Reaction Paperon Overthrow by Stephen Kinzer - Essay Example

The second part involves overthrows that were because of covert actions. During this time, the world’s big countries were involved in a cold war. Kinzer argues that the reasons for the overthrows were mainly to assist anti-colonial elements in some of the affected countries, make changes in the democratic system, and to protect the U.S. security. However, the principal objectives of carrying out the overthrows were to establish U.S. business that acts as desired as stipulated. The U.S. also had in mind the ambition to expand and access needed resources necessary for the expansion.

The need to obtain new markets and strengthen the U.S. economy at the expense of its competitors also contributed to this. In part one of the Overthrow, the U.S. carried out the overthrows with the purpose of protecting its citizens and companies operating in these affected countries. For example, the Nicaraguan president was overthrown because he compromised the American security and did not promote democratic principles. The then president of the U.S. ordered the Nicaraguan president to be overthrown with the idea of defending the right of American companies to operate as they wished in Nicaragua.

The same case applied to Hawaii, the government was overthrown to help American companies get access to the sugar plantations. This was an opportunity to invest in those plantations for the benefit of the Americans. When the U.S. joined hands with the rebels in Cuba to fight the Spanish rule, they did not realize that the U.S. was doing this to help itself. Immediately after the government was overthrown, the U.S was given the right to maintain military bases in Cuba. The U.S. government gave Cubans permission to rule themselves as long it had to be consulted before Cuba made any decision.

During this Imperial period, the U.S. government also overthrew the Puerto Rico government. Puerto Rico was under the Spanish rule and the U.S. was not happy about this. Kinzer urges