Foreigners under U.S. Occupation in the Caribbean

My presentation investigates the experiences of third-country diplomats, private citizens, and subjects during the US occupations in Haiti (1915-34) and the Dominican Republic (1916-24). It asks how their treatment by occupation forces might have affected the occupations and finds that they did so negatively. Though important differences marked the experiences of white Europeans, members of all groups suffered in some ways from US occupation and led many to grow disenchanted and even join in public denunciations. Non-whites and non-Europeans—Haitians, Puerto Ricans, Syrians, and West Indians—were greater in number and suffered largely because of their race. The frustrations of foreigners eventually turned many against US occupations in the Caribbean.