aid that there were
vigorous protests on the part of natives and American citizens against
the conduct of our agents in the island. In 1921 President Wilson was
considering withdrawal.

In line with American policy in the West Indian waters was the purchase
in 1917 of the Danish Islands just off the coast of Porto Rico. The
strategic position of the islands, especially in relation to Haiti and
Porto Rico, made them an object of American concern as early as 1867,
when a treaty of purchase was negotiated only to be rejected by the
Senate of the United States. In 1902 a second arrangement was made, but
this time it was defeated by the upper house of the Danish parliament.
The third treaty brought an end to fifty years of bargaining and the
Stars and Stripes were raised over St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, and
numerous minor islands scattered about in the neighborhood. "It would be
suicidal," commented a New York newspaper, "for America, on the
threshold of a great commercial expansion in South America, to suffer a
Heligoland, or a Gibraltar, or an Aden to be erected by her rivals at
the mouth of her Suez." On the mainland American power was strengthened
by the establishment of a protectorate over Nicaragua in 1916.

=Mexican Relations.=--The extension of American enterprise southward
into Latin America, of which the operations in the Caribbean regions
were merely one phase, naturally carried Americans into Mexico to
develop the natural resources of that country. Under the iron rule of
General Porfirio Diaz, established in 1876 and maintained with only a
short break until 1911, Mexico had become increasingly attractive to our
business men. On the invitation of President Diaz, they had invested
huge sums in Mexican lands, oil fields, and mines, and had laid the
foundations of a new industrial order. The severe regime instituted by
Diaz, however, stirred popular discontent. The peons, or serfs, demanded
the break-up of the great estates, some of which had come down from the
days of Cortez. Their clamor for "the restoration of the land to the
people could not be silenced." In 1911 Diaz was forced to resign and
left the country.

Mexico now slid down the path to disorder. Revolutions and civil
commotions followed in swift succession. A liberal president, Madero,
installed as the successor to Diaz, was deposed in 1913 and brutally
murdered. Huerta, a military adventurer, hailed for a time as another
"strong man," succeeded M