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Why has the Gulf of Mexico (plus the Caribbean Sea) attracted so much attention from major world powers for so long? How and when did the United States become a dominant actor in this area?
How did the Spanish penetration of Central America differ from the conquest of Mexico? What implications did this have?
What are the defining features of “plantation societies”? How do Central American societies compare with late-nineteenth-century Mexico?
What have been the long-term consequences of the construction of the Panama Canal? What if an inter-oceanic waterway had been built in Nicaragua instead?
What explains the emergence of armed guerrilla movements in El Salvador and Nicaragua? Why were the revolutionaries able to take power in Nicaragua, but not in El Salvador?
Has Central America finally embarked on a period of peace? Why and to what extent?