Independence:! A Big Deal?

1. Independence:!A Big Deal? Information for Essay B Assignment 3 Central and South America

2. Political issues in independent Central and South America Caudillo Rule

3. Quees un caudillo? As the picture says, in the early 1800s the newly-independent countries of Central and South America came under the control of dictators called caudillos who generally shared common traits: • Were peninsulares or crilolos • Depended on the support of the army and large landowners • Were not shy about using violence to end opposition, • Had little interest in modernization or in helping the vast majority of the country.

4. Creole Domination Unlike in modern America where nearly all adults can vote and thus participate in leadership, only 5% of Central and South America’s males (and extremely few women) had any participation in running their country. With no power, the only choice of the poor and the powerless was rebellion. Few of these were successful, yet political violence was common.

5. In the Countryside Farmers were at the mercy of the government-connected landowners who treated them like slaves. Where forests were cleared for farming or land was designated for cattle ranching, the native peoples of the region were either forced to farm for the landlords, sent to work in the mines, slaughtered, or kicked off the land and forced to move to unwanted higher elevations.

6. Race in Central and South America Racism in the region was widespread with the Peninsulares (European born) and Criolos (American-born of European descent) having nearly all the power and wealth, Meztisos(mixed native and European heritage) and Mulattoes (mixed native and/or European and African heritage) served as labor for the lighter-skinned ruling classes. Descendants of African slaves and the native peoples were at the very bottom.

7. How “Neo-Colonialism” put independent Central and South America back under its control Foreign Involvement

8. The Setup The USA was starting to expand to the West thanks to the Louisiana Purchase, and wanted to avoid the following scenarios: • Great Britain could fill the colonial void in Central America, and with Spain out of the picture could add the region (and its resources) to the British Empire, • Central and South American countries succeeding and exporting the same products to Europe America was sending, • Having to choose sides in future European wars and having that affect America’s trade with Europe.

9. The Monroe Doctrine In 1823 President James Monroe declared the Monroe Doctrine in which: • The USA considered the newly-independent countries of South America a “protectorate” in which the US vowed to protect the region from attempts by European countries to recolonize it. • The US vowed to continue to stay out of European affairs. While on the surface the Monroe Doctrine appears to be a noble attempt for a successful former colony (the United States) to protect its values for other newly-independent countries, in reality it was a statement that the US would consider the entire Western Hemisphere its “sphere of influence”. The Monroe Doctrine opened the door for two centuries of US intervention in Central and South America.

10. NeoColonial Economies With little technological expertise and Spain having had no incentive to promote education in anything except religion, the caudillos allowed foreign companies to control large-scale operations such as farms, mines, and railroads. Since the caudillos and their supporters were benefitting from this trade, they had no reason to oppose increasing foreign control over their economies. But on occasions where Central and South American leaders pursued policies that would harm the USA’s economic interests in any way, or a revolution threatened to remove a caudillo who was friendly to the US, the United States would intervene…. So while Central and South American countries were “independent”, their economies still had the same “colonial” outcome: the wealth of the nations transferred to stronger countries.