ABSTRACT
The major explanation of such inaction lay in the fact that for a major part of the nineteenth century the US was preoccupied with continental expansion and security, not Caribbean geopolitics. Mahan's most cherished geopolitical scenario, making the Caribbean an area secure for American interests, was brought about by two extraordinarily bold moves: the Spanish-American war and the intervention in Panama. The tropics and the Caribbean specifically, both provided the opportunity and suited the new geopolitical codes emanating from a powerful group of politicians, academics, military and businessmen. The fact that these geopolitical codes married geopolitics to a sense of Anglo-Saxon racial destiny explains why so often good intentions were swamped by feelings of resentment on the part of Caribbean peoples. Thus, America enters its Caribbean phase with a full sense of racial destiny underpinning its equally well-developed geopolitical ambitions.
