The Background of Cleveland's Venezuelan Policy: A Reinterpretation

THE policy that Grover Cleveland's second administration formulated in the Venezuelan controversy of I895-I896 was a direct answer to British encroachments on United States interests in Latin America. Political and business leaders believed these American interests to be economic, strategic, and political. The economic influence on the shaping of Cleveland's policy in this dispute has not received sufficient attention. After the I893 depression paralyzed the domestic economy, United States attention focused increasingly on Latin America; indeed, it is significant that the controversy occurred during the depths of that business crisis. American interests, both economic and strategic, were threatened during the I893-I895 period by ominous British moves in Brazil, Nicaragua, the disputed area in Venezuela itself, and the small island of Trinidad off the Brazilian coast. During the same years Germany and France menaced United States advantages in Brazil and the Caribbean. Gravely concerned, the State Department finally forced a showdown struggle on the issue of the Venezuelan boundary. By successfully limiting British claims in this incident, the United States won explicit recognition of its dominant position in the Western Hemisphere. This essay attempts to trace two developments: that international dangers motivated the Cleveland administration in formulating its Venezuelan policy; that the economic crisis arising out of the i893 depression provided the context and played an important role in this policy formulation. ITis is not to say that the economic influence was the only motivating force, but that this factor, relatively overlooked by previous writers on the subject, greatly shaped the thinking of both the Cleveland administration and key segments of American society. Five considerations should serve to establish the validity of this interpretation: timing played a key role in that the year I895 witnessed a convergence of forces which brought the United States into the controversy (after the argument had simmered over half a century) and led it to assert control over the nations of the Western Hemisphere; the Cleveland administration