The Americas after Independence

Latin Americas and the United States [19 th c – 20th c]

Political issues after Independence
Challenge of creating constitutional governments
Creole elites had less experience with self government
Committed to protecting the creole dominance
In every society – civil society – nongovernmental groups where people get practice organizing –
not always political – creates a basis in which a democratic society and government can be practiced

Fragmentation and regionalism

Gran Colombia, United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, Central America all split up – American Civil
War
Regional interests led to instability
Large territories with little infrastructure

Liberalism vs. Conservatism

Liberalism – highly focused on the individual [political rights, etc]
Tension is between how much freedom to give to the individual politically, and how much
economic independence should be given as well.
Conservatism – tradition [like Catholicism, etc]  the elite vs. spreading the power
Rights of the individual vs. corporate organization of society
Secular society based on private property vs. heritage of Catholic Church [Latin America]
Liberalism – more influence in America
Conservatism – in latin America
Conservatives = ; Liberalism = regionalism

Political Issues after Independence

Personalist Leaders
Military heroes – controlled loyalty of military
Personal authority vs restraints of constitutional government
Cultivated image as man of people
Called caudillos in Latin Americas
Examples:
Andrew Jackson [US]
General Agustin de Iturbide [Mexico]
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna [Mexico]
Jose Antonio Paez [Venezuela]
Juan Manuel de Rosas [Argentina]
**all of these people were caudillos, rises up through the military, gains political power
Conflicts with native peoples
US – Indian wars/settlement of the West
1870’s – Argentina and Chile
Castas War (1847) – in Mexico  indigenous people rebelling
**all examples of similar kind of processes
**all over land and resources – has the same racial aspects although the races may be different
Threat of foreign intervention – United States [War of 1812]
Argentina – French and British blockaded ports
Easy to get -- the countries aren’t strong enough to establish itself on its own
Economies after Indepednce
Monroe Doctrine [1823] – Enforced by the British, not the Americans
Manifest Destiny – not just in the US!
Conquest and cultivation of territory
Improved transportation methods – 1840’s on [railroads/steamships] – were
usually short and connected to each other.
Helped communication, development of internal markets – increases the demands and
needs  expansion of technology and transportation
Population growth and mass immigration [1850’s on]
Europe [Germany and Italy] to Latin America
Industrialization vs exports of raw materials = root of economic underdevelopment?
US North – center of industrialization
Latin America and US South – source of raw materials
Cotton – US South
Coffee – Brazil
Beef/Leather – Argentina
Grain – Chile
Guano – Peru
Foreign Investment – British invested in US and Latin America
British were the number one foreign investors—why? Industrial Revolution
Strong economic investments/interests in the Americas
Also markets for exports
Latin America pressured to open capital markets – sometimes threat of foreign intervention
used [including by US in Central America, early 20 th c]
Latin America – French influence
Fairly receptive to foreign investments – under the threat of actual military intervention  the
united states copied this model in the early 1900’s

Latin America – the Boom Years [1870-1920]

Pattern was established:
Rapid economic growth
Oligarchies rule – landed aristocracies allied with Liberal middle class [influenced by
Positivism]  come to take official/informal power
Many of whom are Western educated – European ideology
A lot of unhappieness
Labor unrest and rural rebellion – uneven economic growth

Mexico as an example
1823 – Mexican republic established
Constitution guaranteed basic civil rights
But didn’t address needs of lower classes
Was inspired by the liberals – took power
Attacked Catholic Church – separation of the church and state
Instituted some economic reforms
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power
Was a caudillo – military, got political power
Attempted to suppress Texan independence [1836] – succeeded from Mexico
1845 – US Annexed Texas
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo [1848]
New generation of Liberals deposed Santa Anna – La Reforma [1854]
Leader – Benito Juarez [American Indian] – was not from the creole elite  was committed to
alleviating the plight of the indigenous committees in Mexico.
His solution ended up putting the farmers in a worse position than before.
Constitutional that guaranteed universal male suffrage  everyone could vote regardless of
property and free speech  limited power of the catholic church and the military
put Indian communal lands up for sale [ideology of yeoman farmer]  would take the
property and subdivide it. [give each individual his own plot of land]
didn’t work because there was a vast difference in land [disaster for peasants – not used to
communal farming, lost lands to large landowners – ended up worse off]
the policies of Juarez were very unpopular – didn’t like the idea of challenge or male suffrage
conservative rebelled – civil war
European powers intervened to protect financial investments/loans
Conservatives asked France for help – had economic interests to Mexico
France felt as though it was lagging behind England
Were looking around ways to increase their global footprint  the French came
up with a solution to help the conservatives.
Maximilian von Hapsburg – was installed as the emperor of Mexico.
GRAVE MISCALCULATION – all it did was to rally the liberals to band together in
nationalist pride to boot out the usurper.
Juarez captured Maximilian and executed him [1867] – liberals were now in power
1876 – Porfirio Diaz elected president [rule for the next 30+ years]
Strong economic growth – America helped them invest [laissez faire capitalist idea]
Authoritarian rule – technically, it was liberal
But needs of rural and urban poor ignored – gap between rich and poor was growing bigger
Land reforms were growing worse

1910 – Mexican Revolution

Beginnings –didn’t begin because of long term causes – people began to be fed up with Diaz’s
authoritarian rule that one politician decided to challenge diaz for the presidency
Causes – spread to express frustrations of poor, workers, peasants, and nationalist intellectuals
Revolution spreads – not just disaffected members
World economic crisis
2 areas of revolts
North: small farmers, railroad workers, cowboys
Cowboys – losing their way of life  more mechanized form of cattle production, no
need for cowboys
Railroad workers – need to unionize
Leader – Pancho Villa [was a robber – robin hood image] – cross border raids into US
history – got the united states involved in the revolution  invaded Mexico  real concern that the
industries would nationalize – doesn’t end until 1910
**WORLD WAR 1 STARTS WHILE THIS WAR WAS GOING ON
ZIMMERMAN telegraph – germany hoped that the US wouldn’t go into WW1 and fight
for the British – the British intercepted the cable
South: peasants demanding land reform
Leader – Emiliano Zapata [Land/Liberty] – Zapatistas Rebellion
New Mexican Consititution of 1917
Fighting finally ended in 1920
Post-Revolutionary Mexico
PRI government took over Mexican Politics [Party of Institutionalized Revoltuion = PRI]
Was radical, but ultimately became a very traditional, more capitalist status quo organization –
remained in power until very recently -- essentially a one party state – educate them and create a sense
of unity
Agenda linked to nationalism
Education
Romanticized revolution
Early socialist agenda – caused problem
tried to take land from the catholic church – indigenous Mexican
nationalization – government take over of many big private industries
Central America
Cuba  was a Spanish colony, but strong US business interests here
1896 – a guy named Jose Marti led a revolt vs Spain – also threatened US business interests
1898 – USS Maine accidentally blew up – near Cuba  expanding its global footprint
Gave US pretext to launch Spanish-American War – the popular press whipped up the
fever to go into war
US bought Phillippines took Puerto Rico
Cuba got independence but US frequently interefered – Platt Amendment 1901
If Cuba was threatened in a way that threatened the economy of the US
Panama – owned by Colombia
US wanted canal to link the Atlantic and the Pacific