At The End Of The 19th Century And The Beginning Of The 20th Century, The Two Venezuelan Crises And The Game Of Great Powers

At the late 19th and early 20th centuries,The Venezuela-Guiana Boundary Crisis and Venezuelan Debt Crisis burst during the great transformation of American diplomacy and brought her challenges and opportunities.By observing them as an organic continuum,this doctoral thesis examines the impacts on the Monroe Doctrine and US-Anglo-German relations by the two crises,the game of the three Great Powers,and the pacific characteristic of American diplomacy.Besides introduction and conclusion,this thesis is divided into five chapters.The first one presents the historical background of the two crises.The 19th century was an era for Venezuela to build a foundation as a new country and build its order and democracy with the personalization of political action,along with the reemergence of regional identities as her persistent features after her independence.This process internally meant frequent regime changes,constant turmoil,and slow economic development,and externally made it possible for the expansion of the US and European Great Powers and for the emergence of many disputes with them.The second chapter examines the Venezuela-Guiana Boundary Crisis and the Anglo-US rival.As the"legacy"of European colonialism in Latin America,this pending boundary dispute turned into an Anglo-US diplomatic crisis with the strong intervention of the latter.Through their head-head confrontation,the Monroe Doctrine was officially recognized by Britain.A vigorous Anglo-US peace movement and the compromise and concession between the two Governments contributed to the signing of the Arbitration Treaty and the submitting of the dispute to international arbitration at Paris.The third chapter is saved for the Venezuelan Debt Crisis and the game among the US,Britain and Germany.The differences of their interests and geopolitical goals combined with the political and economic problems of Venezuela transformed the debt dispute between Venezuela and the European Powers into a contest between the US on the one hand and Germany and Britain on the other.Because of the US intervention and influence of the Anglo-US anti-German public opinion,the dispute was submitted to the Permanent Court of Arbitration.The crisis consolidated US hegemony in the Americas and foreshadowed the US-Anglo-German relations in the first half of the 20th century.The fourth chapter explores the new annotations of the Monroe Doctrine in and after the crises.New internal and external circumstances called for adaptions of the Doctrine to a new age.The Olney Doctrine,Cleveland Doctrine and Roosevelt Corollary were bred during or after the crises.The Monroe Doctrine earned its recognition or acquiescence by the European Powers and was extended further,as a result of which,"no European intervention"became US interventionism which would exert great impacts on US-Latin American relations and transatlantic relations.The fifth chapter studies the impacts of the two crises on the US-Anglo-German relations.The changes of the relations among the three Great Powers at the turn of the century reflects the changes in their strength and foreign policies accordingly.The US and Britain formed a new model of compromise,cooperation and peaceful settlement of disputes through the settlement of the crises and other contradictions,which laid the foundation for their friendship in the coming century.Meanwhile,Germany replaced Britain and became"the natural foe"in American mind after the Debt Crisis.Therefore,the crises became the watershed of the development of US-Anglo-German relations.Based on the above,the following points are put forward.First,the two crises and the game among the US,Britain and Germany revealed the collisions of their interests and different geopolitical goals.Second,they helped to establish and secure the US hegemony in the Americas.Third,the adjustment and building of the US foreign policies and relations through the crises exerted profound impacts on the US-Anglo-German relations.Fourth,the US policies towards the crises reflected her global diplomatic strategy of parallel interventionism and pacifism.Last,the two cases of international arbitration also exposed two limitations in international arbitration-conciliation and"weak countries have no diplomacy"-and sacrificed Venezuela's interests.