Nation Building in Latin America Chapter 6 Section 4

Objectives  By the end of the lesson, you should be able to:  1) Describe the social classes that made up Latin American society  2) Describe the contributions of Hidalgo, Bolivar, and San Martin to Latin American independence  3) Describe the rule of Caudillos  4) Explain U.S. participation in the Panamanian Revolution

A. Nationalist Revolts  End of the 1700s, the American Revolution inspired Latin American countries  Most L.A. countries were under the control of Spain and Portugal  Social classes in Latin America were divided between 3 different groups: Peninsulares, Creoles, and Mestizos

 Creoles especially revolutionary  -descendents of Europeans born in L.A. and lived there permanently  -deeply resented the Peninsulares, Spanish and Portuguese officials that temporarily live in L.A.  -Peninsulares dominated L.A. countries and drained them of their wealth  When Napoleon overthrew monarchies of Spain and Portugal, it left L.A. open to revolution  The first revolution took place on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti) where 100,000 slaves revolted against French  Haiti became the first independent state in L.A.

 Mexico experienced a revolution in 1810  Miguel Hidalgo, a priest who had studied the French Revolution  He roused the Native Americans and Mestizos (people of European and Native descent) to rebel from Spanish  Hidalgo was defeated and executed, but September 16 th is still counted as a Mexican independence day  In 1821, Mexico finally achieved independence from Spain

 In South America, Jose de San Martin of Argentina and Simon Bolivar of Venezuela fought for freedom from Spain  They liberated South America by 1824  Central America had become independent in 1823  In 1839, they divided into five republics: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua  The U.S. then passed the Monroe Doctrine  This said that Europe could not plant any more colonies in America

B. Difficulties in Nation Building  Many Latin American countries were ruled by caudillos, which ruled by military force and were supported by wealthy landowners  Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ruled Mexico btwn  He was a corrupt leader and in 1835, Texas revolted  Texas gained its independence and joined the U.S. in 1846  War btwn Mexico and America broke out and Mexico lost half of its territory

C. Political Change in Latin America  In 1900, the U.S. had become a world power and had begun to interfere with Latin America  Cuba was a U.S. Protectorate and Puerto Rico was annexed to the U.S.  In 1903, the U.S. supported a rebellion in Panama to separate from Columbia  The Panama Canal was opened in 1914  The U.S. sent troops throughout Latin America to protect their interests  Soon, Latin American begun to resent the U.S.