ruler

Question 24

Aldolfo Diaz

Answer 24

Diaz comes into power after Zelaya

asked the US to send military aid to protract North American economic interests from the threat of civil war within Nicaragua and to “extend its protection to all the inhabitants of the republic”

Taft sent in marines

fiscal recovery program by NY banks

Nicaragua became a full-fledged protectorate of the US until 1933

Question 25

Juan Batista Sacasa

Answer 25

mid-20s election controversy over succession for Diaz US deposed Diaz and supervised elections as a result of this compromise, a Liberal named Juan Bautista Sacasa became president in 1932 and called for the withdrawal of US troops

Question 26

Augusto Cesar Sandino

Answer 26

patriot, a nationalist, and a social moderate andino had waged a guerrilla campaign against US intervention and Nicaraguan collaborationists as he gained widespread popular following, the US worried about presence of leftists among his supporters—and deployed US marines to join in the campaign against him "white flag" assassination National Guard thereafter became a dominant force in Nicaraguan politics

Question 27

General Anastacio ("Tacho") Somoza Garcia

Answer 27

head of the national guard a ruthless tyrant who had given the order to execute Sandino he was shot by an assassin and 1956 died ever grateful for Somoza's rapid anti-communism, US President Dwight D Eisenhower sent his personal surgeon to try to save the dictators life, to no avail

Question 28

Luis Somoza Debayle

Answer 28

came into power more moderate won rigged elections for president in 1957

Question 29

René Schick

Answer 29

a trusted family associate, René Schick, assumed office in 1963

Question 30

Anastasio Somoza Debayle

Answer 30

power then passed to the younger son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, a West Point graduate and, like his father, head of the National Guard self-seeking and corrupt, Somoza clamped an iron rule on the country, but eventually offended thoughtful Nicaraguans by his excesses massive profits from the reconstruction of Manugua after a devastating earthquake in 1972

Question 31

1960s

Answer 31

1960s a guerrilla movement emerged taking their name from Augusto César Sandino, divergent forces combined their efforts to form the Sandista National Liberation Front after years of bitter struggle, the Somoza regime suddenly collapsed in 1979

Question 32

Sandistas proclaimed to broad policy goals

Answer 32

one called for implementation of an independent and nonaligned foreign policy which meant no more submission to the United States the other envisioned the creation of a mixed economy in order to achieve balanced development and susu economic justice they also attacked such fundamental problems as a literacy, healthcare, and access to education their economic task was paradoxically eased by the magnitude of this Mozza family fortune, which included about 20% of the country's cultivable land this made it possible to nationalize these holdings and undertake agrarian reform without provoking diehard opposition from an entrenched landed aristocracy

Question 33

Cubans and Sandinistas

Answer 33

Sandistas welcomed approximately 2500 Cubans (the count was carefully monitored by the CIA and state department) -- doctors, nurses, school teachers, sanitary engineers -- to help raise basic living standards

Question 34

trade embargo

Answer 34

Reagan

Question 35

Daniel Ortega

Answer 35

Sandinista candidate for elections in 1990

Question 36

Violeta Barrios de Chamarro

Answer 36

at the head of the Opposition Coalition (UNO) the widow of a distinguished journalist who had been assassinated by somocista henchmen in 1978 Chamorro proclaimed an end to the fighting and, at her inauguration, announced in "unconditional amnesty" for political crimes and into the military draft  Chamarro's economic team managed to bring down inflation, but overall growth remained sluggish unemployment rose

Question 37

recontras and recompas

Answer 37

now known as recanters, former Contras engaged in occasional skirmishes with demobilized Sandistas, known as recompas, but the two sides accepted a peace agreement in April 1994 sporadic clashes nonetheless continued, as the national government proved to be unable to maintain law and order in the countryside

Question 38

constitutional reforms in February 1995

Answer 38

reduced the presidential term from 6 to 5 years placed a ban on immediate re-election in an effort to thwart long-standing traditions of nepotism prohibited the president from being succeeded by a close family relative

Question 39

Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo

Answer 39

barely meeting these conditions, the 1996 election went to Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo of the right wing Alianza Liberal Alleman took steps to advance the painful process of national reconciliation, reaching a final agreement with the recontras and coming to terms with Sandistas over property confiscated during the 1980s