US Occupation of Nicaragua

Two US invasions of Nicaragua occurred. The same man called for both, but with very different outcomes. How did the US decide it was best to leave the country in the hands of the very people they had been there to fight? Out of this story would come a shift in power in Nicaragua and the rise of a Nicaraguan national hero.

Fig.1 - Map of Nicaragua 1925

Background: The Banana Wars

The US occupation of Nicaragua was a part of a loosely connected series of conflicts known as the "Banana Wars." With the end of the frontier, as recognized in Turner's Frontier Thesis, the United States controversially crossed the threshold of becoming an imperial power. From the time the US claimed former Spanish colonies at the end of the Spanish American War in 1898 to the establishment of the "Good Neighbor Policy" by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934, the United States was involved in various military interventions in Central and South America.

The United States' interest in the region was primarily about protecting the United States corporate investments in the region and securing shipping through the Panama Canal. The name "banana wars" comes from the influence of companies like United Fruit, who pushed for US military involvement to protect their interests from local rebellions.

US Occupation of Nicaragua: Taft

Seeking to lessen tensions in the region after the Banana Wars had begun, President William Howard Taft introduced a new policy called "Dollar Diplomacy." The concept behind Dollar Diplomacy was to influence former European colonial territories in Asia and the Americas through loans and investments instead of through direct violence. Stability was the primary goal of this policy, which sought to make these areas safe for American corporate operations while denying other major powers access to those countries' economies.

This policy remained in effect from Taft's inauguration in 1909 until his replacement by Woodrow Wilson in 1913. At the root of the policy was an alteration of The Roosevelt Corollary, which said that the US had the right to interfere militarily in Latin American affairs. While Taft sought to use dollars instead of bullets, he was not above bullets if those dollars failed, as Nicaragua shows.

Fig.2 - Adolfo Diaz

US Occupation of Nicaragua: Reasons

Since 1909, the United States had supported General Juan Estrada, a conservative who led a rebellion against the liberal government of Nicaragua. The political atmosphere of Nicaragua was volatile and violent, and his replacement, Adolfo Diaz, also gained US support against the liberal factions.

When a nationalist leader named Luis Mena was named President by the Nicaraguan National Assembly in 1910, the United States refused to recognize Mena, and Diaz asked for US intervention to retain control of the country. General Zelaydón oversaw the rebel forces in support of Mena.

Almost a decade and a half into the Banana Wars, the US occupation of Nicaragua began in 1912. US troops landed in Nicaragua in September and October of that year. After a series of battles across Nicaragua, Mena surrendered on September 27, and Zelaydón was killed in early October before the Marines captured the last rebel-held city, Leon, on October 6. After the election of Diaz as president, most Marines left except for a small detachment of one hundred men. Although few troops were in Nicaragua, the US retained control of the country's financial system.

Fig.3 - Juan Bautista Sacasa

US Occupation of Nicaragua: 1927

Domestic political violence again returned to Nicaragua in 1926 when a liberal faction rebelled, capturing territory in the spring and summer of that year. The last handful of US troops left in 1925, and the conservative government could not stop the rebellion. Juan Bautista Sacasa declared himself president of this territory against the government in the capital of Managua. The conservative government returned Diaz to power in November 1926 for the first time since 1917. Diaz again called for US intervention, resulting in a force of Marines entering the conflict. Shortly, the US was able to put together a deal for elections to be held in 1928, but resistance still existed from the guerrilla forces led by Augusto C. Sandino.

Effects of US Occupation of Nicaragua

The US interventions in Nicaragua had remarkably different effects. In 1912 the US was able to keep Diaz in power, which lasted for years. However, the free elections held at the end of the 1928 election put José María Moncada Tapia into the presidency, one of the liberal rebels the US had been there to oppose. He was replaced by another rebel, Juan Bautista Sacasa, in the 1932 Nicaraguan election. As strange as this sounds, it was all a part of the plan of US Secretary of State Henry Stimson, who worked with the liberal leaders, as the US wanted out of Nicaragua and ensuring an end to liberal rebellion could most easily be accomplished by giving them control of the country. The pressures of the Great Depression were a primary reason the US wanted to get out of a Nicaraguan distraction quickly.

Impact of US Occupation of Nicaragua

From the regime, Sacasa would emerge Anastasio Somoza Garcia. Somoza had become the head of the Nicaraguan National Guard thanks to the US Marines. From his military leadership position, he seized control of Nicaragua as a strongman in 1936, forced Sacasa to flee to the United States, and killed Sandino. Somoza's family would cling to power for 42 years before ironically being forced to flee to the US as Sacasa had done from a Sandinista National Liberation Front group named after Sandino, who Somoza had killed.