This is the intro of a new article by history professor Ben Coates, in the Journal of American History:
On July 28, 1904, the gunboat Bolívar arrived in Guanoco, in northeastern Venezuela. It carried a contingent of Venezuelan soldiers with instructions to seize the property of the New York and Bermudez Company (NY&B). Fights over foreign investment and natural resources were nothing new; in the twentieth century blood and oil would comingle all too frequently. The NY&B pursued a different hydrocarbon in Venezuela, however. A subsidiary of the “Asphalt Trust,” the company held title to an enormous natural deposit of tar pitch—a giant lake of asphalt worth millions to North American cities rapidly paving over dirt, brick, and cobblestone roads. But others also coveted the lake. In 1901, fearing that the Venezuelan president Cipriano Castro would seize the deposit, the NY&B fueled a revolution with $145,000 worth of weapons and supplies. But after several years of fighting, Castro defeated the uprising and sent the Bolívar to deliver the company's comeuppance.
In response, the NY&B deployed its own fleet of lawyers, lobbyists, and officials. They traveled to Washington, D.C., seeking U.S. gunboats and marines to retake the company's property. Success in this lobbying effort seemed likely in that era of imperial interventions, especially in the Caribbean, which lapped Venezuela's northern coast. Memories of the Spanish-American War were fresh, and just nine months earlier, in November 1903, the United States had helped break Panama away from Colombia. By the end of the year, President Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine would proclaim a U.S. duty to police the hemisphere. Thus, it seemed fitting when the U.S. minister to Caracas urged a show of force. His counterpart, the British minister, declared U.S. intervention “the only logical conclusion.”
If that little snippet intrigues you, read the whole thing (I can't find a free version anywhere on the internet, unfortunately).
This is one of the most interesting articles I've read in a long time, although perhaps that's because I'm kind of a history buff, and because it confirms some of my biases and preconceived notions.
