| Description |
I have made the importance of culture an overriding theme in this study, but I have also attempted to demonstrate teh interplay between culture, history, people and U.S. foreign policy in determining the development of Central America as a society and a nation. Economic development has to overcome serious historical and cultural impediments. I believe that the process of peacefully unifying Central America - if it can occur - will represent the triumph of democracy and development. My history is by no means the complete history of Central American. Such an efforts is beyond the scope of a senior honors thesis. However, I have presented five episodes in Central American history which were seminal events: 1) the arrival of the Spanish, independence and the failure of union; 2) the U.S. intervention in Nicaragua from 1908 to 1933; 3) the present uprising in el Salvador during 1932; 4) the 1954 American coup in Guatemala; and 5) the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua during 1979. While a complete history of Central America and the American role there would include much more, these five episodes have played a determining role in the development of Central America. They are the foundation upon which my study of the interplay between culture, history, people and U.S. foreign policy is based. |
