Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The Americas in the Age of Independence

Pre-Chapter

  • Eyewitness: Fatt Hing Chin

    • Chinese fish peddler

    • heard about gold rush, wanted to go (1849)

    • 95 days and nights

    • founded restaurant

  • contentious era characterized by continuous mass migration and economic growth


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The Building of American States

While the US fought for independence and then fought over diverse societies (civil war), Canada did not need to fight Britain to gain independence. Canada, worried about US expansion north at first, never developed a strong federal government. In Latin America, lands were so diverse they could not join together, meaning it was a politically fragmented region facing serious problems and divisions within societies.


The United States: Westward Expansion and Civil War

  • by the late 1820s, most property qualifications to vote disappeared

    • by mid-century, almost all white men could participate

  • Britain gave all lands between Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River to US

    • doubled in size

    • Napoleon needed funds → sold Louisiana Territory (Mississippi to Rocky Mountains)

      • doubled again

    • Meriwether Lewis and William Clark → mapped territory

  • By 1840s → manifest destiny

    • US was destined, even divinely ordained, to expand between Atlantic and Pacific

  • Natives form alliances → also with British in Canada

    • but US military supports settlers

  • Indian Removal Act of 1830

    • move all natives west of Mississippi into “Indian Territory” (Oklahoma)

    • Seminoles → resisted and retreated to Florida

    • Cherokees → 800-mile migration on Trail of Tears; thousands died

  • In the west → Sioux, Comanche, Pawnee, Apache → firearms, horse-riding skill

    • 1876, Lakota Sioux → defeat George Armstrong Custer at Little Bighorn

    • ultimately though, natives lost → US had cannon, Gatling guns

    • last conflict → 1890 Wounded Knee Creek

      • Sioux Ghost Dance → afterlife where all whites disappear

      • accidently shot gun → slaughtered over 200

      • “a people’s dream died”

  • Texas declared independence from Mexico → 1836

    • US accepts Texas as new state → 1845

    • Mexico doesn’t like → becomes Mexican-American War

  • US wins → Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

    • US took ½ of Mexico’s territory, paying $15 million for Texas, California, New Mexico

    • fueled Mexican nationalism and disdain for US

  • Hoped slavery would die out with decline of tobacco

    • however, rise of cotton, then westward expansion

    • 500k in 1770 → 2mil in 1820

  • Missouri Compromise of 1820 → maintain balance of slave/free states

  • Abraham Lincoln → “a house divided against itself cannot stand”

    • “I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free”

    • elected 1860

  • Slavery center of conflict → Lincoln insisted it was to restore Union

    • also, state rights vs. federal rights

  • 11 states withdrew from Union (1860-1861)

    • southern states were the world’s major source of cotton

  • Emancipation Proclamation → made abolition of slavery primary goal

    • 5 days after Union victory at Antietam → issued final Eman. Proc.

    • January 1863

    • 13th amendment → 1865, abolished slavery

  • Gettysburg → turned tide, July 1863

  • northern states → 90% of industrial capacity, ⅔ of railroad lines


The Canadian Dominion: Independence without War

  • regional differences, but gained independence without war

  • colony of New France → British empire after Seven Years’ War

    • however, more French Canadians than British Canadians

    • so, gave French concessions

      • Roman Catholic church, French civil law in Quebec, etc.

      • governed by local elites

  • British → protestant (mostly Ontario), followed British law, elected representatives

    • US British loyalists fled to Canada

  • War of 1812 → stimulated unity

    • US declared war on Britain

    • Canada was front line for Britain

    • US invaded Canada, however Canada won

  • After war, Canada experienced rapid growth

    • discontent reached critical point in 1830s

  • British didn’t want repeat of American Revolution

    • between 1840-1867, gave authority to Canada

      • Durham Report → John George Lambton

  • British North America Act of 1867 → joined Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick

    • recognized them as the Dominion of Canada

    • won control over all Canadian internal affairs

    • Britain retained power over foreign affairs until 1931

  • first prime minister → John A. Macdonald (1815-1891)

    • moved to incorporate all of British North America into Dominion

    • purchased Northwest Territories from Hudson’s Bay Company (1869)

    • believed Dominion would remain symbolic

    • transcontinental railroad, completed 1885


Latin America: Fragmentation and Political Experimentation

  • creole elites establish republics with constitutions

    • however, much harder

    • mainly because less experience self-governing

  • less than 5% of males active in politics

    • creole elites divided into different camps

      • liberals/conservatives, centralists/federalists, secularists/Catholics

  • conflict with natives → for agriculture, ranching → most intense in Argentina, Chile

  • caudillos → regional military leaders

    • Juan Manuel de Rosas → ruled Argentina

      • nicknames → killed 22k

    • made terror a tool of government

  • Mexico → monarchy to republic to caudillo rule

    • generated liberal reform movement

  • Mexican-American War → caudillo general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

  • Reform movement → Mexican president Benito Juarez

    • “La Reforma” aimed to limit power of military and church

    • create a rural middle class

  • Constitution of 1857 → set forth ideals

    • limited priests/military elites, male suffrage, freedom of speech

    • challenged conservatism of Mexican elites

    • challenged Catholic church

  • Juarez suspended loan payments

    • Napoleon III attempt to recreate monarchy, lost in Puebla → Cinco de Mayo

    • killed Austrian archduke Maximilian

    • Juarez restore liberal government, but still divided

  • Mexico was a divided land moving toward civil war

  • Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)

    • middle-class join with peasants to overthrow dictator Porfirio Diaz

    • 95% peasants remained landless

  • Leaders of Mexican Revolution → Emiliano Zapata and Francisco (Pancho) Villa

    • tierra y libertad (land and liberty)

    • popular support

    • Zapata confiscated hacienda lands, distribute to peasants

  • Ended 1919 when Zapata killed; then Villa 1923 while driving

    • although radicals defeated, Mexican Constitution of 1917 addressed some issues


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American Economic Development

Two principal influences shaped economic development throughout the Americas: mass migration and British investment. While the US and Canada absorbed migrants and established economic independence, the fragmented Latin America struggled with legacies of colonialism, slavery, and dependence on single export crops. In turn, most migrants worked on plantations, not factories.


Migration to the Americas

  • Unskilled migrants to US kept labor cost down → expand US industry

    • In 1850s, European migrants to US was 2.3 million

    • made US most diverse

  • Increasing rents and indebtedness drove Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Scandinavia

  • by late 19th century, most migrants were from southern and eastern Europe

  • Qing officials approved migration

    • between 1852-1875, 200k Chinese migrants to California

    • most traveled on indentured labor contracts

    • 5k in Canada

      • also in Canada → Fraser River gold rush of 1858

  • In Latin America, most migrants worked on plantations

    • ~4 million Italians in Argentina

    • golondrinas (“swallows”) traveled back and forth

      • sojourners → people who migrate only temporarily

    • 15k indentured servants from China work in sugarcane

    • Indian migrants in Jamaica, etc.

    • China and Japan → Peru → cotton, mined guano, built railroads

    • after US influence, Asians in Hawaii → sugarcane

      • 25k Chinese, 180k Japanese


Economic Expansion in the United States

  • Rich British people need outlet of money → stable white-governed states

    • the US → rivaled Britain before eventually outperforming

  • Perhaps most important economic development → railroads

    • before Civil War → 31k miles

    • by 1900 → 200k miles, coast to coast

  • spurred development of other industries

    • coal, wood, glass, rubber → 75% of steel went to railroads

    • by 1880s, Pennsylvania Railroad employed almost 50k people

  • railroads brought human suffering for indigenous people and environmental damage

    • also, divided into time zones

  • US economy expanded at a blistering pace between 1870 and 1900

    • electric lights, telephones, typewriters, phonographs, film photography, motion picture cameras, electric motors, etc.

  • Large-scale labor unions emerged (trade unions)

    • business owners seeking profits

    • workers seeking higher wages/job security

    • strike of rail workers in 1877

    • big business prevailed


Canadian Prosperity

  • British also paid Canada → high prices to keep colony stable → high standard of living

  • After Dominion established → economic development called National Policy

    • attract migrants, build transportation

    • Canadian Pacific Railroad → built largely with British money

  • 1903-1914 → 2.7 million eastern European migrants

  • increasing wheat production, extraction of rich mineral resources

    • gold, silver, copper, nickel, asbestos

  • in 1914, British invested $2.5 billion, US $700 million

    • by 1918, Americans owned 30% of Canadian industry


Latin American Investments

  • small markets, so limited foreign influence

    • informal imperialism

  • In Argentina, British invested in cattle/sheep ranching

    • Buenos Aires → population of 3.5 million

  • Porfirio Diaz (r. Mexico, 1876-1911)

    • encouraged industrialization

  • Exports drove economic growth in Latin America


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American Cultural and Social Diversity

The diversity in the Americas provided fuel for conflicts and made it difficult to achieve cultural cohesions and political unity.


Societies in the United States

  • most culturally diverse land of western hemisphere

  • however, disliked natives

    • Buffalo Bill Cody exterminated buffalo and economy of natives

    • Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

      • got rid of native collective tribal reservations

    • removed native children from families

      • Carlisle and Toledo Indian Schools

  • Slavery ended, but still discrimination

    • northern armies in southern states → forced Reconstruction (1867-1877)

    • northern then leave, so southern dismantled it

      • many freed slaves worked as sharecroppers for former owner

  • Seneca Falls Convention (1848) → “declaration of sentiments”

    • also, new alternatives to marriage, domesticity

    • but, not much meaningful change

  • 1840-1914 → 25 million migrants from Europe

    • new food, music, dances, etc.

    • but, native whites didn’t like them

      • so, concentration → Little Italy, Chinatown

    • government complete halt to migration from China 1882, Japan 1907

      • Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882


Canadian Cultural Contrasts

  • migrants brought diversity

    • 1896-1914 → 3 million migrants

  • Both French and British believed themselves to be principal founding peoples

  • Louis Riel → leader of metis and indigenous peoples of western Canada in rebellion

    • captured Fort Garry

    • exiled, then lead resistance to railroad (Northwest Rebellion)

    • executed

    • foreshadow long term cultural conflict between British/French Canadians


Ethnicity, Identity, and Gender in Latin America

  • Heritage of Spanish/Portuguese colonialism → inclined societies toward hierarchy

  • Some migrants intermarried and assimilated, some form distinct communities

    • like Trinidad and Tobago

  • Buenos Aires → most cosmopolitan city of 19th century Latin America

    • “Paris of the Americas”

  • Argentine president Domingo Fausti no Sarmiento

    • book Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism

    • necessary to bring discipline to countryside

  • Gauchos (“cowboys”)

    • most prominent in Argentine pampas

    • pastoralists herding cattle and horses on the pampas

    • Jose Hernandez

      • poem The Gaucho Martin Fierro

  • Women very little power

    • machismo → social ethic that honored males

    • Adela Zamudio → To be Born a Man

    • many women supported Zapata (Zapatistas)

    • some became soldiers/officers, but most soldaderas