Contributing Author Dickson Igwe
The influence of US power on West Indian life has been a narrative that has been ongoing for over a century. However, the evolution of US power in this Western Hemisphere began with the American war of independence from Britain 1775-1783. After that conflict, an independent republic began to view itself as a vehicle for freedom in the Hemisphere. The American Revolution of the 1700s was therefore the start of the historic US journey to super power status.
The next play of US power was the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. That document was the beginning of a policy that determined non interference by outside powers in the Americas, specifically European. The Monroe Doctrine was a statement by the US that foreign interference in the Americas was unacceptable. With the American war with Mexico, 1846-1848 and Mexico’s subsequent defeat, the US began to flex its military muscle in the region with a view towards establishing US influence in the Americas and Pacific.
Then approximately seventy years after Monroe, and five decades after the war with Mexico, the US displaced Spain as Hemispheric power. The trigger for this shift of power was the Spanish American War of the 1890s and Spain’s defeat.
From the early 1900s, the European colonial powers in the West Indian region: Britain, France and Holland came to accept the reality of growing and evolving US power in the Hemisphere of the Americas.
This 2011, US industrial, economic and technological power in the Americas may be considered both a blessing and a curse to the West Indies especially in regard to West Indian culture. The growth of US economic and technological power over the decades has affected the West Indies both economically and culturally.
And there has been a massive orientation in recent times of West Indian economics, society and culture towards the United States. This orientation towards the US has accelerated with the advent of digitization and the global information technology paradigm starting in the late 1980s. The largest investors in the Caribbean are clearly US businesses, and the US commercial, media, technological and information culture is dominant in the West Indies.
Symbol of Americanism
US products, businesses and influences in the West Indies can be found on most main streets and in every household. On most Islands in the British, French and Dutch Antilles, US names such as Nike, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, American Airlines, Motorola, Microsoft, Dell, Apple, IBM, Exxon Mobil, Marriot, Holiday Inn, Hilton, and more, are a commonality. In the world of media and entertainment the likes of CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, Time Warner, and Disney dominate and control.
How does the most powerful nation in contemporary history through its control of the international media, multinational corporations, hemispheric security infrastructure, and the global information technology apparatus affect West Indian culture? This is a critical question worthy of intelligent consideration. And do bear in mind that the West Indies is far from the only region affected by US economic, cultural and technological hegemony.
All over the world, the symbols of US culture predominate: from Big Mac to IPAD, from Oprah Winfrey to Michael Jordan, from Mickey Mouse to Donald Duck, from Wall Street to Boeing, from Bill Gates to Warren Buffet. And there is a common denominator in the ‘’negative’’ of US cultural and technological preponderance. All over the world local and indigenous mores, lifestyles and cultures are suffering.
France is the one nation in the West that over the many decades has tried hard to pass law that aggressively protects French culture by putting roadblocks in the way of US cultural penetration of the French way of life. This is especially so in the French Film Industry. And in this, France appears to have succeeded in that France, especially the City of Paris is recognized as the hub of a distinct European culture.
The UK has also remained uniquely British, and this owes to the fact that her cultural history is ancient; therefore despite the penetration of US symbols on the British High Street, Britain remains uniquely historic and British. And so it is with all societies that have maintained the critical relationship with their past through the costly and difficult preservation of their history and culture: they have been able to maintain a distinct cultural identity that is a boon to their indigenous character, national self esteem, and even economy, especially the economics of tourism.
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