Download Nation Building in Latin America

Nation Building in Latin
America
21.4
Nationalist Revolts
• Revolutionary ideas in Latin America were
sparked by the successes of revolutions
in North America.
• In Latin American society, peninsulares
controlled the political and economic systems
of the colonies.
• Creoles resented peninsulares and favored
the revolutionary ideals of equality.
• A slave revolt in Hispaniola led to the
formation of Haiti in 1804.
Nationalist Revolts
• In Mexico, a priest named Miguel Hidalgo
roused the local Native Americans and
mestizos to free themselves of Spanish
control.
• In 1821, Mexico declared its independence
and became a republic in 1823.
• Two men, known as the “Liberators of South
America,” were heavily influenced by events
in Europe and set South America on the path
of freedom.
Nationalist Revolts
• José de San Martín of Argentina fought
the Spaniards and liberated Argentina in
1810 before crossing the Andes
Mountains and liberating Chile in 1817.
• Simón Bolívar, who had liberated
Venezuela, arrived in Peru and helped
San Martín’s forces liberate Peru in 1824.
• In 1822, the prince regent of Brazil
declared independence from Portugal.
Nationalist Revolts
• In 1823, the Central American states
declared their independence and
eventually became the states of
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa
Rica, and Nicaragua.
• By the end of 1824, Peru, Uruguay,
Paraguay, Colombia, Venezuela,
Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile had all
gained independence from Spain.
Nationalist Revolts
• Latin American independence movements
faced a major threat from European
powers who favored the use of soldiers to
restore Spanish control in Latin America.
• American president James Monroe issued
the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 warning
against European intervention in Latin
America, and guaranteeing Latin American
independence.
Nationalist Revolts
• The British also favored Latin American
independence and used their navy to deter
any European invasion of Central and
South America.
Nation Building
• After they became independent, Latin
American nations faced a staggering
range of problems.
• Most of the new nations of Latin America
established republican forms of
government, but soon caudillos gained
power.
• Supported by the landed elite, the
caudillos used military power to rule.
Some modernized the new national states
by building schools, roads, and canals.
Nation Building
• In Mexico, Antonio López de Santa
Anna ruled Mexico from 1833 to 1855.
Santa Anna misused state funds, halted
reforms, and
created chaos.
• American settlers in the Texas region
revolted against Santa Anna’s dictatorial
rule and won independence from Mexico
in 1836.
Nation Building
• In 1845, Mexico was forced to give up
nearly one-half of its land following defeat
to the United States in the Mexican War.
• Following Santa Anna, Benito Juárez
came to power. He brought liberal reforms
to Mexico, including limiting the power of
the military and religious tolerance.
Nation Building
• Although Latin American nations were
politically independent, they were still
economically dependent on the United
States and Great Britain.
• Britain dominated trade with the Latin
American nations, and the United States
became the primary source of loans and
investment money.
Nation Building
• Latin American economies were dependent
on cash crops, and national economies were
often reliant on a single cash crop.
• A fundamental problem of all the new Latin
American nations was the domination of
society by the landed elites.
• Landowners generally controlled the political
and economic systems of the nation, and
their devotion to cash crops left little tillable
land for farming food products.
Change in Latin America
• Many Latin American governments
patterned their new constitutions after the
United States Constitution.
• The United States began to intervene in Latin
America by making Cuba a protectorate and
annexing Puerto Rico
in 1898.
• In 1903, President Roosevelt supported a
rebellion that allowed Panama to separate
from Colombia in return for the right to build
the Panama Canal.
Change in Latin America
• As Americans invested in Latin America, they
demanded that these investments be
protected. American military forces
intervened in Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia,
Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
• In some instances, U.S. military forces stayed
for decades, as in Haiti and Nicaragua,
leading to Latin American resentment of
North American intervention.
Change in Latin America
• In Mexico, the conservative government of
Porfirio Díaz (1877–1911) was ousted by
the liberal landowner, Francisco Madero.
• In northern Mexico, Pancho Villa’s armed
bandits swept the countryside.
• Emiliano Zapata called for land reform,
and began to redistribute the land to the
masses but refused to work with Madero.
Change in Latin America
• Between 1910 and 1920, the Mexican
Revolution caused great damage to the
Mexican economy.
• In 1917, a new constitution was accepted.
Mexico would be led by a president, land
reform would be enacted, and foreign
investment would be limited.
Change in Latin America
• The prosperity of trade after 1870 led to an
emerging middle class comprised of
teachers, lawyers, doctors, merchants,
and businesspeople.
• The middle-class Latin Americans became
a stabilizing force in the region, and once
given the right to vote, often sided with the
landed elite.