Great Caribbean (El Gran Caribe) in world geopolitics, 15th-21st centuries 3305-WKSG-U

Topics covered:
1. "El Gran Caribe": Definition, Terminology, and Multidimensionality of the Phenomenon
2. Spanish Hegemony in the Greater Caribbean in the 16th Century and the Formation of the Caribbean Economic System
3. Development of Non-Spanish Colonialism in the Antilles (17th–18th Centuries)
4. Piracy, Privateering, and Smuggling as Tools of International Competition in the Greater Caribbean (16th–18th Centuries)
5. Cuba as a Laboratory for Bourbon Reforms Introduced in the West Indies
I added this topic. 6. The Development of the Slave Plantation Economy and the Demographic and Political Transformation of the Caribbean Region
7. The Economic Significance of the Caribbean in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
8. "The Greater Caribbean Between Empires" in the Context of the Monroe Doctrine
9. U.S. Economic and Military Expansion in Central America and the Caribbean in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries
10. The Panama Canal as a Symbol of Geostrategic Interests and Demographic Transformations
11. The Formation of Nation-States and the Decolonization Process in the Second Half of the 20th Century
12. Decolonial Thought and Contemporary Forms of Neocolonialism in the Greater Caribbean
13. The Demographic Effects of Contemporary Migration and Tourism in the El Gran Caribe Region
14. Caribbean Culture as an Element of Soft Power Policy

The Spanish term "El Gran Caribe" encompasses cultural, economic, demographic, historical, and geostrategic dimensions. It began appearing in international relations in the 1970s. Researchers of the subject eagerly use it because it considers the complex processes that took place in the region, including the Greater and Lesser Antilles, Central American countries, the northern coasts of South America, and the eastern and southern coasts of Mexico and the USA. The Greater Caribbean region was shaped by the clash of foreign economic interests and imperial political forces, as well as transnational processes. The proposed lecture aims to present the complexity of the Caribbean region and its implications for contemporary international relations.

Since Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the Americas in October 1492, the Caribbean Sea has been a strategic region for European colonization. Initially, Spanish domination was evident as they explored the islands of the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Caribbean coast of Central and South America, and later, the Gulf of Mexico. The establishment of colonial settlements and administrations in Hispaniola, Cuba, and Panama enabled the Spaniards to advance the conquest north and south, where they encountered and conquered the advanced Aztec, Maya, and Inca American cultures.

The discovery of rich silver and gold deposits on both American continents transformed the Caribbean Sea into a strategic reservoir through which the riches of the Americas flowed to Spain. This reservoir also facilitated the transportation of European products, African slaves, and Asian goods to America via a navigation system known as the Galleon of Manila. The rapid spread of information about the riches of the Americas caught the attention of other European crowns, which began sending privateers and pirates to plunder Spanish possessions and ships in the mid-16th century. In the 17th century, the Greater Caribbean became an arena for the struggle for colonial influence among Spain, the Netherlands, England, and France. These non-Iberian countries, as well as Denmark and Sweden, occupied some of the Lesser Antilles islands, Jamaica (the English), and the western part of Hispaniola (the French). Subsequently, these nations carried out pirate and buccaneer attacks on Spanish possessions, engaging in legal and illegal commercial activities and developing a plantation economy using African slaves. In the 18th century, the Greater Caribbean region became a theater of hostilities for three European maritime powers: Spain, France, and Great Britain, whose imperial interests clashed there.

The crisis of European absolutism began with the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. The echo of this socio-political change reached the Caribbean Islands, leading to the First Independence War in Hispaniola. This conflict was a movement of Africans against the colonial system based on slavery. The next step was the creation of Haiti, the first free state in the Americas, which, in addition to the crisis of Spanish absolutism, led to the emancipation of Hispanoamerica from the metropolis. Haiti supported and conducted military campaigns in Colombia and Venezuela.

The collapse of the Spanish Empire in the Americas left it with only two remaining possessions in the region: Cuba and Puerto Rico. This accelerated the emergence of a new power on the geopolitical map of the Greater Caribbean: the United States of America. The USA began competing with Great Britain and France for economic, political, military, and cultural influence in this strategic region. The "Monroe Doctrine" successfully limited European influence in Latin America. The only area where European influence is still strongly present to this day is the Lesser Antilles, which has 11 dependent territories. Due to its strategic location between the south, north, east, and west, Central America, which limits the Caribbean Sea basin from the west, became one of the main subjects of US economic and military expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries. Testaments to these activities include mega-projects such as the transpacific railroad in Panama, the Panama Canal, and the Pan-American Highway, as well as the presence of the United Fruit Company.

The United States used the First World War to intervene and occupy some countries in the region, such as Nicaragua (1912), Mexico (1914), Haiti (1914), and the Dominican Republic (1916), during the so-called Banana Wars (1898–1934). World War II brought transformation to international relations, including those in the Caribbean.

The Cold War left a strong mark on the region, where neoliberal and communist ideas clashed. Political coups, dictatorships, civil wars, and military interventions were some of the effects. The 21st century brings new changes to the economic and political landscape. However, the Greater Caribbean remains an important geostrategic area, not only for the United States, but also for the European Union, Brazil, Venezuela, and above all, China.