The Consolidation of Latin America, 1830-1920

Chapter 25: The Consolidation of Latin America, 1830-1920

•  1867: Last Emperor of Mexico: Austrian Duke Maximilian I, was killed by firing squad.
• Last words: “Long live Mexico, long live independence!”
• Series of Civil Wars in Mexico: Maximilian I vs. Benito Juarez
• Colonial heritage of Latin America left little tradition of participatory government among the majority of the Latin American population.
• Rise of European industrial capitalism created an economic situation that often placed the new nations in a weak or dependent position.

From Colonies to Nations

• Key leaders of independence: Hidalgo in Mexico, Bolivar in northern South America, San Martin in the Rio de la Plata
• A lot of protest was led by the Creoles (criolles): American-born Whites
• Early movements for independence often failed because of the reluctance of the Creoles to enlist the support of the American Indian, mestizo, and mulatto masses, who they felt would be too hard to control.

Causes of Political Change

• Inspired by Atlantic Revolutions: rhetoric
• American Revolution, 1775-1783: how colonies could break from mother country
• French Revolution 1789: “liberty, equality, fraternity.” (Latin American elites rejected when the revolution became increasingly radical for instance killing Louis XVI)
• 1791: French controlled St. Domingue: important sugar colony.  Slaves, free people of color, and whites staged a general rebellion under Toussaint L’Overture.  Haiti was successfully established as an independent country in 1804.
• France invaded Spain and Portugal and a general insurrection erupted in 1808, followed by a long guerilla war (Peninsular War)
• Spain invaded by France under Napoleon
• Napoleon placed his brother, Joseph, on the throne
• Confusion over Spanish leadership affected the Spanish colonies as well
• Some conservatives remained loyal to deposed king Ferdinand

Spanish American Independence Struggles

• Father Miguel de Hidalgo: priest in Mexico who called for solidarity amongst the American Indians and mestizos of his region.  Eventually creoles turned on him and he was executed.
• Augustin de Iturbide, Creole army officer, allied with insurgents instead of fighting them and occupied Mexico City: Iturbide then declared emperor of Mexico
• Simon Bolivar, wealthy Creole officer, emerged as leader of the revolt against Spain around 1810 in Caracas
• Between 1817 and 1822: Bolivar won series of victories in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador.  (Initially united until 1830 as Gran Colombia)
• Refused to be king, and died in 1830
• Jose de San Martin: led a resistance movement in the Rio de la Plata
• From Buenos Aires: emerged as a military commander who spoke and acted for independence
• His army went from Argentina to Chile to Peru
• By 1825: all of Spanish south America had gained its political independence
• At first, all emerged as independent republics with representative governments

Brazilian Independence

• Brazil was a major exporter of sugar, cotton, and cacao, and a major importer of slaves
• Many of the elites feared political change
• 1807: Napoleon invaded Portugal and the entire Portuguese royal family and court fled the country and with the help of the British, sailed to Brazil.
• Rio de Janeiro became the capital of the Portuguese Empire
• Portuguese king, Dom Joao VI, lived in Brazil until 1820, then he was recalled to Portugal and left his son, Pedro as regent
• September 1822: Pedro declared Brazilian independence and himself as the constitutional emperor Dom Pedro I

New Nations Confront Old and New Problems

• Problems of new nations: social inequalities, political representation, role of the church, and regionalism.       
• By 1830, former Spanish and Portuguese colonies had become independent nations
• Roman Catholicism had been the official religion of the Spanish colonies, some pushed for freedom of religion, conservatives resisted.
• By 1854, slavery had been abolished everywhere except Spain’s remaining colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and Brazil
• Class conflict between the political elite and the mass of the Latin American population: American Indians and people of mixed origins.

Political Fragmentation

• Mexico attempted to created an empire in Central America, but failed
• Gran Colombia: Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela: organized by Bolivar, then disintegrated
• Andres Santa Cruz: Mestizo general that briefly united Peru and Bolivia from 1829-1839. 

Caudillos, Politics, and the Church

• Economies were disrupted by warfare
• Caudillos: independent leaders who dominated local areas by forces and sometimes seized the national government itself
• Military became powerful, dominant force in Latin America
• Rafael Carrera, ruled Guatemala from 1839-1865: attempted to improve the lives of the American Indian majority
• Centralists: wanted to create strong, centralized national governments with broad powers
• Federalists: wanted tax and commercial policies to be set by regional governments
• Liberals: stressed the rights of the individual and attacked the corporate structure of colonial society…wanted a secular society and looked  to US and France
• Conservatives: believed in a strong centralized state, often wanted to maintain aspects of colonial society.  Tried to maintain Roman Catholicism
• There was a lot of political turmoil in Latin America in the first 50 years after independence

Latin American Economies and World Markets, 1820-1870
* Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil illustrate the general pattern from political instability or economic stagnation to the emergence of stable liberal regimes by the end of the century.
* Monroe Doctrine (1823) issued by the United States: stated that any attempt by a European power to colonize the Americas would be considered an unfriendly act by the United States (US in charge of the Western Hemisphere)
* Latin American governments now turned to foreign governments and banks for loans. 
* Britain became a major consumer of Latin American products
* Latin America became increasingly dependent on foreign markets and foreign imports and thereby reinforced the old colonial economic heritage in which land was the basis of wealth and prestige.

Mid-Century Stagnation
* 1820-1850: Latin American economies were stagnant
* Key Exports: Coffee in Brazil, hides and beef in Argentina, minerals and grains in Chile, guano in Peru
* Guano (bird droppings) earned Peru more than 10 million pounds and allowed the govt. to abolish slavery by abolishing slavery by compensating the owners.
* (Guano was imported in large quantities to Loudoun County and displaced Lime Production in the county)
* New infrastructure in Latin America: steamship, railroads

Economic Resurgence and Liberal Politics
* Auguste Comte: French philosopher who stressed observation and a scientific approach to the problems of society: POSITIVISM
* Population increase in Latin America 43 million inhabitants by 1880
* landowners increased their holdings and peasant lands were expropriated in Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, small farmers were displaced in Brazil and Costa Rica, church lands were seized in Mexico
* Immigrants from Europe flooded into Argentina and Brazil

Mexico: Instability and Foreign Intervention
* Continued disparity between rich and poor in Mexico
* Liberal control from 1832 to 1835: assumption of power by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
* Santa Anna: caudillo in Mexico- Texas occupied by Anglo-American settlers: Texas declared its independence from Mexico: 1845 US annexed Texas
* Manifest Destiny: belief that US was destined to rule the continent from coast to coast.
* Mexican-American War: ended by the Treaty of Guadalupe- Hidalgo (1848): b/w Mexico and US: US acquired about 1/2 of Mexico's national territory but less than 5% of population
* Benito Juarez: 1806-1872: Native American, legal education, became governor of his state.  Worked for a secular society where old privileges of the church and the army would be eliminated.
* La Reforma: liberal revolt in 1854: military and clerical privileges were curtailed and church property was placed on sale.
* By 1910: about half of Mexico's rural population was landless
* Conservatives asked for help from France: Napoleon III sent troops, 1862 French forces took Mexico City.
* Maximilian von Habsburg, an Austrian archduke, took the throne of Mexico, only ruled with help of French troops, executed in 1867
* Juarez ruled again until his death in 1872
* Porfirio Diaz: general under Juarez, became president and virtual dictator

Argentina: The Port and the Nation
* Rio de la Plata: pampas in southern South America
* Secularism
* Centralism: desire to create a strong national government
* Juan Manuel de Rosa: federalist who took control in Buenos Aires: campaigned against Native Americans in the south and opened new lands to cattle ranchers.
* Domingo F. Sarmiento (1811-1888) liberal president of Argentina, wrote book Faucundo against the caudillos

The Brazilian Empire
* Transition to nationhood was smooth: slavery, large landholdings, and an export economy remained securely in place: reinforced by new Brazilian nobility
* 1831 Dom Pedro I abdicated for his son Dom Pedro II
* Major export: COFFEE: coffee estates (fazendas)
* Slavery was Brazil's primary form of labor: trans-Atlantic slave trade continued through 1850 and Brazil didn't finally abolish slavery until 1888.  Last nation in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery
* Dom Pedro II: enlightened leader, worked for infrastructure
* After 1850: new immigrants, mostly from Italy and Portugal came to Brazil
* 1889: military coup deposed the emperor and established a republic under military men strongly influenced by positivist intellectuals and Republican politicians
* Antonio Conselheiro, religious mystic, gathered followers in the 1890's, especially among peasants: four military expeditions were sent against "New Jerusalem"

Societies in Search of Themselves
* Social change came very slowly for Native Americans, blacks, and women

Cultural Expression After Independence
* Latin America was influenced by neoclassical as well as Romanticism
* Jose Hernandez: 1872 wrote Martin Fierro, romantic epic poem about the end of the gaucho (cowboys)
* J. Machado de Assis (1839-1908): African Brazilian author known as Brazil's greatest novelist of the 19th c.

Old Patterns of Gender, Class, and Race
* Women's status didn't change much
* Lower-class women had more economic freedom
* By 1870's: women were an important part of the workforce
* Public Education: educate girls so they could educate their own children some day
* Rise of secular public education
* Conflict between indigenous peoples and ruling elites

The Great Book, 1880-1920
* Europe and US wanted more raw materials, foodstuffs, and specialized tropical crops
* Central America: bananas and coffee; Cuba: tobacco and sugar; Brazil: rubber and coffee; Mexico: hennequen, copper, silver; Argentina: wool, wheat, beef; Chile: copper
* War of the Pacific (1879-1883) between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia over control of nitrates. 
* Foreign investments provided Latin America with needed capital and services but tended to place to place key industries, transportation facilities, and services in foreign hands.

Mexico and Argentina: Examples of Economic Transformation
* Mexico: Juarez to Porfirio Diaz: industrialization
* Cientificos: advisors who were strongly influenced by positivist ideas and who wanted to impose a scientific approach on the national economy
* Economic expansion at the expense of the peasantry
* Mexican Revolution: 10 year civil war: beginning in 1910
* Argentina: led by Buenos Aires
* Golondrinas (literally, swallows) immigrants that worked harvests in Italy and Argentina

Uncle Sam Goes South
* US commerce and investments in Latin America increased following the Civil War
* 1898: Spanish-American War- US occupied Cuba, Puerto Rico,and the Philippines
* Direct US occupation of the Caribbean
* Panama Canal (land originally controlled by Colombia, Colombia resisted allowing US to build, US backed Panamanian independence movement and then obtained the rights from the new Govt.)