ABOUT THIS BOOK

Analyzes the German role in Central American domestic and international relations

Using previously untapped resources including private collections, the records of cultural institutions, and federal and state government archives, Schoonover analyzes the German role in Central American domestic and international relations.Of the four countries most active in independent Central America-Britain, the United States, France, and Germany- historians know the least about the full extent of the involvement of the Germans.

German colonial expansion was based on its position as an industrialized state seeking economic well-being and security in a growing world market. German leaders were quick to recognize that ties to the cheap labor of overseas countries could compensate for some of the costs and burdens of conceding material and social privileges to their domestic labor force. The Central American societies possessed limited resource bases; smaller and poorly educated populations; and less capital, communications, and technological development than Germany. They saw the borrowing of development as a key to their social, economic, and political progress. Wary Central American leaders also saw the influx of German industrialists as assurance against excessive U.S. presence in their political economies and cultures.

Although the simplistic bargain to trade economic development for cheap labor appeared to succeed in the short term, complex issues of German domestic unemployment and social disorder filtered to Central American countries and added to their own burdens. By 1929, Germany had recovered most of its pre-World War I economic position.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Thomas Schoonover is a professor in the History Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

REVIEWS

“Professor Schoonover describes the significant role that Germany played in Central American affairs between 1821 and 1929, a dynamic century both in Germany and in America. He is successful in linking events in the isthmus with domestic conditions in Germany and to broader world affairs.:
—Edward H. Moseley, Director Capstone International Program, The University of Alabama

“The successful exploitation of massive German documentation, heretofore rarely used, is a tribute to the author's diligence and linguistic skills. Schoonover presents a very thorough picture of German economic and imperial activity in Central America.”
—Charles L . Stansifer, The University of Kansas

“Historians have long understood that Germany often played as significant a role as Great Britain or the United States in Latin America, but there are few works, especially in English, dealing with the history of Germany’s relations with the region. . . . While providing an overview of Germany’s evolving relationship with the Central American countries, Schoonover argues that the German thrust into Central America and other peripheral areas was motivated by the same idea that drove British and American imperialism: the belief that expanding into world markets would reduce the domestic, social, and economic conflicts that wracked these industrial giants.”
—American Historical Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1
Foundations of German Interest in Central America, 1820–1848

CHAPTER 2
Prussia and Commerce with the Pacific Basin, 1848–1851

CHAPTER 3
Franz Hugo Hesse's Mission to Central America, 1851–1858

CHAPTER 4
Bismarck and the Foundations of the German Empire, 1858–1871

CHAPTER 5
Defining Germany's Role in Central America, 1871–1885

CHAPTER 6
Aggressive Participation in the New World, 1885–1898

CHAPTER 7
Aggressive Penetration and National Honor, 1898–1906

CHAPTER 8
Apogee of German Power in Central America, 1906–1914

CHAPTER 9
U.S. Displacement of German Economic Power during World War I

CHAPTER 10
Reestablishing Germany's Role, 1920–1925

CHAPTER 11
A Revived German Presence in Central America, 1924–1929

CONCLUSION AND EPILOGUE

APPENDIX: TABLES

NOTES

RESEARCH RESOURCES ON GERMANY IN CENTRAL AMERICA

PRIMARY MATERIALS AND PUBLISHED SOURCES

INDEX