The Americas in the 19th Century

American Patterns, Unit 5

• “New Nation” Problems• Social hierarchy tensions– Colonial descendants, indigenous

peoples, slavery, & immigration

• Threats to unity– Foreign interventions post-

independence

• Industrialization vs. export economies

Plan of Attack

1. Analyze Spanish American Revolutions

2. Analyze United States expansion & economic development

3. Analyze interactions between North America and Latin America and Europe

Causes of Revolution: up to 1808• Creole

unhappiness–Plantations and

monopoly of trade to Spain

–Expulsion of Jesuits

• Enlightenment thinking & Other Revolutions

• Limited self-gov’t and population balance

Napoleon (1799-1814)

Spain Devolves into Civil War

Latin American Revolutions, 1810-1825

PARTICIPANTS?• Jesuits & Creoles create

new national identity: Americanismo–Not Spanish…so what is it?

South American Leadership

• Simon Bolivar

Jose de San Martin & United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata

“New Nation” Problems

• Colonial heritage Problem identifying experienced political leadership

• Political Legitimacy: monarchy or republic? State boundaries?– Caudillismo (charismatic strongman)

• Economic hardship

Conservatives vs. Liberals

• Tension between:– Emphasizing Western superiority

(architecture; skin color; European standards of culture)

– Emphasis on indigenous cultures (dance; music; literature)

Mexico• Father Miguel

de Hidalgo, 1810

• Monarchy under Augustin de Iturbide

• Executed in 1824

• “Republic”

Cultural Development of U.S.

• American exceptionalism– Colonial heritage: Puritan “city on a hill”– The Revolution: shining beacon of liberty and self-

determination

• Expansionist culture: Manifest Destiny– “We love to indulge in thoughts of the future extent

and power of this Republic – because with its increase is the increase of human happiness and liberty…What has miserable, inefficient Mexico – with her superstition…her actual tyranny by the few over the many – what has she to do with the great mission of peopling the New World with a noble race? Be it ours, to achieve that mission!” – Walt Whitman, poet, 1846

Global long-distance migration, 1840-1940Destination Origins Amount Auxiliary Origins

Americas (65% went to US)

Europe 55-58 million 2.5 million from India, China, Japan, Africa

SE Asia and Indian Ocean rim

India, S. China 48-52 million 5 million from Africa, Europe, NE Asia, Middle East

Manchuria, Siberia, Central Asia, Japan

NE Asia, Russia 46-51 million

Foreign Interventions• Monroe Doctrine (1823)• South American “Dollar Diplomacy”:

industrialized areas work with local governments to advance commercial interests.

• Mexico defeats Spanish invasion in 1829 and French invasions in 1838 and 1862, but loses territory to US in 1848

Roundtable Discussion

Roundtable Discussion

• How should we analyze the changes and continuities in North America from 1750-1900?

• How should we analyze the changes and continuities in Latin America from 1750-1900?

• How should we compare North America and Latin America in 1750?

• How should we compare North America and Latin America in 1900?