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Latin America Establishment of Latin American States Author: Allen Pikermen Date: 2002 The new nations of Latin America faced a complex of dilemmas that bequeathed a frustrating century of political instability and foreign economic domination. Civil wars, revolutions, and regimes came and went with alarming and costly regularity. Progressive leaders who tried to modernize their countries had to face the opposition of powerful, traditional institutions and massive and complex social problems. The Creation Of The Latin American States In the first decades of the nineteenth century, the Latin American colonies pursued an irresistible movement for independence (see ch. 23). By 1825, Spanish and Portuguese power was broken in the Western Hemisphere, and nine new political units emerged in Latin America. Mexico, Guatemala, Great Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile were free of Spain, and Brazil had gained its independence from Portugal. Once free of those powers, however, the new nations of Latin America were hampered by European and North American dominance over their economic and political affairs. For most of the new Latin American nations their first half century was a time of decline and disappointment. The great liberators could not maintain control of the nations they had freed. The liberal, urban Creoles who had begun the independence movements were inexperienced and unable to make the political compromises necessary to govern new countries. They soon lost power to crude military leaders, or caudillos, whose armed gangs struggled for power in a confusing series of upheavals. A growing sectionalism accompanied these coups. Mammoth states broke up into tiny republics, which in turn were threatened by localism. In part, Latin America's problems resulted from the Spanish colonial system that had offered native-born whites little opportunity or responsibility in government. The tradition of autocracy and paternalism was a poor precedent for would-be democratic republics. The emphasis on executive power inspired presidents, generals, landowners, and church officials to wield authority with arrogant disregard for public opinion and representative government. The colonial economic system, based on raw materials rather than industry, encouraged concentration of land and other forms of wealth in a few hands. The church with its vast properties, monopoly on education and welfare agencies, and command over cultural life complicated the politics of every new nation. In addition, the new states were cursed by problems associated with the wars of independence. Some of the most productive areas were devastated. Hatred and division remained. Many men who had fought the royalists remained armed, predisposed to a life of violence and pillage and likely to group themselves about the caudillos, who promised adventure or profit in revolutions. The final problem facing the new states was that of racial disunity. In 1825 there were from 15 to 18 million people in the former Spanish empire. About 3 million of them were whites, the wealthiest and most educated population. That figure remained constant until the last third of the century, when immigration from Europe inreased drastically. There were about the same number of mestizos, who scorned the Indians, but were not accepted by whites. Their numbers steadily increased, as did their ambition. During the nineteenth century at least half of the population in some states was Indian. Deprived of the small protection once offered by the Spanish crown, they either sank into peonage or lived in semi-independence under their tribal rulers. Finally, in Brazil and most of the Caribbean island, blacks were in a large majority. Conflicts of interest quickly developed between these broad racial groups, particularly between the Creoles and the mestizos. The pernicious effects of these divisive factors can be seen in the experiences of each nation. Mexico Despite its promising beginning in 1821, Mexico suffered a half-century of turmoil. The empire of Iturbide lasted only a few months, and was replaced by a federal republic. In less than ten years, however, a coup enabled a preposterous military leader name Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (1795-1876) to become dictator. His notorious rule witnessed the massacre of the defenders of the Alamo in 1836 and the general debasement of Mexico's political life. His conduct of the war with the United States (1846-1848) humiliated Mexico. The overthrow of this corrupt, incompetent caudillo in 1855 brought more thoughtful and circumspect men into politics. The liberals, under the leadership of Benito Juarez (1806-1872) set out to implement a reform program known as the Reforma. They planned to establish a more democratic republic, destroy the political and economic force of the church, and include the mestizos and Indians in political life. A terrible civil war followed their anticlerical measures; it ended in 1861 with the apparent victory of Juarez, but inability to meet payments on debts owed to foreigners brought an invasion of Mexico by European powers and the establishment of a French puppet regime. By 1867 popular uprisings and pressure from the United States had driven French troops from Mexican soil. Juarez again set out to institute the Reforma, but the poverty of the country hampered progress. After he died, one of his adherents, Porfirio Diaz (1830-1915), took power. Under Diaz, who served as president from 1877 to 1880 and again from 1884 to 1911, Mexican politics stabilized. Foreign capital entered in large amounts. Factories, railroads, mines, trading houses, plantations, and enormous ranches flourished, and Mexico City became one of the most impressive capitals in Latin America. Diaz's rule, though outwardly conforming to the constitution, was a dictatorship. If there was much encouragement of arts and letters, there was no liberty. The Indians sank lower and lower into peonage or outright slavery. In spite of the anticlerical laws of the Juarez period, the church was quietly permitted to acquire great wealth, and foreign investors exploited Mexico, creating a long-lasting hatred of foreigners. In 1910 the critics of Diaz found a spokesman in a frail, eccentric man named Francisco Madero (1873-1913) who undertook to lead a revolutionary movement and surprised the world by succeeding. Madero was murdered in 1913, and Mexico endured another period of turmoil during which the country was controlled mainly by self-styled local rulers. Still, a determined group was able to organize a revolutionary party and to bring about the only genuine social revolution that Latin America experienced until the First World War. Argentina Until the 1970s, Argentina was probably the most advanced Spanish-speaking country in the world. It attained this position in a period of sudden growth that followed a half century of sluggishness. Its beginning as a free nation was promising. Soon, however, the bustling port city of Buenos Aires, whose energetic population sought to encourage European capital and commerce, found itself overawed by the caudillos, the great ranchers of the interior, and their retainers, the guachos - colorful, nomadic, cowboys and bandits whose way of life has been romanticized in literature and folklore. The caudillos intimidated the supporters of constitutional government in Buenos Aires, and until midcentury, Argentina was not a republic, but rather a gaucho paradise, isolated and ruled by men who wanted to keep European influences out. In 1852 a combination of progressive elements overthew the gaucho leader. Commerce with Europe was revived and within ten years Argentina had become a united republic of admirable stability. The constitution was usually observed and individual rights were respected to a high degree. Immigrants poured in, and soon the population of Argentina became the most European of the New World republics, for it contained few Indians or blacks. Foreign capital, especially British, brought about amazing developments; port facilities, railroads, light industry, and urban conveniences were among the most advanced in the world. Buenos Aires became by far the largest and most beautiful city in Latin America, despite its location on a monotonous, flat plain beside a muddy estuary. The flat plain, or pampas, is perhaps the richest land in the world for grass and wheat, and livestock have been multiplying there for centuries. The introduction of refrigerated ships around 1880 made it feasible to transport enormous quantities of fresh beef to Britain in exchange for capital and finished goods. About 1900 wheat joined beef as a major Argentine export. This intimate commercial relationship with Britain, which lasted until after World War II, affected nearly every aspect of Argentine life. Nevertheless, although elite society was dominated by leaders who were pro-British in business and pro-French in culture, a true Argentine nationalism was developing. Along with the growth of this powerful sentiment came demands for more democracy and a wider distribution of wealth. Brazil For many years this former Portuguese colony escaped the turbulence and disorders that befell its Spanish-speaking neighbors, probably because it had achieved independence without years of warfare and military dominance and because it enjoyed the continuity and legitimacy afforded by a respected monarchy. The first emperor, Pedro I (1822-1831), promulgated a constitution in 1824, and the accession to the throne of Pedro II in 1840 initiated a period of political liberty and economic and cultural progress that lasted throughout his fifty-year reign. Immigrants were attracted to this peaceful land, and foreign investments were heavy, but without the massive exploitation that Mexico experienced under Diaz. Economic growth tended to favor the southeastern part of the country at the expense of the great sugar plantations in the tropical north. The abolition of slavery in 1888 hurt the sugar lords economically, and they rose up against the emperor. Joining them were army officers, who resented the civilian nature of Pedro's regime, and a small number of ideological republicans. In 1889 the aging emperor was forced to abdicate. For nearly ten years the new federal republic of Brazil underwent civil wars and military upheavals, much like those experienced by other Latin American countries. Finally, the republic was stabilized with the army in control, and Brazil resumed its progressive course. Foreign capital continued to enter, and immigration from Europe remained heavy. By 1914 Brazil was generally stable and prosperous, with a growing tradition of responsible government. Other Latin American Nations Political turmoil, geographical handicaps, and racial disunity all played a part in the development of the other new nations in Latin America. Bolivia, named so hopefully for the Liberator Simon Bolvar, underwent countless revolutions. Peru's course was almost as futile. The state of Great Colombia dissolved by 1830, and its successors - Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador - were plagued by instability and civil wars. Paraguay endured a series of dictatorships and Uruguay, created in 1828 as a buffer between Argentina and Brazil, long suffered from interventions by those two countries. An exception to the prevailing pattern of political chaos was the steady growth of the republic of Chile. in 1830 Chile came under the control of a conservative oligarchy. Although this regime proved to be generally enlightened, the country was kept under tight control for a century and was ruled for the benefit of the large landlords and big business. Central America narrowly escaped becoming part of Mexico in 1822. After a fifteen-year effort to create a Central American confederation, Guatemala, San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica asserted their independence. Except for Costa Rica, where whites comprised the bulk of the population, racial disunity delayed the development of national feeling. In the Caribbean the Dominican Republic, after decades of submission to more populous but equally underdeveloped Haiti, maintained a precarious independence. Foreign Dominance The Industrial Revolution came into full stride just after the Latin American republics were born. The great industries of western Europe and the United States demanded more and more raw materials and new markets in which to sell finished products. Capital accumulated, and investors eagerly sought opportunities to place their money where they could obtain high rates of interest. This drive for markets, raw materials, and outlets for surplus capital led to classic examples of economic imperialism. The continual disorder and the lack of strong governments in Latin America gave businesses the opportunity to obtain rich concessions and float huge loans. Many of the Latin American government leaders, brought to power through revolution and interested only in personal gain, often resorted to the vicious practice of selling concessions to foreign corporations for ready cash. Political bosses bartered away the economic heritage of their lands, for Latin America was rich in minerals, oil, and other important resources. Foreign investors sometimes acted in good faith, providing capital at a reasonable rate of interest to Latin American regimes which, it became apparent, had no intention of fulfilling the contract. On other occasions unscrupulous capitalists took full advantage of officials in ignorant or helpless governments. Injured foreign investors usually appealed to their government to intercede in their behalf, and an unending stream of diplomatic correspondence over debt claims was begun. The United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain - the chief investor states - would not permit their citizens to be mistreated in their ventures into foreign investments. In 1902-1903 a dispute between Venezuela and a coalition formed by Germany, Great Britain, and Italy provoked the three European powers into blockading the Latin American country and even firing on some of the coastal fortifications to remind the Venezuelan dictator of his obligations to some of their nationals. U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt at first stood by, watching Venezuela take its punishment. Then he became suspicious of German motives and began to match threat with threat, forcing the Europeans to back down and place the issue into international arbitration. In 1904 Roosevelt issued the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, an addition that was a frank statement that chronic wrongdoing on the part of Latin American governments might force the United States to exercise an international police power. Picturesquely described as the policy of speaking softly but carrying a big stick, the Roosevelt pronouncement launched the era of the Big Stick. The United States established a customs receivership in the Dominican Republic and exercised similar control in Nicaragua and Haiti. The Roosevelt Corollary expanded the Monroe Doctrine from its original purpose of keeping out European political interference in Latin America to enlarging the commercial interests of the United States. In 1898 the United States had gone to war with Spain over the way the Spaniards ruled Cuba: the mistreatment of the Cubans also affected American commercial interests. Victory in the brief, dramatic, and well-publicized Spanish-American War brought the United States recognition as a world power and a conglomeration of islands in the Pacific Ocean as well as in the Caribbean. The United States annexed Puerto Rico and placed the Philippines, halfway around the world, under American rule. Sensitive to accusations of imperialism in Cuba, the U. S. government offered Cuba an imperfect, closely tutored independence in which the Cubans were obliged by law to acknowledge the right of the United States to intervene for the "preservation of Cuban independence" and the "maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty." These and other restrictions on Cuban independence were embodied in the Platt Amendment (1901) to the new Cuban constitution. Thus the United States established its first American protectorate. Panama soon became another protectorate of the United States. Generally both American business and the local population profited. Roosevelt oversaw the introduction of what has been called Dollar Diplomacy - the coordinated activites of American foreign investors and the U.S. State Department to obtain and protect concessions for the investors. From 1890 this policy won concessions for Americans in Latin American products such as sugar, bananas, and oil from more than a dozen Latin American republics. In the face of such activities, the pious assertions of those espousing the Pan-American philosophy - that the nations of the western hemisphere were bound by common geography and democratic political ideals - gained little acceptance. The "Colossus of the North," as the Latin American nations referred to the United States clearly acted in its own self-interest. Sarcastic observers referred to the Pan-American Union, founded in 1889, as "the Colonial Division of the Department of State." By 1914 Latin America's relations with the rest of the world were neither healthy nor comforting. After a century of independence, Latin America still lingered on the margins of international life. Left to shift for itself in the face of a future shaded by U.S. imperialism, Latin America saw only a hard road ahead in its relations with the outside world. [See Battle Of Quasimas: Nearly one-quarter of the invasion force that sailed for Cuba was made up of black troops. This illustration of the Battle of Quasimas near Santiago, Cuba, June 24, 1898, shows the 9th and 10th Colored Cavalry supporting the Rough Riders in the battle against the Spanish. Black soldiers also helped the Rough Riders take San Juan Hill. From Library Of Congress] A project by History World International |