À l’origine, la nouvelle concernant l’occupation américaine d’Haïti en 1915 a suscité peu d’indignation aux États-Unis. En effet, on reproche à la république son instabilité politique et on juge aussi qu’une intervention américaine concourrait à l’édifice de l’autorité de la loi. À partir de 1915 et surtout en 1920, l’Association nationale pour l’avancement des gens de couleur (NAACP), fondée en 1909, critique cette ingérence et milite pour y voir un terme. W.E. B. Du Bois et James Weldon Johnson, deux figures publiques noires importantes travaillant au sein de l’organisation, dénoncent avec conviction l’occupation d’Haïti. Les historiens ont jusqu’ici jugé que la NAACP fut inspirée par des considérations de solidarité raciale en adhérant à la cause de la souveraineté haïtienne. Si la thèse présente ne réfute pas cette possibilité, elle cherche tout de même à démontrer que le cadre conceptuel de la solidarité raciale ne saurait illustrer toute la complexité de la campagne haïtienne érigée par la NAACP. Par conséquent, une attention dirigée davantage sur le contexte social et politique américain entre 1915 et 1922 révèle que pour la NAACP, la dénonciation de l’occupation américaine d’Haïti représentait d’une part une opportunité de discuter des problèmes sociaux touchant les Afro-Américains, et d’autre part, une occasion de renforcer sa position aux États-Unis. / Initially, the news of the U.S. occupation of Haiti in 1915 generated little concern in the United States. Indeed, Haiti’s political instability made it such that a U.S. intervention seemed unavoidable. As of 1915 and especially 1920, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, denounced the U.S. interference in the Caribbean island. W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson, two of the association’s most influential black members, were deeply invested in condemning the U.S. occupation of Haiti. Historiographical tendencies have long located the NAACP’s engagement with Haiti in a conversation about black solidarity, but have failed to adequately consider the local politics that may have inspired the NAACP’s work. While this thesis does not refute the importance of black solidarity, it does recognise the limits of this conceptual approach in trying to explain the complexity of the NAACP’s work on the behalf of Haiti’s sovereignty. Placing more attention on the social and political context in the United States between 1915 and 1922 reveals that the NAACP utilised the occupation of Haiti as a means of attracting broader attention to domestic issues affecting black Americans, but also as a means of reinforcing the organisation’s own profile in the United States.

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This dissertation examines the modernization of aspects of Cuba’s public health programs through the influence of the Rockefeller Foundation. As a result of its sponsorship of projects, the Rockefeller Foundation contributed to the spread of modernizing practices and policies from 1913 through 1945. An evaluation of medical modernization remains an important chapter in the study of post-colonial development. Current research has often portrayed public health modernization efforts as unidirectional with the United States imposing its ideas and practices onto developing nations. By examining institutional records, personal correspondence, and reports, this dissertation provides a more nuanced analysis of the relationship between Cuba and the United States during this period. This dissertation also argues that efforts to modernize Cuban public health were in fact the result of bilateral cooperation between Cubans and the United States. This study evaluates efforts made by scientists, researchers, and professionals to expand educational programs, to implement public health structures, and to develop new techniques for treating disease. During its occupations of Cuba at the turn of the century, the United States advanced public health programs and infrastructure. This work was later continued under the Cuban Republic with the support of private US interests, the Rockefeller Foundation. This dissertation addresses a significant gap in existing research by providing a different lens with which to view public health modernization in Cuba. Despite the past and ongoing presence of United States government interests in Cuba, the Rockefeller Foundation only pursued projects in Cuba after obtaining permission by the Cuban government. In one instance, Cuban physicians persistently requested for the involvement of the Foundation to forward their own aims. Both the Foundation and the Cuban government were interested in adopting successful programs established elsewhere and in using scientific findings from surrounding regions to advance research in Cuba. Instability in the newly formed Cuban Republic undermined these projects and prevented them from achieving their primary aims. Although these public health modernization plans made strong gains in some areas, at times they fell short in their primary agendas.