Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

History Americas

Colombia and the United States

Hegemony and Interdependence

by (author) Stephen J. Randall

Publisher
University of Georgia Press
Initial publish date
May 1992
Category
Americas, General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780820314020
    Publish Date
    May 1992
    List Price
    $29.95

Add it to your shelf

Where to buy it

Description

Strategically located at the gateway to the South American continent, Colombia has long been a key player in shaping the United States' involvement with its Latin American neighbors. In this book Stephen J. Randall examines the course of U.S.-Colombian relations over two centuries, taking into account the broad 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 nineteenth 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 neighbor 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 U.S.-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 twentieth 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 four hundred 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 the first comprehensive overview in more than fifty years of the U.S.-Colombian relationship.

About the author

Stephen J. Randall is dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, and professor of history, University of Calgary, and the author of many books, including Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies.

Stephen J. Randall's profile page

Editorial Reviews

.A model of what might be termed 'balanced' diplomatic history. It draws upon archival sources from both nations, although it depends predominantly on the accessibility of a wide range of records in the United States. It concentrates on the politics and foreign relations of both nations—the traditional stuff of diplomatic history—yet includes significant attention to economic and cultural affairs. . . . And it adopts a normative stance toward its subject that consciously refuses to take sides, although it reveals, implicitly, an empathy for Colombian efforts to sustain national dignity and a degree of pragmatic independence in the face of growing United States power as the nineteenth and twentieth centuries progress. . . . The balance that results is highly rewarding and refreshing.”--Journal of American History

Other titles by

In the National Interest

Canadian Foreign Policy and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 1909-2009

edited by Greg Donaghy
contributions by Michael K. Carroll, Norman Hillmer, Galen Roger Perras, Heather Metcalfe, J.L. Granatstein, Adam Chapnick, P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Peter Kikkert, Robin S. Gendron, Michael Hart, Tammy Nemeth, Nelson Michaud, Stephen J. Randall & Elizabeth Riddell-Dixon

Canada and the United States

Ambivalent Allies, Fourth Edition

by (author) John Herd Thompson & Stephen J. Randall

United States Foreign Oil Policy Since World War I

For Profits and Security, Second Edition

by (author) Stephen J. Randall

Canada and the United States, Third Edition

Ambivalent Allies

by (author) John H. Thompson & Stephen J. Randall

Canada and the United States, Second Edition

Ambivalent Allies

by (author) John H. Thompson & Stephen J. Randall

NAFTA in Transition

contributions by Stephen Randall, Herman Konrad, Pedro Marquez Perez, Maria Teresa Gutierrez Haces, Robert McRae, James Gerber, William Kerr, Gustavo del Castillo Vera, Diana Alarcon Gonzalez, Paul Ganster, Victor Konrad, Robyn Adamache, Claudia Culos, Gerado Otero, Morton Weinfeld, Alan Sweedler, Bradly Condon, Michel Duquette, Dixon Thompson, Neil Nevitte, Miguel Basanez, Ronald Inglehart, John Herd Thompson, Colin Hoskins, Stuart McFayden & Dorothy Zolf
edited by Stephen J. Randall & H. Konrad

Canada and the United States, First Edition

Ambivalent Allies

by (author) John H. Thompson & Stephen J. Randall