Todjaeger,
How would you define the Caribbean.and Afghanistan, 'spheres of influence' or 'areas of strategic importance' for the U.S. Britain?
When the U.S. was on its way to.becoming a great power it spread its influence and established near hegemony in the Caribbean to the extent that it was ready to.go to war with European power which threatened challenged U,S, power in the region.
Afghanistan was of the outmost importance for Britain because it led to India and the biggest worry was that after annexing the areas to the north of Afghnistan [the present day 'stans'], Russia would enter Afghanistan on its way to India. During a border war fought between Afghanistan and Persia, British troops were landed on Kharg island as a warning to the Persians. The Brits had no.desire to colonize but their policy was a friendly, compliant and subserviant government in Kabul.
With respect to the US relationship with nations or colonies in the Caribbean, what time frame are you referring to, as the answer could be different given the different statuses many of the islands have had at different times in history, as well as the relationships between those islands and various European powers.
Regarding stances taken during the US's rise to becoming a Great Power, this brings up a point that I have not previously articulated that I feel many people keep overlooking, particularly when trying to compare the rise of other nations like Russia or mainland China. From my POV, attempts to make such comparisons, particularly if/when trying to 'justify' actions (aka whataboutism) would be like making an apples to potatoes comparison and then conflating that into an apples to apples comparison. The reason I think that is that, while the US is a comparatively newly founded, settled and unified nation which rose to Great Power status, both Russia and mainland China are nations with imperial pasts and would have been considered a Great Power at one or more points in their respective histories. In short, neither Russia or mainland China are attempting to rise to Great Power status, they are attempting to (or already have) regain Great Power status. That might be a distinction which the significance of which is lost by most, but IMO is a key difference.
A reason I consider it a key difference is because there is prior history of interactions between Russia and China when they were Great Powers in their past, and the various nations and peoples which border Russia and China respectively. Whilst a number of examples are certainly available, given the potent flashpoint that is the Ukraine currently, I will reference one such issue from there.
We are currently in the year 2022, and about 90 years ago was the start of the Great Famine in the Soviet Union, which is estimated to have claimed the lives of ~3.5 mil. people in the Ukraine between 1932-1933 with the majority being ethnic Ukrainians. IMO this is significant for a few reasons. First, the famine was a man-made or artificially induced famine, and not the results of natural disasters which caused large scale crop failures. Even with the poor crops following the change to collective farming, the yields were still sufficient to support the population. However, Soviet authorities set requisition quotas too high to leave enough food to sustain the population, whilst also deploying special agents to regularly search homes and confiscate foodstuffs. Further, a law was passed in August 1932 which led to peasants facing the firing squad if they were caught having stolen a sack of wheat from state storehouses.
Now the above situation tends to take on a somewhat different perspective if one also realizes that the Ukraine had been absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1922. This after having been able to briefly establish an independent government following the 1917 revolution, and having fought a series of conflicts to resist coming (back) under Russian/Soviet rule.
The current situation today is not that Russia is seeking to establish influence/power/control over the Ukraine, but rather that Russia is seeking to regain influence/power/control that it once had over the Ukraine (and elsewhere), and that the Ukraine has over the years sought to reduce or eliminate. Similar situations exist with other former Soviet/Russian Empire states and satellite nations.
A closer comparison between the current Russian/Ukraine situation would be more like if the UK was attempting to regain or re-exert elements of the British Empire in ex-colonial Africa, or if France were to attempt to regain influence over/control of ex-French Africa like Algeria.