US Interventions

The above map demonstrates some of the overt US military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Depending on the period and place, the US intervened in these countries in favor of US territorial expansion, protection of American business interests, or prevention of Marxist governments. Sometimes, as is the case of Nicaragua, the US military's excuse was both American business interests and Marxist ideology, as Sandino strived to remove American businesses and implement agrarian reform. You will notice that a number of the earlier invasions occurred during a time when the United States was following the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that no other foreign power could assert dominance or influence in the "backyard" of the United States. This ideology led to the Spanish American War, which saw the invasion's of Cuba and Puerto Rico to rid Spain from the hemisphere.
In later cases, we see a shift toward the protection of American business interests, namely banana, coffee, sugar and lumber companies which owned vast stretches of land across the greater Caribbean. You will see that the mapped invasions form a loose circle around the Circum Caribbean, due in part to the American led production facilities for resource exportation along the coasts of Central America and the Caribbean islands. Protection of business interests was the reason for invading Honduras in 1911, in order to install President Bonilla who promised to favor the interests of United Fruit Company.
The rationale behind the invasion of Panama is an interesting case. Following the doctrine of manifest destiny, the US had won the west and expanded into Hawaii and the Philippines, and there was a push to form a route though the Americas to link the pacific. After failed attempts to finance a canal that would cross Nicaragua, the US was determined to bring the Pacific and Atlantic oceans together in Panama, leading to the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914. Its success was celebrated at the 2015 Golden Gate Exposition, which was designed to show the world that the US had fulfilled its destiny as a major world power.

Mission accomplished