Americas [individual assignment]
THE AMERICAS
The United States
Democratic government and respect for civil liberties (despite racial and gender inequality) made America an example during the 1800s for those in other countries who wished to bring about similar changes.
The USA quickly became the dominant power in the Americas, practicing economic imperialism (pressuring weaker nations to offer favorable trade terms) in much of Latin America. The Monroe Doctrine (1823) warned Europe against intervening in the western hemisphere’s political affairs. The USA won Spanish-American War (1898) and gained control over Caribbean and Philippine territories.
The USA expanded through the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), numerous Indian wars, the 1867 purchase of Alaska and the annexation of the Hawaiian kingdom in the 1890s. From 1907 to 1909, following the order of Theodore Roosevelt, the great white fleet (16 warships) rounded the world. This was the manifestation of the USA as a major power.
The U.S. handling of Native Americans vacillated between assimilationist attempts to “civilize” them and military campaigns of expulsion or pacification – the so-called Indian wars. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 pushed many tribes of Indians west of the Mississippi. The Indians were placed on reservations with some degree of autonomy, but even when the U.S. government negotiated in good faith, farmers, ranchers, and miners often broke peace, leading to more forced resettlement. For example, the Ghost Dance resistance, which led to the 1890 massacre of Sioux ad Wounded Knee, was precipitated by American desire for the gold discovered in the Black Hills territory sacred to Sioux.
The American South economy was based on slavery and the Atlantic slave-trade. It was the underlying cause of the U.S. Civil War (1861–1865), and race relations are still affected by its legacy today. Prior to the Civil War, several slave revolts were attempted – most famously by Nat Turner in 1831 and John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859.
During the last two-thirds of the 1800s, the United States equaled and then surpassed Europe as an industrial power. Many of the era’s key innovations came from here. New York joined London as one of the world’s most important hubs for banking and commerce.
Political freedom and economic opportunity drew huge quantities of immigrants – nearly 17 million between the 1830s and the 1890s – from Europe and Asia. Anti-immigrant sentiment was common.
Latin America
By the 1830s, most of Latin America was made up of independent nations, which had been established by revolutions against their respective colonial governments. Simon Bolivar drafted constitutions for more than a dozen nations after the wars of independence, influenced by the Napoleonic law code and the ideals of the American and French revolutions. But good constitutions did not by themselves bring good government, social justice. Or healthy economies, and even Bolivar, before his death in 1830, mourned that “we have achieved our independence… at the expense of everything else.”
These new nations faced many problems, such as economies that had been disrupted by many years of warfare and large armies loyal to regional commanders (caudillos) instead of to the new national governments. Additionally, the role of the Catholic Church remained strong. Few questioned its doctrines, but many wanted to limit its role in civil life. In Mexico, for example, politics was a struggle between conservatives and liberals, and instability and financial difficulty made it a target for foreign intervention by the United States and Europe.
Also problematic in Latin America was the persistence of racial inequality. Although constitution theoretically did away with colonial-era hierarchies, Indians, blacks, and those of mixed race still experienced much prejudice. As in the U.S. and Canada, Indian wars were common throughout Latin America, particularly in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the Argentinian pampas, and Brazil’s Amazon basin. The Atlantic slave trade continued to bring Africans against their will to Latin America and the Caribbean, and slavery remained legal in Cuba and Brazil until the 1880s.
Moreover, Latin America contended with economic backwardness. Centuries of colonial rule had geared Latin America economies toward an overreliance on resources extraction (guano for fertilizer, precious metals, such as Mexican copper) and plantation monoculture (sugar, coffee, fruits). Both damaged the environment and hindered industrialization until late in the 1800s. Moreover, these practices, which depended on slaves or poorly paid peasants and migrant labourers, fostered social inequality. Profits went overwhelmingly to the elite classes and their foreign-investor partners, leaving a wide gap between rich and poor. A certain measure of industrialization occurred in some parts of the region before 1900, with countries like Mexico and Argentina leading the way.
Questions for experts
1. What factors influenced on the Americas’ history?
2. What were the differences and similarities between the USA and Latin American countries?
3. What distinguishes Americas (USA and Latin America) from the other regions considered in this topic? (Before answering read about other region in the topic 9).