Building of American States
Theme: How and why the US, Canada,
and Latin America developed differently
Lesson 15
Three Different Experiences
• America
– Manifest Destiny, Growth, and Dominance
• Canada
– Evolution, Prosperity, and Independence
• Latin America
– Fragmentation, Conflict, and Dependence
Louisiana Purchase
• In 1803, Napoleon needed funds
immediately to protect revolutionary
France from its enemies so he sold the US
France’s Louisiana Territory which
extended from the Mississippi River to the
Rocky Mountains for $15 million
• With the Louisiana Purchase, the US
doubled in size
Lewis and Clark
• Between 1804 and
1806, a
geographical
expedition led by
Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark
mapped the
territory and
surveyed its
resources
• Undaunted
Courage by
Stephen Ambrose
Lewis and Clark’s outbound route
shown in red, inbound in blue
Manifest Destiny
• Settlers began flocking west in search of cheap land
• “(It is) ...our manifest destiny to over spread and to
possess the whole of the continent which Providence has
given us for the development of the great experiment of
liberty.”
– John O’Sullivan, editor of the “The Morning Post,” 1845
Indian Removal
• Westward expansion
caused conflicts with
Native Americans
• The Indian Removal Act
of 1830 was designed to
move all Indians west of
the Mississippi River
into “Indian Territory”
(Oklahoma)
• The Cherokees called
their 800-mile migration
the “Trail of Tears”
Indian Removal in Mississippi
• The Choctaw were
Mississippi’s largest tribe
and the first southeastern
Indians to accept removal
– Began migrating in the
1830s
• There were an estimated
19,554 Choctaw before
removal
• 12,500 moved to Indian
Territory
• 2,500 died along the way
• 5,000 to 6,000 remained in
Mississippi
Plains Indians
• After the 1840s, the conflict
between settlers and Indians
shifted to the plains region west of
the Mississippi
• After the Civil War, William
Sherman assumed command of
the Missouri district, which
stretched from the Rocky
Mountains to the Mississippi.
• He declared all Indians not on
reservations “are hostile and will
remain so until killed off”
• The last significant battle took
place at Wounded Knee, South
Dakota in 1890
Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th
Cavalry crossing the Gila
River, Arizona Territory,
ca. 1878
Mexican War
• Causes
– US foreign policy of
expansion (Manifest
Destiny) soon put it in
conflict with Mexico
– In 1836, Texas
declared
independence from
Mexico and in 1845
the US annexed Texas
in spite of Mexico’s
never relinquishing its
claim
Depiction of Davy Crockett
at the Alamo by Mark
Churms
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
(1848)
• Not an overly popular
war, especially in the
northeast
• US won and paid
Mexico $15 million
while taking
possession of Texas
north of the Rio
Grande, California,
and New Mexico
Civil War: Commonly Cited Causes
• Slavery
• States rights
versus centralized
government
• Agrarian versus
industrialized way
of life
• Cultural
differences
Road to the Civil War
• Missouri Compromise (1820) Maine admitted as a free state
and Missouri as a slave, but
no other slave states from the
Louisiana Purchase territory
would be allowed north of
Missouri’s southern boundary
• Nullification Crisis (1832) -Responding to a tariff on
manufactured goods, South
Carolina declared a state can
void any act of Congress it
feels is unconstitutional
John Calhoun, champion of
the nullification doctrine
Road to the Civil War (cont)
• Mexican War (1846-1848) -- viewed by some as a
Southern attempt to expand slavery
– Wilmot Proviso (1846) fails
– (Would have formally renounced any intention to
introduce slavery into lands seized from Mexico)
• Compromise of 1850 -- California admitted as a
free state; slavery in New Mexico and Utah
territories to be determined by popular sovereignty;
slave trade prohibited in the District of Columbia; a
more stringent fugitive slave law
Road to the Civil War (cont)
• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) -- popular sovereignty;
effectively overturns Missouri Compromise
• Harper’s Ferry and John Brown (1859)
• Lincoln elected (Nov 6, 1860)
• South Carolina votes to secede (Dec 20, 1860)
– Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida,
and Texas follow
• Lincoln takes office (March 4, 1861)
• Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861)
• Lincoln requests 75,000 three-month volunteers (April
15, 1862)
– Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee
secede
Objectives
• North
– Restore Union
• Therefore couldn’t
completely alienate or
destroy the South or the
Southern people
• South
– Hold on to de facto
independence
– Continue the struggle
long enough for the
North to tire of it
• Similar to American
colonists
Emancipation Proclamation
(Remember from Lesson 5)
• Issued by President Lincoln after the
Federal victory at Antietam
• “That on the first day of January, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three, all persons
held as slaves within any State or
designated part of a State, the people
whereof shall then be in rebellion
against the United States, shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever free…”
• The fact that France and Britain had
already ended slavery makes foreign
intervention on behalf of the
Confederacy nearly impossible
End of the Civil War
• On Apr 9, 1865, Lee
surrendered
• Thirteenth
Amendment
abolished slavery
• Reconstruction
lasted until 1877
• The US would
continue as a
politically united
nation with
strengthened
federal authority
Railroads
• A major component of
America’s westward
expansion was
railroads
• In 1862, Congress
authorized a
transcontinental
railroad and on May 10,
1869 the Union Pacific
tracks joined those of
the Central Pacific
Railroad at Promontory,
Utah
Railroads
• Before the Civil War, the US had about
31,000 miles of railroad lines and most
were short routes east of the Mississippi
River
• By 1900, there were more than 200,000
miles of track and a rail network from
coast to coast
• Railroads linked all US regions and
created an integrated national economy
Immigrants
• Many immigrants
came to America
after the mid-19th
Century
• Most did heavy
labor at low
wages, such as
working on the
railroad
• Many came to
look for gold in
California
During construction of the transcontinental
railroad, the Central Pacific employed 12,000
Chinese, 90% of the entire work force
America: Review
• Product of the Enlightenment
• Obtained land by purchase or conquest
• Had enough sectional differences to fight a
civil war but ended up remaining one
nation
• Used technology to connect the country
• Benefited from an influx of labor
Canada:
Evolution, Prosperity, Independence
• Canada was originally settled by both French
and British trappers and settlers and was known
as New France
• When Britain won the Seven Years’ War (17561763), Canada became part of the British
Empire
• Still, until the late 18th Century, French
Canadians outnumbered British ones
• Consequently imperial officials made large
concessions to their subjects of French descent
to forestall trouble
Canada
• British Canadians tended to
live in Ontario, follow British
law, and be Protestant
• French Canadians tended
to live in Quebec, follow
French civil law, and be
Catholic
• The War of 1812 helped
foster a spirit of unity
against an external threat
• The Americans made
several attempts to invade
Canada in order to pressure
the British, but were always
unsuccessful
Canada
• Westward expansion of the US and the
American Civil War further helped to stifle
internal conflicts in Canada
• Along the way, Canada was becoming
increasingly independent from Britain by
evolution, rather than revolution
• In 1867, Britain granted the Dominion of Canada
independence and control over all internal affairs
• Britain retained control over Canada’s external
affairs until 1931
Canadian Prosperity and
Independence
• The National Policy was
Canada’s program of
economic development
designed to attract
migrants, protect nascent
industries through tariffs,
and build national
transportation networks
• Using large amounts of
British capital, Canada
completed the
transcontinental Canadian
Pacific Railroad in 1885
Indian Head station on the
Canadian Pacific Railroad
Canadian Prosperity and
Independence
• Throughout the 19th Century, British investment
outstripped US investment in Canada
• In the early 20th Century, the US became increasingly
active in the Canadian economy
– By 1918, the US owned 30% of all Canadian industry
– Ontario benefited greatly from spillover from the American
economy
• Today, the US and Canada have interdependent
economies
• Canada has been able to benefit from foreign
investment, not become dependent on it, because of
Canada’s ability to control and direct its own economic
affairs
Canada: Review
• Reconciled divided identity peacefully
• Obtained independence gradually and
peacefully
• Used economic policy and technology to
expand
• Built a healthy international trade
relationship
Latin America:
Fragmentation, Conflict, and Dependence
• Simon Bolivar (remember from
Lsn 5)
• Inspired by George
Washington and
Enlightenment ideas, Bolivar
took up arms against Spanish
rule in 1811
• Freed slaves who joined his
forces
• Provided constitutional
guarantees of free status for all
residents of Gran Columbia
(Venezuela, Columbia, and
Ecuador)
Simon Bolivar
• But Bolivar had once
admitted that “I fear
peace more than war.”
• In fact, after defeating
Spain, Latin America
was unable to sustain
solidarity
• Bolivar’s Gran Columbia
dissolved into its three
constituent parts
(Venezuela, Columbia,
and Ecuador) and the
rest of Latin America
fragmented into
numerous independent
states
Gran Colombia
Political Instability
• One of the reasons Latin America
fragmented is that Latin American leaders
had little experience with self-government
– Portuguese and Spanish colonial regimes
were far more autocratic than their British
counterparts in North America
– The new leaders in Latin America were
enthusiastic about Enlightenment principles;
they just didn’t know how to put them into
practice
Indigenous Peoples
• As in North America,
governments in Latin America
who sought agricultural land
came into conflict with
indigenous peoples
• Argentina and Chile were
especially confrontational
• By the 1870s, colonists had
secured the most productive
lands and forced the
indigenous people to
assimilate to Euro-American
society or retreat to
undesirable lands
Julio Argentino
Roca led
the conquest of
indigenous
people in Argentina
Caudillos
• The general division and
discord in Latin America
facilitated the rise of
caudillos, regional military
leaders
• The long wars of
independence had left Latin
America with military rather
than civilian heroes
• After independence, military
leaders took center stage
• Caudillos restored order, but
did so through violence and
terror
Argentinean caudillo
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Selected 20th Century Coups in
Latin America
• As a result of this history,
Latin America has a
history of coup d’etats
– 1943: Argentina
– 1954: Paraguay and
Guatemala
– 1963: Ecuador
– 1964: Brazil
– 1970: Bolivia
– 1973: Chile and Uruguay
– 1976: Ecuador
Hugo Chavez survived
an unsuccessful coup in
Venezuela in 2002
Mexican Reform
• After defeat in the
Mexican War, a liberal
reform movement tried to
reshape Mexico
• President Benito Juarez
began to limit the power
of the military and the
Roman Catholic Church
in Mexico and sought to
endow Mexicans with the
means of making a living
and enable them to
participate in political
affairs
Benito Juarez, leader of
La Reforma
The Constitution of 1857
• Curtailed the prerogatives of priests and military
elites
• Guaranteed universal male suffrage and other
civil liberties like freedom of speech
• Allowed the confiscation of church properties,
which accounted for almost half of all the
productive land in Mexico
– Intent was to redistribute land broadly, especially to
indigenous people
– Instead, speculators and large landowners bought up
most of the land
Mexican Revolution (1911-1920)
• La Reforma challenged the
fundamentalism of Mexican
elites and a civil war broke
out in 1911
• Peasants, workers, and
middle class Mexicans
fought to overthrow the
dictator Porfirio Diaz
• The revolt became
increasingly radical and
devolved into guerrilla war
Porfirio Diaz (18301915)
Mexican Revolution
• Charismatic rebels
such as Emiliano
Zapata and Pancho
Villa organized
massive armies to
fight against the
government
• Villa attacked and
killed US citizens
as a result of
America’s support
for the Mexican
government
General John Pershing led an
unsuccessful American expedition to
capture Villa. Pershing telegraphed
Washington, “Villa is everywhere, but
Villa is nowhere.”
Mexican Revolution
• In the end,
government forces
regained control,
ambushing and killing
Zapata in 1919
– Villa was
assassinated in
1923
• Even though
defeated, many of the
revolution’s goals
such as land
redistribution were
included in the
Mexican Constitution
of 1917
Revolutionary troops
Latin American Dependence
• Latin America in the 19th Century was plagued by
division, rebellion, caudillo rule, civil war, instability, and
conflict
• Add that to colonial legacies that lacked economic
development and local industry in Latin America and the
pattern was set for foreign dependence
• Because its economy required foreign investment to
survive, Latin America became subject to decisions
made in the interests of foreign investors
• Latin American governments were controlled by the
elites who profited from foreign involvement at the
expense of the citizenry, so the governments actually
encouraged Latin America’s economic dependence
Case Study: United Fruit Company
• From 1899 to 1970,
UFCO was prominent in
the trade of bananas and
other fruit from Latin
America to Europe and
the US
• An archetypal example of
multinational influence
extending deeply into the
internal politics
– “Banana republics” and
neocolonialism
The Peten, one of many
ships in UFCO’s “Great
White Fleet”
Case Study: United Fruit Company
• In addition to owning vast tracts of land, the
UFCO dominated regional transportation
networks and owned a major railroad
corporation
• In 1913, UFCO extended its reach by creating
the Tropical Radio and Telegraph Company
• By the end of the decade there would be virtually
no aspect of the economic infrastructure of Latin
American banana production untouched by the
UFCO
Case Study: United Fruit Company
• One of the company’s primary tactics for maintaining
market dominance was to control the distribution of
banana lands.
– UFCO claimed that hurricanes, blight, and other
natural threats required them to hold extra land or
reserve land.
– In practice that meant UFCO was able to prevent the
government from distributing banana lands to
peasants who wanted a share of the banana trade.
• For UFCO to maintain its unequal land holdings, it had to
have government concessions.
• This in turn meant that UFCO had to be politically
involved in the region even though it was an American
company.
Case Study: United Fruit Company
• When Guatemalan
President Jacobo Arbenz
Guzman tried to seize
thousands of acres of
uncultivated land owned
by the UFCO in 1953,
President Eisenhower
empowered the CIA to
engineer the overthrow of
Arbenz’s government
• A US-supported coup
toppled Arbenz’s
government in 1954 and
returned the land to the
UFCO
Castillo Armas established a
military government after the
ouster of the democratically
elected Arbenz, who the US
feared had communist leanings
Latin America: Review
• Had a poor colonial experience that illprepared it for independence
• Fragmented rather than consolidating
• Plagued by in-fighting and instability
• Slow to embrace Enlightenment
philosophy
• Rule by force
• Economically exploited by foreign
countries
Review
• So, compare and contrast the
development of the American states of
Canada, the US, and Latin America.
• How does their past account for where
they are now?
Review
• America
– Manifest Destiny, Growth, and Dominance
• Canada
– Evolution, Prosperity, and Independence
• Latin America
– Fragmentation, Conflict, and Dependence
Next
• China and Japan
The Forbidden City’s
Gate of Supreme
Harmony