Transcript Venezuelan Border Dispute

Venezuelan Border
Dispute
By, Ashlyn Maurer, Nick Ricciardi,
and Maria Van Buskirk
What is it?
 Dispute
over the boundary between
Venezuela and Guyana
 Grew more important after the discovery of
gold in the disputed area
 Venezuela finally sought aid from the
United States and broke relations with
Great Britain
How did the US get involved?

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U.S. pressured Great Britain to participate in
arbitration of the boundary dispute.
U.S. officials even went as far as threatening
war .
Richard Olney, protested against the
enlargement of British Guyana at the expense of
Venezuela.
This meant that the British had already violated
the Monroe Doctrine of 1823
Britain agreed to let an international tribunal
arbitrate the boundary in 1897
What where the U.S.Motives?

Grover Cleveland, who was serving a
second term as President, realized that
he was losing popularity among
workers everywhere in the country. He
and his secretary of State, Richard
Olney, decided to adopt a foreign policy
and help Venezuela to divert attention
from their own country’s problems.
 Get the British out of the Western
Hemisphere
Did they justify their motives?
 The
U.S. justified their motives by using
the Monroe Doctrine to demand arbitration
(legal technique for resolving a dispute outside of court)
 This
use of the Monroe Doctrine helped
to enforce it in the Western Hemisphere
and push the British out, which was one of
their motives for getting involved.
Superman

The United States acted as superman as
opposed to a mafia don.
 Assisted Venezuela in claiming their land.
 Helped Venezuela more then it benefited the
United States.
 They substantially assisted in moving the British
out of the land that was not rightfully theirs and
for this Venezuela was very thankful.
Reaction of local population
 The
local population was happy with
the U.S. help because it helped
Venezuela gain land even though the
British still had some control.

Final Result

In 1899, 94% of the disputed territory to British
Guyana. Venezuela got only the mouth of the
Orinoco River and a short stretch of the Atlantic
coastline.
 Venezuela was unhappy with the decision, a
commission surveyed a new border and both
sides accepted the boundary in 1905, thus
creating the Schomburgk Line
MAPS
Work Sited
 http://www.guyana.org/features/guyanasto
ry/chapter84.html
 http://www.historycentral.com/Industrialag
e/BorderDispute.html
 http://countrystudies.us/guyana/8.htm
 http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedi
a/venezuela_boundary_dispute.jsp
 http://merln.ndu.edu/imguploaded/america
map.jpg