Emerging Latin America, Term Paper Example

Assignment 2.1 a: Latin American Independence

Thesis:  The Imperial collapse of government in Latin America during the time period of 1808-1825 initiates a struggle for independence under the premise of liberalism and nationalism that varies greatly from region to region and shapes present day Latin America

• Revolution and War in Europe

1. The war in England expectantly plays a part in the initiation of the struggle for independence.
2. The French Revolution (1789-1799) and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) is the initiator of the Latin American climb to independence.
3. “Spanish American independence began to exist de facto in 1808, when the Spanish king was imprisoned by Napoleon.”
4. The Latin American people are further inspired by the French period of enlightenment proclaiming Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
5. In late 1807 Napoleon invades Portugal and Prince Joao, the royal family, and their entourage flees to Rio de Janeiro where they set up court and become the political center of the Portuguese speaking world enjoying a peaceful existence.
6. Spanish kings Carlos IV and his heir Prince Fernando are captured by Napoleon and are forced to abdicate their thrones to Napoleon’s brother Joseph who is crowned King of Spain, although most Spaniards and Spanish American refuse to accept his monarchy.A national resistance committee called The Central Junta which represented the Spanish people, but not the Spanish American people reject the dictates of Napoleonic rule and remain to their perceived legitimate king, Fernando VII.

• The Spanish American Rebellions Begin, 1810-1815

1. Rebellion is ignited by the derision between native-born whites, called Creoles and Spaniards born on the Iberian Peninsula called Peninsulars.
2. “In 1810 Spanish America’s political upheavals began in earnest.  A Creole conspiracy in Mexico’s northern mining region sparked a massive rebellion of indigenous and mestizo peasants led by a Creole Priest named Father Miguel Hidalgo.”  There were many casualties of the battle with no real gains.
3. One of Hidalgo’s Officers, a mestizo priest named Father Jose Maria Morelos took up the failed mantle of Hidalgo.  “Morelos prohibited the use of caste classifications.  All born in Mexico were simply ‘Americanos.’  In 1813, he declared outright independence.
4. Peru along with other Andean areas such as Bolivia and Ecuador, remained cooperatively quiet in fear from previous revolts, during the crisis years of the early 1810’s as major revolts erupted elsewhere.”
5. Revolution in Venezuela was maneuvered by elite influential Creole men in the two cities of Caracas and Buenos Aires. “When the crisis of legitimacy began in Spain, Creoles in Caracas and Buenos Aires reacted like those elsewhere.  Gradually, however, they shelved their protestations of loyalty to the king, embraced the liberal revolution, and moved toward full independence.  Their critics called this “taking off the mask of Fernando.”

• The Patriots’ Winning Strategy:  Nativism

1. Nativism unites the people in their struggle for independence.
2. A short-lived revolt was launched in Pernambucan in 1817, but did not inspire mass appeal.
3. “In 1822 Rio’s native-born elite formed a Brazilian Party the claimed to represent the Brazilian people against Portuguese recolonization.”

• Patriot Victories in Spanish America, 1815-1825

1. The independence of Mexico was at hand when Vincent Guerrero, a mestizo man of the people and a Creole army commander named Augustin De Iturbide joined forces
2. Simon Bolivar called the “Liberator” and credited as the single most important leader of Spanish-American independence claimed victory in Ayacucho.

• Unfinished Revolutions

1. Latin American women find the new republic as patriarchal as the past.
2. The Latin American countries are sel governed, but the old caste system is still in place.

Assignment 2.1 b: Answer the following questions as described, then save your analysis to a file and submit that file as an email attachment to your professor. Be sure to number your responses.

1. Under the “enlightened” rule of the Bourbons, the Spanish colonies of the eighteenth century witnessed dramatic changes in politics and economics. Find at least five documents from Ch. 9 of Keen’s to support this view. Cite the document and give a one or two sentence annotation that indicates what the document offers on this theme. Try to include short quoted phrases from some of the documents within your own sentences.
2. Lucas Alaman’s “The Bourbon Commercial Reforms,” shows the financial consequences the Spanish colonies faces when they were only allowed to trade with only one country. One consequence of it was that certain merchants were able to “raise prices at will.”
3. Alaman’s “Political Reform: The Intendant System,” provides a good picture of how the Bourbons increased administrative efficiency. He praises Don Manuel Flon for stamping out nepotism, and Don Jose Antonio Rojas for “encouraging he rich citizens of Guanajuato to form companies for the exploitation of old and abandoned mine as well as new ones.”
4. Fray Jose Sullivan’s “The New Experimental Sciences and Catholic Education” shows how the Bourbons promoted scientific advancement, in spite of political opposition. Some of the opposition was religious, but Sullivan argues that machines for scientific advancement “are leading man toward God.”
5. Alexander von Humboldt’s “Colonial Industry in Decline,” details the problems the colonies faced as cheap foreign goods began to lower the demand for more expensive domestic products. Part of the problem was the primitive nature of Mexican factories, of which Humboldt writes that travelers are “disagreeably struck, not only with the great imperfection of the technical process in the preparation for dying, but also with the unhealthiness of the situation, and the bad treatment to which the workmen are exposed.”
6. Bishop Manuel Abad Queipo’s “The More it Changes…” shows how some of the political reforms of the Bourbons actually made life worse for Spain’s Indians. The Spaniard’s treatment of the native populations was so bad that Queipo writes that “the two classes of Indians and castes are sunk into the greatest abasement and degradation.”

3. According to Keen, “intellectual ferment among literate classes” increased in the late eighteenth century. Find evidence in documents 1 through 3 from Ch. 10 of Keen’s to support this view. Provide a list of at least five “notes,” specifically citing documents. Each note should be two or three sentences and some should integrate quotations from the document.
4. Francisco Jose de Caldas’s “Colonial Journalism in Action” shows increased Intellectual awareness and action by detailing efforts to bring the colonies out of a state of “indolence and ignorance.” Caldas encourages colonial residents to create a “detailed reconnaissance map” of each province. He urges them to share geographic and economic information and to pursue educational opportunities.
5. Jose Joaquin Fernandez de Lizardi provides more evidence of an intellectual awakening in his work, “A Colonial Free Thinker.” Lizardi tells the story of a black man, who wins a duel by intellectual means, rather than by firing. The black man’s cool reasoning in the face of an emotional conflict wins him the friendship and admiration of those who witness his actions.
6. Lizardi’s writing also brings his readers’ attention to the values of honor and enlightenment values that filled the colonies during this time period. He writes of his eagerness to befriend the black duelist, though he did not know him well at all. This sort of thinking marks a change in colonial attitudes.
7. Simon Rodriguez provides more evidence of intellectualism in the colonies in his work, “A Plan for Democratic Education. Rodriguez highlights the importance of education in the colonies, stating that “School does not enjoy the esteem it deserves.” He frowns at the “scarcity” of schools and notes that “few appreciate its usefulness.”
8. Rodriguez frowns at the lack of attention schools are given and asks that the colonies not be content just to make students learn with whatever they are given. He pushes for coordinated lessons and the provision of high quality books for pupils that wish to learn. Reform, says Rodriguez, is “indispensable.”

1. Just as there were stirrings among educated Spanish Americans, there was resistance among the lower classes. Find evidence in documents 4 through 7 from Ch. 10 of Keen’s to support this view. Provide a list of at least five “notes,” specifically citing documents. Each note should be two or three sentences and some should integrate quotations from the document.
2. Manuel de Odriozola’s documentation of the arguments of the fiscal attorney of the viceroyalty of Buenos Aires describes the rebellion of Tupac Amaru as wicked. However, Odriozola acknowledges that Amaru has focused on leading the lower classes to independence. Indeed, according to Odriozola. Amaru had “already succeeded in assembling a large number of Indians,” and with them, “slew some 300 men who came out to halt his advance on Cuzco.”
3. Odriozola comments that Amaru was able to offer natives “freedom, not only from customs’ house duties, but from sales taxes, tributes, and forced labor in mines.” This is admits, is a very good incentive for natives to follow him.
4. Amaru’s wife Micaela Bastidas in Keen’s “A Heroine of the Tupac Amaru Revolt” shows how much the rebellion meant to those who participated in it. Bastidas tells her husband that if he does not return soon, she herself will march on their enemies. Yet she also speaks of the unease of her fellow rebels, telling Amaru that they are “largely beginning to desert.”
5. Manuel Briceno in “A Charter of Liberty” gives more evidence of the resistance among lower classes. He presents a number of demands that reflect the discontent of the lower classes. One of these demands is the decreased taxation of the Indians, who Briceno says are “more poorly clothed and fed than hermits.”
6. Briceno also asks that Americans be given preference over Europeans when offices are to be filled. This shows the discontent the lower classes felt when ruled over by wealthier European officers. Indeed, Briceno asks for Europeans to be employed “only in case of necessity and according to their ability, good will and attachment to Americans.”

1. By the early nineteenth century, a “cleavage” was beginning to appear between Spaniards and creoles in the colonies. The Mexican Lucas Alamán and the Argentine Manuel Belgrano clearly represent different perspectives on the divisions in colonial society. Find evidence in documents 1 and 2 from Ch. 11 of Keen’s to support this view. Provide a list of at least six “notes,” three from each of the documents. Each note should be two or three sentences and some should integrate quotations from the document.
2. Lucas Alaman’s work “The Cleavage Within” documents the growing tensions between the Creoles and the Spanish. He notes that while Spanish immigrants worked hard for modest fortunes and good marriages, Creoles had become used to easy living. The result of this, according to Alaman, was that the European clerks did well for themselves while the sons of the Creoles “wasted their substance and in a few years were ruined.”
3. Alaman further notes that the number of Spaniards who lived in New Spain was around 70,000. These 70,000 Spaniards, he points out, “occupied nearly all the principal posts in the administration, the Church, the judiciary and the army.” The creoles, meanwhile, according to Alaman, usually accepted desk jobs that afforded them just enough money to get by on.
4. Finally, Alaman points out that jealousy between the Creole and the Spaniard was understandable, because the Spaniards were able to obtain positions that “gained them more favor with the fairer sex.” The tensions between the creoles and the Spaniards therefore, affected everything from business to matrimony.
5. Creole writer Manuel Belgrano observes that once he was exposed to the teachings of The French Revolution, he saw “only tyrants in those who would restrain a man, wherever he might be, from enjoying the rights which God and nature had endowed him.” Enlightenment ideals regarding liberty, equality and poverty caught his attention and helped him challenge Spanish practices.
6. Belgrano speaks of American mumblings against the Spanish, which were, perhaps, the first signs of a rift between Creoles and Spaniards. He also criticizes the reliance of Spanish officials on ideas meant only to secure monopolies and to increase personal fortune, rather than to better the community. This also caused a division.
7. Finally he points out how ill equipped the Americans were to cope with battles under Spanish rule. Rather than defending themselves, Americans fled and withdrew when British troops attacked them. This shameful realization also caused tension between the two groups.

• The struggles for independence in Spanish South America were led by powerful men of almost mythical “greatness.” Give an informal comment of about 150 words that gives your view on how Documents 3 through 5 of Keen’s Ch. 11 might contribute to such mythology.

The battles for Spanish South America were led by men who sometimes seemed larger than life. Among these were Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin. Louis Peru de Lacroix, one of Bolivar’s staff members, describes Bolivar as The Liberator. According to Lacroix, Bolivar’s ideas were always original and grand, his head was sometimes hot, but his heart was always kind. Bolivar had strange habits, such as leaping about and racing his friends, but, says Lacroix; he loved civility and insisted that his friends observe the rules of etiquette, particularly in church.

Daniel F. O’Leary adds to this account that Bolivar was an extraordinary leader who led his men toward victory by having them cross a path in the Andes that his enemy thought was unusable and had left unguarded. Although some men deserted, O’Leary says that when Bolivar spoke to those who remained, he inspired them and made them willing to press further.

San Martin, meanwhile, according to Bartolome Mitre, was quiet and unassuming. He enjoyed strategy and deceived his enemies by pretending even around his friends that he intended to attack in one area when his real target was another. When his enemy, the General of Chile heard the false news, he tried to defend several different areas, spread his troops too thin and allowed San Martin to win the battle.

Lesson 2.2: Postcolonial Blues

Assignment 2.2 a: Complete an analysis of Chasteen, Ch. 4 according to the Chapter Analysis Assignment Instructions

Post Colonial Blues

Thesis:  After the fall of Colonialism, Latin America put its hope in liberalism. Yet many of its hopes were shattered as liberal governments quickly began to fall apart. Leaders who promised liberal reform sought personal gain instead and a stream of violence and corruption caused many to lose hope in reform.

• Liberal Disappointment

1. Although Creole leaders spoke highly of liberalism, they found its principles difficult to rule by.
2. Many leaders attempted to create social equality by ridding the books of references to mixed-races, but the elites of Latin America failed to truly embrace equality.
3. As liberals failed to enact many of their ideas, conservatives rose to challenge them and the country became divided along liberal and conservative lines.
4. Economic devastation and political instability made the people of Latin America restless and unhappy with liberal governance – a feeling that conservatives were often able to capitalize on.

• Patronage Politics and Caudillo Leadership

1. Patronage Politics helped facilitate corruption throughout Latin America as leaders used their positions to obtain benefits for friends, family and political allies.
2. In exchange for such favors, the clients of such patrons were expected to support the same causes and ideals their leader supported.
3. Caudillos, the patrons with the most power, tended to be wealthy land owners who could afford to purchase large, personal militias.
4. The armies of the Caudillos played a significant rule in Latin America’s wars for independence and the Caudillos themselves were often charismatic war heroes who held a great deal of power which they tended to abuse.

• Brazil’s Different Path

1. Brazil followed a different path than many other Latin American nations, holding on to some colonial systems, including monarchy.
2. Holding on to some traditions helped Brazil maintain stability that other nations which tried to liberalize themselves too quickly lacked.
3. Instead of challenging the church as many other Latin American nations had, Brazil maintained a close relationship with the church.
4. Yet it also clung to illiberal institutions including slavery.
5. Although in other Latin American countries, the armies of Caudillos often rivaled and were able to overthrow the militias of the government, Brazil’s government maintained the largest and strongest military.
6. Although other countries were unstable, they were also more liberal and more liberated – Brazil granted comparatively little freedom and power to its people.
7. When regency liberals tried to bring about more liberalization by revolting against Brazilian monarchs, they failed. The monarchy won out and reforms were repealed.

• Continuities in Daily Life

1. In spite of the many tumultuous events that riddled Latin America, life for most Latin Americans stayed very much the same.
2. Indingenous people mainly continued to work on communal farms and kept themselves away from the political battlefrield.
3. Peons continued to work for patrons part time and for themselves at other times.
4. Individuals tended to remain in the feudal system.
5. Those who were wronged continued to be wrong, and, according to Chasteen, “in 1850, he oppressed majority of Latin America, the descendants of the conquered and enslaved were clearly not going to overthrow the descendants of the conquerors.” (Chasteen, 137)

Assignment 2.2 b: Answer the following questions as described, then save your analysis to a file and submit that file as an email attachment to your professor. Be sure to number your responses.

1. While Latin Americans debated the road to an independent future, they often disagreed over their view of the past. Find evidence in documents 1 and 2 from Ch. 12 of Keen’s to support this view. Provide a list of at least six “notes,” specifically citing documents. Each note should be two or three sentences and some should integrate quotations from the document.

2. While some Latin Americans looked to Spain for signs of how to create their future, others, such as Jose Victorino Lastarria, spoke out against the mother country. In his work, “The Fatal Legacy,” Lastarria denounced Spain, saying that it was “well known that the Spaniards who conquered America drenched its soil in blood.”
3. Lastarria also mentions that when Spain took over America, she “transplanted thither all the vices of her absurd system of government.” Furthermore, he says, Spain tried to exploit the American economy and keep America dependent on the mother country.
4. Lastarria also denounces Spain for its treatment of native peoples, declaring that Spain “subjected its natives to the most humiliating servitude. While pretending to respect American liberty and rights, he said, Spain imposed unbearable taxes on the American people.
5. Andres Bello defended Spain, in his work “In Defense of Spain,” in which he argues that traits like injustice and a propensity to engage in atrocities are not unique to the Spanish people. Rather, he says, “they are common to all people of all times.”
6. Bello claims that it is the weak that cling to the idea of justice. But, he says, “Let them grow strong and they will prove as unjust as their oppressors. The Spaniards, then, are not worse than other races in Bello’s eyes, they are simply stronger.
7. Finally, Bello claims that Spain is to be admired because it is civilizing the world. It is, he says, much like Rome, which was “the most powerful agency in the antique world.” Spain is providing this service, says Bello, to a “much vaster world.”

1. Although Simón Bolívar set out his view for an “ideal republic” in 1819, by 1862 Fancisco Bilboa was critical of the extent to which republican government had lived up to its ideals and promise.Find evidence in documents 3 and 4 from Ch. 12 of Keen’s to support this view. Provide a list of at least six “notes,” specifically citing documents. Each note should be two or three sentences and some should integrate quotations from the documents.
2. In “Bolivar’s Ideal Republic,” Simon Bolivar says that the republic must be established on an idea of equality. Indeed, “Most men, “says Bolivar “concede that men are born with equal rights to share benefits of society.”
3. Bolivar stresses that although men are not equal in intelligence, strength or character, laws can correct inequalities. They can, he says “create a fictitious equality” that will help create a classless state and will eliminate “cruel discord.”
4. The goal of the republic, according to Bolivar, should create “the greatest possible measure of happiness and the maximum of social security and political stability.” To achieve this, he says the people ought to support the people’s sovereignty, civil liberty the division of powers, the abolition of slavery and of monarchy.
5. Although Bolivar’s words brought hope to many; some became skeptical as time wore on. Among these was Francisco Bilbao, who criticized the Republican government. Yes, he said, the constitution might say “thought is free,” but it was only free inside the limits of the law.
6. Bilbao also remarked that although the government spoke of a free press, the press was only Bilbao also remarked that although the government spoke of a free press, the press was only free so long as the government supported it and in law suits, it could choose juries.
7. Finally, said Bilbao, the republican government, though it had made a case for freedom, had been taken over by “sophistry, duplicity and intrigue.” It was just as despotic as the governments before it and the goal of the government was not equality but power.

1. Go to the website on the U.S.-Mexican War at http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar. Peruse the site, examining the overviews and essays, until you have a sense of the general history of the war.

Part 1: Read carefully the Velasco-Márquez essay, “A Mexican Viewpoint on the War with the United States,” from the Prelude to War section and prepare a brief analysis in outline form, similar to that of the chapter analyses, that (1) summarizes the author’s central argument, (2) identifies the components of his argument, the reasoning by which he makes his case, (3) identifies some of the primary historical evidence he uses to support his position. [Put the full citation at the top of the page, followed by the outline. One page is sufficient.]

Velasco-Márquez, J. (2006). A Mexican Viewpoint on the War With the United States. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from The US-Mexican War: Prelude to War: http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/prelude/md_a_mexican_viewpoint.html

• Central Argument

The war between the United States and Mexico was a result of misunderstanding and the intentional twisting of facts by individuals inside the United States. While the United States believes Mexico declared war during this time period, Mexico merely tried to defend its territory from a United States Invasion. It remained as diplomatic as it could during these events.

• Components
• Political limitations hampered Mexico’s ability to negotiate.
• The constitution at that time prohibited transferring control of territories.
• It also forbade the executive power from negotiating peace treaties and from ending negotiations
• Mexico was diplomatic throughout the war
• According to Velasco, Mexico assumed an anti-belligerent posture.
• It was so much in favor of diplomacy, that US Agent William Parot wrote to his superiors that he had “satisfactorily ascertained through the indirect channel of communication …that the present government will not declare war against the United States, even if Texas be annexed.”
• Foreign Relations Minister Manuel de la Peña y Peña also wrote to U.S. Consul John Black that even though Mexico was offended by the actions of the United States regarding Texas, “the government was willing to receive a commissioner who would arrive in this capital from the United States possessing full faculties to settle the current dispute in a peaceful, reasonable and respectable way.”
• Mexico was defending itself, rather than intentionally causing a war.
• Mexico felt that the secession of Texas was illegitimate.
• It believed it had he right to retake control of its own property – even by force.
• Mexico also feared that if Mexico was annexed by the United States, or if it seceded than the stability of Mexico itself would be threatened, It felt it must defend itself.
• It also felt that the United States had invaded its territory.

Part 2: It should be clear from these essays and interviews that Mexican historians have a “different perception of the conflict.” Drawing on the other essays and interviews cited, prepare a list of at least ten “notes,” specifically citing the historians by name and source, that illustrate the ways Mexican historians see the war. Each note should be two or three sentences and some should integrate quotations from the historians.

From Prelude to War

1. Jesús Velasco Márquez, “A Mexican Viewpoint on the War….”

Marquez believes that Mexico entered the war against its wishes because of political obstacles that prevented Mexico from negotiating peace treaties and diplomatic actions and because the United States wrongfully invaded its territory.

2. Miguel Soto, “The Divisions in Mexico During the War with the United States.”

Soto argues that because Mexico was divided politically and factions inside the nation itself caused it to be unstable, it was unable to unify enough to protect itself from outside forces. This is why it lost control of Texas.

3. Jesús Velasco Márquez, “Public Opinion: Prewar Sentiment in Mexico.”

Marquez points out that many Mexicans viewed the United States positively. The liberals admired its progress, while the conservatives admired its traditions, yet others saw an inconsistency with the United States’ promises of equality and its actions.

From War (1846-1848)

4. Jesús Velasco Márquez, “Mexican Perceptions During the War.”

According to Marquez, the main view of Mexicans during the war was that Mexico was a weaker country than the United States and that the latter was oppressing the Mexican people.

5. The people of Mexico also felt that the war was “unjust and barbarous” and that those who waged it were the “enemies of humanity.”
6. Jesus Velasco Marquez, “Mexican Press”

One of the major Mexican papers, El Siglo XIX first encouraged Mexico to diplomatically resolve the matter of the Texas secession.  After the United States agreed to Annex Texas, however, the paper pushed for military action to prevent the annexation.

From Aftermath

7. Antonia I. Castañeda, “A War of Violence and Violations”

Castañeda argues that the war between Mexico and the United States was primarily about violence. It continued, she says, after the war had ended.

8. Jesús Velasco Márquez, “Apuntes and the Lessons of History

Márquez speaks of the importance of the Apuntes which documented the personal experiences and materials of Mexicans who fought in the war. Those who collected the Apuntes wanted, he says, to explain why Mexico had lost the war.

9. He also mentions that the Apuntes show how Mexico and the United States are inseparably intertwined and that the history of the two nations is infinitely linked.

Miguel Soto, “The Legacy of the U.S.-Mexican War.”

10. Soto is less willing to place the full blame on the United States. He says that part of the blame lies with Mexico, which “lacked the capacity to populate her own territories.”
11. Miguel Ángel González Quiroga, “The Legacy of the War”

Quirogo argues that although many like to say that the result of the war was that the United States obtained land and Mexico obtained lessons, the land became a burden on the United States. Mexico, he says, also gained a sense of nationalism that it had lacked.

1. Give an informal comment of about 150 words that expresses your view of what the war might mean to Mexicans today.

The war between the United States and Mexico has created lasting tension between the two nations. Mexicans who feel a certain amount of animosity toward the United States may well be justified, as the country did lose land, lives and dignity. On the other hand, many Mexicans see the war as a turning point that made Mexico into the nation it is now. It unified the people of Mexico and gave them a common enemy. It also made them value their property more. The war is one of the most important parts of Mexican history.

It serves as both a great loss for its people and a hard-won gain. It changed the country both in terms of boundaries and geography and in terms of attitude and emotions. It inspired reform and correction as well as anger and sadness. Many Mexicans still believe that the land they lost in the war is rightfully theirs and this creates a still-present tension between Mexicans and the Americans of the United States.

Lesson 2.3: Progress

By the end of the nineteenth century Latin America, to a considerable extent, was well on its way to achieving is goals of creating modern, liberal, progressive republics. How did they do so and what best represents this “progress? To what extent did they ride “the wave of the future?”

Assignment 2.3

Complete an analysis of Chasteen, Ch. 5 according to the Chapter Analysis Assignment Instructions

Progress

Thesis: After meeting with little other than failure for years, Latin American Liberals finally began to make a comeback in 1850. Just as Latin Americans had become unhappy with the failures of liberals in previous years, they began to grow unhappy with the failures of conservative leadership. At the same time Latin America finally began to engage in free trade and signs of a transformation began to appear throughout the region.

• Mexico’s Liberal Reform

1.  In 1850, Mexican liberals began to voice their opposition to some of the practices of the church, which owned most of Mexico’s good land and forced citizens to pay 1/10 of their income in tithes.
2. Headed by tough Liberal leader Juan Alvarez, the liberals also gathered against conservative leader Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and forced him into exile.
3. Benito Juarez became the first indigenous man to hold the position of governor in Mexico.
4. The liberals threw out the institution of communal land holding and took aim at corruption in the church and military.
5. They forced the church to sell of its lands and distributed these among the people, yet this action was opposed by families who felt communal land benefitted them.
6. But as Mexico began to embrace liberalism, conservatives turned to the monarchs of France to take control of their land. They convinced prospective emperor Maxmillian to invade Mexico and to assert himself as emporer.
7. This invasion lead to a nationalist reaction that earned Juarez great support. Juarez was also aided by the United States and the French withdrew as opposition to their rule increased.
8. Liberal leader Juarez then became the president of Mexico City and the conservatives lost power forever.

• Other Countries Join the Liberal Trend

1. Chile, Colombia and Central America soon followed Mexico’s example.
2. The liberals in these countries also attacked corruption in the church and military.
3. C.Chilean liberals began to speak out against everything that was Spanish and to break away from the traditions of the mother country.
4. Liberals in Chile also began undertaking reforms of public works and education, bettering them for the Latin American people.
5. The triumph of liberalism seemed to have a domino effect. According to Chasteen, “Sooner or later, the liberals took over everywhere.” (Chasteen, 161)
6. Corrupt liberals like William Walker from the United States, who professed to believe in liberalism but used his power to institute slavery where there had been none were quickly toppled.

• The Limits of Progress for Women

1. Although liberals made much progress during this time, advance for women were limited.
2. Chasteen argues that liberalism “led in a positive direction for women,” leading to advances in education and opportunities for them. Yet few women were actually able to participate in the promises of liberalism.
3. Women were expected to learn to be good wives and mothers and little else. Few gained any sort of fame or greatness.
4. Women writers such as Avellaneda and Gorriti began writing defenses of women’s rights during this time. Gorriti also helped to spark the career of some of her fellow women, including Clorinda Matto de Turner, who was deported from Peru because of her controversial writings and teachings.

•  Models of Progress

1. Argentina was the model of intellectual progress in Latin America. The liberals of Argentina, such as Alberdi, Mitre and Sarmiento, were, according to Chasteen, “Men of words, above all.” (Chasteen, 166)
2. Alberdi used his way with words transform liberalism in Argentina. Alberdi had been exiled from Argentina and spent a great deal of time in liberal stronghold of Montevideo, which was a liberal “stronghold” protected by the armies of France and England. (Chasteen 167)
3. Among the reforms Alberdi championed were increased European immigration to supplement Argentina’s small population and to increase the European quality of the nation.
4. The liberals also championed reforms in education, technology and commerce.
5. Mitre translated European classics into Spanish to Europeanize Argentinians. He pushed for reform by writing newspaper editorials and speaking in public forums.
6. Mitre, Alberdi and other liberals believed strongly in public education.
7. During Sarmiento’s term, school enrollment nearly doubled, largely due to his efforts.
8. Yet some liberals also caused divisions on racial issues.
9. Nevertheless, Liberalism became the dominant political ideology of Latin America.

Assignment 2.3 b: Answer the following questions as described, then save your analysis to a file and submit that file as an email attachment to your professor. Be sure to number your responses.

1. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Latin America was emerging from the chaos and stagnation of the early national period, and had begun to stabilize politically and grow economically. Liberalism was the guiding ideology of this progress. Find evidence in Documents 1 through 3 in Ch. 13 of Keen’s to support this view. Provide a list of at least six “notes,” specifically citing the documents. Each note should be two or three sentences and some should integrate quotations from the document.
2. In order to combat the “idleness” that he believed reigned in the cities, Juan Bautista Alberdi wrote in “Roads to the Future” that Latin Americans ought to try to bring the youth out of the cities and toward the coasts, where modern life might attract them.
3. Alberdi stressed the importance of introducing the youth to industry, which he called “the grand means of promoting morality.” He also encouraged political and territorial unity, which he believed must be facilitated by a railroad.
4. In “The Guano Boom,” Francisco Quiros and Aquiles Allier urged congress to make use of guano in agriculture. They further urged their representatives to encourage the creation of a guano business.
5. In “Reform by Revolution,” Justo Sierra details some of the progress that North America had made during the nineteenth century. Impressed by “the immense commercial activity he saw taking place in the course of a single hour” on the banks of the Mississippi river, one Latin American leader, Mata, declared that the explanation for it was free trade. He began to push for similar progress in Latin America.
6. More evidence of the end of political stagnation can be found in Sierra’s work as he talks about Latin American struggles for reform. Sierra recounts the stories of political revolution, including details of the repeal of the Constitution of 1857 and its reestablishment.
7. Perhaps the most interesting part of Sierra’s work is the part in which he speaks of Comonfort’s end. Comonfort, says Sierra, “accused, judged and sentenced himself.” This act, according to Sierra was Comonfort’s last service to the liberal cause.

1. Matters of race came under scrutiny in late nineteenth century Latin America. Find evidence in Documents 4 through 6 in Ch. 13 of Keen’s to support this view. Provide a list of at least six “notes,” specifically citing the documents. Each note should be two or three sentences and some should integrate quotations from the document.
2. In “Black Slavery Under the Empire,” D.P. Kidder and J.C. Fletcher spoke of the “hopeful” nature of slavery in Brazil. They noted that the Brazilian constitution did not make any distinctions based on color and that, once free, a black man could “rise to a social position from which his race in North America is debarred.”
3. Furthermore said Kidder and Fletcher, in Brazil “everything is in favor of freedom,” and because of this, slaves had many opportunities to be emancipated. Additionally, they said, former black slaves who had “the right qualifications” could “ascend to higher eminences than those of a mere free black.”
4. In “The Antislavery Impulse,” Joaquim Nabuco writes against slavery saying that “History knows no example of a free government founded on slavery.” He notes that the United States does combine slavery with democracy, but that the Southern states “were never free governments.”
5. Nabuco writes that although in North America, free citizens are prejudiced against slaves based on their color, but that this has never been the case in Brazil. In Brazil, there are, he says, no social casts. Black men who are free can, he says “can buy slaves,” perhaps even his old master’s children.
6. In “On Racial Miscegenation in Brazil,” Euclides Da Cunha voices the concerns of some Latin Americans about the mixing of races. Indeed, he says “According to the conclusions of the evolutionist, even when the influence of a superior race has reacted upon the offspring, the later shows vivid traces of the inferior one.”
7. Among other concerns about the mixing of races, Euclides states that he fears that the Mezito is “almost always an unbalanced type.” He further states that “The Mesito—mulatto, mameluco or cafuso==rather than an intermediary type, is a degenerate one.”

• Add about 100 words to complete the following paragraph, drawing on the document cited below. Maria Eugenia Echenique, “The Emancipation of Women,” 1876.

Just as calls for the emancipation of slaves increased in the late nineteenth century, women began to raise questions about their status. Among the women who did so was Argentine feminist Maria Eugenia Echenique, who raised awareness about the lack of educational opportunities afforded to women. Echenique argued that women should not have to look to strangers to defend them when they were wronged. Women should instead be taught to defend themselves.

The ignorance of women, according to Echenique, hurt men and women alike. Therefore, in order to improve society, it was imperative that women be educated so that they could act justly and morally. Ignorant women, she said, were unable to help their husbands in business ventures, while the educated woman might be able to help him. A learned mother, said Echenique, could bring her children to the observatory and teach them about science, helping them to aspire to greatness. On the other hand, the ignorant mother could do little but procreate and rock cradles.

• In your view, what was liberalism’s greatest success in the late nineteenth century? What was its greatest failure? Respond in an informal comment of about 150 words.

Liberalism’s greatest achievement in the late 19^th century was the intellectual awakening of the people of Latin America. It made people more aware of one another’s plights, especially those which revolved around racial and gender-based equality. Liberalism increased people’s interest in learning and education, and spurred political discussion and action. Liberalism made people aware of the evils of slavery and the harm of color-based prejudice.

Liberalism’s greatest failure was in its inability to create stable governments and ethical leaders. Because shifting from colonialism to liberalism was tremendously destabilizing, liberalism had a tendency to leave its followers in shaky positions where they could be easily toppled or corrupted. The leaders responsible for furthering democratic ideals instead reigned as dictators. This superficiality made many skeptical of liberal principles and it hurt not only Latin American countries but also the credibility of the liberals who championed high ideals.

Lesson 2.4: Neocolonialism

In the decades around the turn of the century Latin America experienced a period described as “neocolonial,” a reference to the region’s growing dependence on foreign influences. How did this new colonialism play out in Latin American countries? How did it influence economic and political structures? What were its social and cultural implications?

Assignment 2.4 a: Complete an analysis of Chasteen, Ch. 6 according to the Chapter Analysis Assignment Instructions.

Neocolonialism

Thesis: In the late 19^th century, the liberals began to try to make Latin America look more like Europe. They transformed Latin American cities into buzzing metropolises and built a thriving middle class. Yet rural Latin Americans suffered from some of the changes as their tradition values were discarded and the countryside began to disappear. Meanwhile, foreign powers gained a great deal of control over the region.

• The Great Export Boom

1. The Latin American middle class benefitted greatly from a boom in exports to foreign nations.
2. According to Chasteen, “the total value of Mexican trade grew 900 percent between 1877 and 1910.” (Chasteen, 183)
3. The coffee trade was particularly successful and earned Brazil and Cuba a great deal of wealth.
4. The middle class in Chile profited from mining exports.
5. Production increased as demand from foreign nations went up.
6. But the middle class made up just over a fourth of Latin American populations.
7. Railroads benefited property owners but chased those who worked the land away.

• Authoritarian Rule: Oligarchies and Dictatorships

1. Power began to corrupt the liberals of Latin America as they assumed power.
2. According to Chasteen, “Once in conrol, they forgot abou the political freedoms they had demanded under the conservative Caudillos.” (Chasteen 193)
3. Leaders began to set up Oligarchies (rule by few) and Dictatorship (rule by one), more concerned with increasing material gain than freedom.
4. Instead of espousing liberal values like equality and freedom, the former liberals began supporting ideas like :order and progress.”
5. They assembled larger armies and invested in new weapons technology.
6. The national government made sure it had a more powerful military than than the caudillos.
7. The instability of revolution was replaced, according to Chasteen by stable authoritarian governments.
8. Porfirio Diaz rose to power as a colonial dictator and epitomized neocolonial dictatorship, creating public jobs while stomping out political opposition.

• Links with the Outside World

1.  Although a desire to increase trade with foreign powers was partially responsible for the rise in Latin America’s move toward dictatorships and oligarchies, some foreign influence was beneficial.
2.  Latin American women were inspired by the freedom action of liberal European women.
3. The United States with its commitment to capitalism and industrialization also helped inspire Latin America’s railroad building and enterprise.
4. On the other hand, yellow journalists from the United States who inspired the U.S. to support liberating Mexico from Spain lead to a war beween the United States and Spain and the invasion of Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Phillipines.
5. This war lead to a loss of some Latin American sovereignty and lands.

Assignment 2.4 b: Answer the following questions as described, then save your analysis to a file and submit that file as an email attachment to your professor. Be sure to number your responses.

1. Add about 100 words to complete the following paragraph. You may incorporate a short quotation or two from Document 2 of Keen’s Ch. 14.

Foreign influence pervaded Latin American life in the late nineteenth century. This influence was evident to the European journalist Jules Huret who observed among other things that the ladies of Buenos Aires had purchased “the most beautiful and most modern toilettes” from Paris. Buenos Aires fashion, he said, demanded this of them, Huret also observed that the streets, houses and buildings of Buenos Aires were somewhat similar to London’s in their lack of extraordinary features. He stated that their use of horse and carriages reminded him very much of Vienna and that some of its houses reminded him of Spain because of their styles. Meanwhile, the stores of Buenos Aires reminded him of Paris.

1. According to Chasteen, the rule of Porfirio Díaz “was the very epitome of neocolonial dictatorships in Latin America.”; Find evidence in Documents 4 and 5 in Ch. 14 of Keen’s to support this view. Provide a list of at least six “notes,” specifically citing the documents. Each note should be two or three sentences and some should integrate quotations from the document.
2. In “Porfirio Diaz Assesses his Legacy,” Porfirio Diaz declares that he came to power when the people of Latin America were not yet ready “for the exercise of the extreme principles of democratic government. While Diaz voices some support of democracy, he also shows that he lacks confidence in the ability of his people to make wise decisions, saying, for instance that “the poor are usually too ignorant to have power.”
3. Diaz admits that while he championed the ideas of democracy and Republican government, he also caused the country to “adopt a patriarchal policy in the actual administration of the nation’s affairs. Like many dictators, he voiced approval of principles that he did not always follow through on.
4. Like other dictators, Diaz did not shy away from harshness. He says, for instance, “We began by making robbery punishable by death and compelling the execution of offenders within a few hours after they were caught.”
5. In “Porfirio Diaz, Viceroy of Mexico,” Luis Lara y Pardo argues that while Diaz was honored by foreign countries, he did not do well by his own people. Indeed, according to Pardo, foreign countries “showered decorations on him,” while the people of Mexico “waited impatiently for him to die.”
6. According to Pardo, “Only colonial governments of the worst type have for their sole object the unrestrained, senseless, and disorderly exploitation of the national resources for the benefit of foreigners.” Yet this, he says, is exactly the sort of government Diaz presided over.
7. Pardo believes that Diaz was unjust and cites Diaz’s misuse of a “vacant lands act” that allowed individuals to exploit vacant lands. Diaz, says Pardo, would declare land owned by others “vacant” to exploit them and rob the citizens of their livings.
8. Read carefully the essays below, found at: http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/1898/index.html. Answer the two questions as requested. NOTE: The essays are in PDF file format (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
9. Based on the essays by Perez and Patterson, how would you characterize the way historians have addressed the “Spanish-American” War? Respond in an informal comment of about 150 words.

Historians have looked at the Spanish-American war in many different ways. It has primarily been seen as a war with two faces, which established the United States as a Superpower and set it on its road toward greatness, while simultaneously devastating Mexico. Some historians have ignored almost entirely the role of Cuba and the Philippines in the conflict, while others have gone so far as to call the war the “Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War.” (Perez)

Historians have examined the war from a wide variety of perspectives. They have, for instance, looked at what the war meant on an international scale, what it meant to individual regions, what it meant to certain individuals such as President McKinley, and what it has meant to entire nations. They have tried to understand U.S. foreign policy goals and how the war with Mexico helped achieve them, but they have also tried to understand McKinley’s personal political motivations.

1. Write a brief analysis of the Martínez Fernández essay in outline form, similar to that of the chapter analyses, that (1) summarizes the author’s central argument, (2) identifies the components of his argument, the reasoning by which he makes his case, (3) identifies some of the primary historical evidence he uses to support his position. [Put the full citation at the top of the page, followed by the outline. One page is sufficient.]

Fernandez, L. M. (1998). Puerto Rico in the Whirlwind of 1898 Conflict, Continuity, and Change. Magazine of History , 12 (3). Retrieved from: http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/1898/index.html

1. Central Argument

Although Puerto Rico saw very little bloodshed during the Spanish-American war, it was affected deeply by the aftermath.

4. Components
5. Puerto Rico was changed socially.
6. Puerto Rico’s name was changed to Porto Rico, because US citizens could spell and say this more easily.
7. Funding of the Catholic Church ceased under US administration.
8. Marriage and divorce laws were changed to reflect US values
9. Henry enacted an eight hour workday.
10. Cockfighting was banned.
11. Puerto Rico was changed economically
12. New ties with the United States gave Puerto Ricans a new market for their crops.
13. General Henry’s moratorium on foreclosures for mortgages caused a “catastrophic freeze on agricultural credit.”
14. Puerto Rico was placed under the United States’ tariff and navigation systems.
15. Ownership of land was limited to five-hundred acres per person or corporation.
16. Puerto Rico was changed politically
17. After the war, the Treaty of Paris gave the administration of Puerto Rico over to the United States, this, says Fernandez, “ended for centuries of Spanish colonialism in the new world.”
18. Two years later, a civilian government was established and Puerto Rico had its first civilian governor.
19. Many Puerto Ricans moved toward the annexation of Puerto Rico by the United States.
20. General Davis issued a decree introducing trial by jury.
21. What is your view of the Platt Amendment? Do you think it was good for Cuba? Write an informal comment of about 150 words.

The Platt Amendment is rather strange because it seems to contradict itself. Article I Declares that Cuba shall never enter into an agreement with a foreign nation that will undermine its independence. It further says that it will not allow any foreign power to have control over it. Yet Article III grants the United States, among other things, “the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty.”

Article VII  further specified that Cuba “will sell or lease to the United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations, at certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the ]?resident of the United States.” These things effectively grant power and land to the United States that might not be in Cuba’s interest at all. This seems like a better arrangement for the United States than for Cuba.

1. Imagine you have been asked to write magazine article on the impact of foreign influence in Latin America during the neocolonial period. The editor would like to see an outline of your interpretation of this issue. Begin with a two to four sentence summary of your interpretation that will serve as the introductory paragraph of your essay. Follow with three main points you will make in the essay that express the reasoning for your interpretation, each of these premises expressed as a single sentence. Follow each premise with two to three specific items of evidence that illustrate or amplify the points you make. NOTE: You are being asked to express an original historical interpretation, an assessment or judgment of the impact of foreign influence. You should attempt to come to some complex and original argument, not merely describe or narrate.
2. During the Neocolonial Period, Latin America was heavily influenced by the actions and attitudes of foreign powers. Although many foreign ideals helped Latin Americans push for equality and freedom, foreign powers also abused and exploited the Latin American people. Yet in many cases, that abuse awakened the colonial people and inspired them to fight for the ideas they believed in.
3. The ideas of the enlightenment spurred a love of equality and freedom in the people of Latin America.
4. The reason of the black duelist in “A Colonial Free Thinker” shows how, even in matters of life or death, a belief in reason had taken over the Latin American consciousness. It also shows the good this brought to the colonies.
5. The beliefs and civility of Simon Bolivar. Bolivar’s commitment to decorum and civility shows how enlightenment values affected his personality and leadership.
6. Diaz’s praise of Democracy, whether or not he believed in it, showed how important and prevalent such a belief was in Latin America.
7. Foreign powers treated the people of Latin America harshly and exploited their land.
8. Diaz’s exploitation of Mexican goods for the benefit of foreign powers.
9. Sierra’s description of the follies of Commonfort.
10. Alaman’s description of the rift between the Spaniards and the Creoles.
11. This abuse inspired Latin Americans to rise up against foreign powers.
12. Briceno’s plan for putting Americans in offices, rather than foreigners.
13. The Platt Amendment’s stipulation that the Cuban government would not make agreements challenging its independence.
14. Juan Bautista’s plan to break Latin American youth away from the idleness foreign powers had drawn them to.