Book excerpt: The Caribbean Basin has been the scene of international rivalries and conflict throughout the modern period. The Caribbean Basin: An International History provides a study of the entire Caribbean region, including Central America and the Caribbean coast of northern South America, as well as an analysis of the role of international intervention.This history of the modern Caribbean includes discussion of the complex interaction among major world powers in the area, from the British, Dutch, French and Spanish clashes through the Latin American wars of independence to the emergence of the United States as a colonial power in the late nineteenth century. The book also surveys conflicts over colonial possessions, trade routes and Soviet-American confrontation in the Cold War years.This study integrates the recent political, economic and social history of the Caribbean Basin with its military and diplomatic past. It charts this zone's emergence from colonialism during the course of the twentieth century.