Renetta Trotman
December 10, 2010
History Internal Assessment
Section A: Plan of the Investigation
The question being proposed is; was U.S intervention effective at promoting political stability in Nicaragua during the time period of 1909-1933? This topic is being investigated in order to verify whether U.S intervention in Latin American countries as unstable as Nicaragua during the 1900s was necessary and did the intervention make improvements or provide substantial results. This question will be answered by a brief summary of the evidence in section B of this paper, an evaluation of the sources in section C, an analysis in section D and place in historical context, followed by a conclusion in Section E and then finally section F will consist of the sources used to gather the evidence presented.
Section B: Summary of Evidence
The fall of the Zelaya administration in 1909 and the sudden violent uprising between the liberal political party and the conservatives convinced the U.S to intervene in Nicaragua by using military force to protect U.S interests by squelching political chaos. Source one by Tim Merrill is the only source that addresses the idea that during this interventionist period the United States, under the Chamorro-Bryan Treaty of 1916, transformed Nicaragua into a near U.S protectorate[1]. This allowed direct U.S involvement in political aspects of Nicaragua such as national elections which were supervised by the U.S. In addition, U.S authorities meditated a peace agreement known as the Pact of Espino Negro of 1927 between the two political parties under terms of disarmament of both sides and the development of a nonpartisan military force (Nicaraguan National Guard) to control internal violence supervised by the U.S[2].
Source two Thomas E. Skidmore states that the political power of Nicaragua resided not in the electoral system but instead in the National Guard created by the U.S; which deeply influenced Nicaragua’s development as a...