Strategically located at the gateway to the South American
continent, Colombia has long been one of the key players in the
United States' relations with its Latin American neighbours. In
this book, the sixth volume to appear in ""The United States and
the Americas"" series, Stephen J. Randall examines the course of
those relations over two centuries, taking into account the braod
spectrum of political, social, cultural and economic contacts that
have figured in the interaction. A leader in the movement for
independence from Spain in the early 19th century, Colombia shared
with the United States the aspiration of becoming a leader for the
entire hemisphere. Its early efforts in this direction - notably
its initiation in the 1820s of the first Pan American Conference -
soon languished, however, as the unequal growth between the two
countries took its toll. By the turn of the century, after years of
destructive civil war, Colombia had slipped far behind its northern
neighbour militarily, economically and politically. The United
States, meanwhile, had emerged as a great power, and the first
major manifestation of the two countries' divergence came with the
US-supported secession of Panama in 1903 - an event that deeply
shocked Colombians and tainted their view of the United States for
subsequent generations. During the 20th century, Randall explains,
a tension in Colombian politics and culture has persisted between
those who advocate an independent, even antagonistic, stance toward
the United States and those who propound a policy of realism that
accepts Colombia's place as a middle, regional power within the
U.S. orbit. For its part, the United States has continually failed
to realize that Colombians, with their European intellectual
heritage stretching back 400 years, do not see themselves as an
insignificant Third World nation. The result has been an often
strained relationship, which Randall traces through two world wars,
economic booms and depressions, the Cold War and finally, the
present-day guerrilla conflicts and drug trade controversies.
Drawing on archival sources in both countries, many previously
unused, this book is a comprehensive overview of the US-Colombian
relationship.
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