Since the establishment of the Monroe Doctrine the United States Government sought and gained an influential position in the Western Hemisphere. During the 1930s, the American intervention in region, which began in 1898 (see the Spanish American War and the banana wars) on behalf of local elites and U.S. corporations, was replaced by the Good Neighbor policy which was made official at the Montevideo Convention in 1933. American influence in the region remained significant during the pre-war period and included the U.S. control over the recently built Panama Canal.