To secure a tight control of the American continent and do away with the last redoubts of European presence.
Explanation:
In the 1890s, once the Indian Wars were over and the U.S. government had secured control of the whole country, its attention turned to the rest of the American continent south of the U,S, border, namely, Latin America. U.S. corporations coveted the abundance of natura resources and raw materials produced in smaller and politically unstable countries. On the one hand, these corporations wanted to acquire these resources at very low prices, well below their real worth in order to make the most profit, and on the other hand, they wanted the European powers out of the picture in America. The method used to secure these resources consisted of one of two lines of action: 1) make deals with the local rulers and bribe them to allow the U.S. corporations to control the production and extraction of raw materials or, 2) have the U.S. government send the Marines Corp to invade the countries where the rulers rejected the deals in order to depose such leaders and place "friendly" leaders in their place. These invasions of Latin American countries came to be known as the "Banana Wars" and the governments installed by the U.S. were called "Banana Republics" after bananas, a most coveted natural resource which grows in those regions.
