Latin American History Review

Latin America: An Overview

• Latin America includes Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

1200-1450: Pre-Columbian Empires

• Aztec Empire:

  • Located in modern-day Mexico, centered around Tenochtitlan.

  • Conquered much of Mesoamerica, creating tribute states.

  • Divided the empire into provinces, asserting dominance through relocated warriors and their families.

  • Used human sacrifice to legitimize rule.

  • Employed agricultural innovations like chinampas.

  • Traded goods throughout the empire and utilized the tribute system.

• Inca Empire:

  • Located in modern-day Peru, stretching into Ecuador and Chile.

  • Created a large land-based empire through conquest and tribute states.

  • Used the mita labor system (mandatory public service).

  • Built an elaborate road system in the Andes.

  • Legitimized rule through religion, worshipping the sun god Inti and other gods.

  • Developed a vertical economy based on goods at different altitudes and an advanced terrace system for growing crops like potatoes and maize.

• Complete lack of connection between the American civilizations and Afro-Eurasia due to the lack of technology.

  • No trading of goods, religions, diseases, or languages.

1450-1750: European Exploration and Colonialism

• European Exploration:

  • Spain, unified under Ferdinand and Isabel, sponsored Columbus to find a route to the Indian Ocean spice network.

  • New technologies like the caravel ship and fluyt, building on the compass and astrolabe, facilitated exploration.

  • Conquistadors like Hernán Cortés (conquered the Aztecs in 1521) and Francisco Pizarro (conquered the Incas in 1533) established the Spanish Empire.

• Reasons for European Success:

  • Guns, germs, and steel (Jared Diamond's argument).

  • Domestication of animals and agriculture in the Old World led to specialization of labor and technological development (metallurgy, gunpowder).

  • Europeans had stronger weapons (steel swords, guns) and immunity to diseases.

• Spanish Colonial Administration:

  • Vice royalty system: political bureaucratic institution created by the Spanish monarchy.

    • Vice royalty of New Spain (Mexico) and Peru.

    • Governed by viceroys reporting to the crown.

    • Conversion of natives to Christianity (Roman Catholicism).

    • Economy based on mining and ranching.

    • Audiencias: bureaucratic system overseeing justice, with judges voicing concerns to the crown.

• Colonial Economies and Labor Systems:

  • Driven by God, gold, and glory.

  • Dependent on agriculture using coerced labor.

  • Encomienda: Spanish landowners granted native laborers who would pay tribute in exchange for food and shelter.

  • Hacienda system: landowners forced natives to work in fields growing crops like wheat or sugar.

  • Repartimiento system: natives retained freedom but were required to work.

• Mercantilism and Silver Mining:

  • Spain sought to build wealth through mercantilism (high tariffs, colonies).

  • Emphasis on exporting more than importing.

  • Major silver deposits found in Mexico and Peru.

• Columbian Exchange:

  • Exchange of goods between the New World (Americas) and the Old World (Afro-Eurasia).

  • From the Americas to Europe: potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, avocados, corn, beans.

  • From Europe to the Americas: coffee, sugar, grapes, bananas, citrus, cows, pigs, horses, chickens, grains (wheat, rye, oats).

  • Diseases from Europe to the Americas: smallpox, measles, malaria, chickenpox, yellow fever causing massive population loss.

    • Smallpox epidemics caused the largest death tolls among indigenous Americans, killing more people than any war or the Black Death epidemic.

  • Long-term population increase in the Old World due to new crops.

  • Establishment of cash crop industries (sugar, tobacco, cotton) in the Americas.

  • Disease that devastated the native populations in the Americas led to a labor shortage, which then led to the terrible beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade.

• Treaty of Tordesillas:

  • Agreement between Portugal and Spain to divide land in the New World.

  • Spain controlled most of Mesoamerica and South America, except for Brazil (Portuguese).

  • Portuguese established a brutal colonial regime based around the sugar industry in Brazil.

• Gender and Family Restructuring:

  • Disrupted family organizations, as families were often separated, and many more men than women were being taken captive.

  • Polygamy, having more than one wife, became more common.

• Demographic and Cultural Changes:

  • Mixing of African, American, and European cultures.

  • New multiracial groups: mestizos (native and European), mulattos (African and European).

  • Political rights and power based on race.

1750-1900: Revolutions, Industrial Revolution, and Imperialism

• Revolutions:

  • Independence movements shaped by Enlightenment thought.

  • Haitian Revolution:

    • Colony breaking free from France.

    • Tensions between social classes (white plantation owners, wealthy free mulattos, poor whites, enslaved population).

    • Inspired by the French and American Revolutions.

    • Led by Toussaint Louverture.

    • Resulted in the elimination of slavery and the establishment of the Republic of Haiti.

    • French required indemnity payments, hindering Haiti's financial independence.

  • Latin American Revolutions:

    • Creoles led the fight for independence from Spanish and Portuguese rule.

    • Simón Bolívar: Creole inspired by the American Revolution, sought to create a confederacy of states in South America.

    • Bolívar's letter from Jamaica.

    • Helped Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama gain independence.

    • Mexico achieved independence in 1821.

• Industrial Revolution and Economic Dependence:

  • Latin America did not industrialize like the U.S. or Europe.

  • Focused on exporting raw materials to industrialized countries.

    • Silver, copper, rubber, beef, coffee, bananas.

  • Foreign investment led to economic dependence and indirect imperialism.

  • Banana republics: small countries dependent on exporting one crop, relying on foreign investment.

    • Great Britain invested heavily in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

• Migrations:

  • Over 2 million Italians migrated to Argentina between 1870 and 1960.

  • Argentinian constitution encouraged European immigration to cultivate the soil, improve industries, and teach arts and sciences.

  • Italian ethnic enclaves and syncretic blend of Argentinian and Italian foods.

1900-Present: World Wars, Cold War, and Globalization

• Mexican Revolution (1910-1920):

  • Led by Pancho Villa and Zapata.

  • Overthrew dictator Porfirio Díaz and established a constitutional republic in 1917.

• World War I:

  • Latin America tried to stay neutral.

  • Zimmerman Telegram: German proposal for an alliance with Mexico.

• Post-WWI Economic Crisis:

  • Global economic crash impacted export industries.

  • Decreased consumer demand, loan defaults, and falling prices.

• World War II:

  • Panama Canal was strategically important to the Allies.

  • Brazil sent troops to Europe, and Mexico sent a fighter squadron to the Pacific.

• Cold War:

  • Ideological rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union impacted Latin America.

  • Socialism appealed to some Latin American regimes.

  • U.S. intervention in Guatemala (1954) to overthrow a leftist regime.

  • Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro; Cuba became communist.

  • Bay of Pigs invasion (failed U.S. attempt to overthrow Castro).

  • Cuban Missile Crisis.

  • U.S. support for General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, who overthrew Salvador Allende.

  • Nicaragua:

    • Sandinistas came to control in 1979.

    • U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave his approval for covert U.S. support of the so-called Contras, anti-Sandinista rebels.

• Mexico's Economy:

  • Improved in the 1930s-1970s due to nationalization of the oil industry.

• Globalization:

  • NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) between Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.

  • Decreased trade barriers and increased trade.

  • Globalization of culture: prominence of football (soccer) throughout Latin America.

    • Brazil has the most FIFA World Cup titles.

    • The first World Cup was in Uruguay.

One-Minute Recap:

• Aztecs and Incas: tribute systems, agricultural innovations.

• Spanish conquest: guns, germs, and steel.

• Vice royalty system, encomienda (oppressive labor system).

• Columbian Exchange: disease, Atlantic slave trade, syncretic beliefs, complex social hierarchy.

• Revolutions: Creoles led, except Haiti (slave revolt).

• Simón Bolívar: the liberator.

• Latin America: export-dependent, foreign investment, indirect imperialism.

• Cold War tensions.

• World Cup and NAFTA.