For a long time, the United States has regarded Latin America as its "back garden", and countries around the world have basically acquiesced to this. So how did the United States do it?
Two words can be summed up: stick and silver
Theodore Roosevelt
The stick refers to force
In 1898, after the Spanish-American War, the United States strengthened its control of the Caribbean Sea. In 1901, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proposed the "big stick policy": when a country tried to resist the United States, the United States intervened militarily.
This is a straightforward and effective approach. Through this policy, the United States promoted Cuba and Dominica to become American protectorates, prompted Panama to stage a coup d'état, and monopolized navigation on the Panama Canal.
Blue Star Police - Eagle Sauce
Later, the United States discovered that the cost of armed intervention was too high. So they invented a more stable and effective method.
Silver refers to US dollars
In 1909, the newly inaugurated US President Taft proposed the "gold dollar diplomacy" to control the local energy, transportation, food and other industries through the export of capital to Latin American countries, so as to monopolize their markets and put the economic lifeblood of these countries in the hands of the United States.
William Taft
Of course, the two methods are not independent and are sometimes used together - when gold dollar diplomacy fails to achieve its goal, the United States also intervenes when necessary.
What if a person with a knife in one hand wants to cut you, and in the other hand money wants to buy you?
If it were you, what would you choose?