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The term has recently been prominent in popular media with reference to threats to US [[national security]] (including Russian [[military exercises]] and Middle Eastern [[terrorism]]) used to contrast such threats at home with those on traditional fronts in [[Europe]] or the [[Middle East]].
In a less geopolitical context, America's Backyard is also used on occasion to refer to [[national parks]] and public lands in the US, as well as the American heartland more generally.
== Terminology ==
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The term "America's backyard" was then coined during this time as a reference to Latin America. The United States supported the Spanish colonies' independence because they wanted to keep Spain and other European countries out of the Western Hemisphere, out of "America's Backyard".
This manifested itself in the [[Louisiana Purchase]] (from France), [[Alaska Purchase]] (from Russia), [[War of 1812|1812 War]] (against Britain), [[Spanish–American War]], the [[Big Stick ideology]], etc.
=== Latin America as America's backyard ===
{{Main|Big Stick Policy}}
Since the establishment of the United States, [[international relations]] have been
The examination and analysis of relations between Latin America and the US over the course of history has increased in recent years. The declassification of official documents concerning Latin America by the Clinton administration allowed for more public information on the matter. In result, the public has been increasingly exposed to a much larger array of perspective and information on America’s backyard and the United States’ role in Latin America.
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Though Latin America is not the poorest area in the world, it is the most unequal; historically a small elite has controlled most of the wealth. The US has traditionally dealt with that elite, however repressive or reactionary it has been, because they controlled the government and market economy. The masses of poor often were illiterate, non-Spanish speaking, and living on a subsistence economy. These later facts help explain the Latin America’s uneven development. Livingstone expresses that even though in the US and Europe revolutionary upheaval or war has at times been the necessary precursor to change, the US government has acted as a counterweight to reform, regarding upheaval, mass protest (and of course revolution) as a threat to stability and therefore its own interests.<ref name="livingstone" />
However the US' traditional role as the sole hegemonic power of the Americas has been challenged / limited by [[Cuba]] during the Cold War ([[Cuban Missile Crisis]], Fidel Castro); as well as the more recent Venezuela crisis.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}
=== The Middle East as a new American backyard? ===
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