Chapter 30

The Americas in the Age of Independence

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The Land of Promise – The Grayson Family by William S. Jewett (1850)

Unlike the North America [the U.S. & Canada[which was governed by the British and their gradual polarization towards democracy through the works of Locke, Thomas Pain, many other European philosophers and their ideals of the importance and power of the people and shared government through “checks & balances,” Latin American colonies had different social environments and a lack of democratic traditions.

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Westward Expansion of the United States Britain cedes territories between Appalachian Mountains and

Mississippi River in the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War

Napoleon Bonaparte sells the Louisiana Territory to President Jefferson in 1803

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark map the territory in an expedition lasting from 1804-1806.

White settlers start to cross the Mississippi around 1820 Mass migration to the far West begins in the 1840s, mainly via the

Oregon Trail. Widespread belief in “manifest destiny” by white Americans to

occupy all lands between Atlantic and Pacific

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Westward Expansion of the United States

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John L. O’Sullivan (1813-1895)• Born in 1813 on a ship crossing the Atlantic• Was founding editor of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, a political and literary magazine that promoted Jacksonian Democracy, counterbalancing the more conservative North American Review.• Came up with the phrase “manifest destiny” in the July/August 1845 issue of the Democratic Review in and editorial demanding that opposition to the U.S. annexation of the Republic of Texas cease.

Conflict with Indigenous Peoples

Native peoples resist incursions onto ancestral lands and traditional hunting grounds Formed alliances, also sought British support in Canada Wars Between U.S. and Indians in Northwest Territory (later Ohio,

Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) in the 1790s. U.S. Indian Removal Act of 1830 drives natives in the

Southeastern U.S. into “Indian Territory” (Oklahoma) Cherokees from Georgia, Creek from Alabama, Choctaw and

Chickasaw from Mississippi Many Seminoles in Florida resist removal Cherokees migrate 800 miles: the Trail of Tears (1838-1839);

thousands die en route

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Armed Conflict

Sioux, Comanche, Pawnee, and Apache—peoples of the Great Plains and desert Southwest—resist white settlement. Battle of Little Big Horn: In June 1876, Lakota Sioux destroy

U.S. 7th Calvary Regiment commanded by Colonel George Armstrong Custer in Montana; 268 U.S. soldiers are killed, including Custer and two of his brothers

Resistance Becomes Harder: U.S. forces have superior firepower, including cannons and Gatling (machine) gun

Dec. 29, 1890: Massacre at Wounded Knee Creek Nervous U.S. 7th Calvary Regiment sent to disarm Lakota

opens fire, killing 150 Lakota men, women, and children

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The Mexican-American War (1845-1848) Before the war, Mexico included California, New Mexico; a

decade earlier, it had also included Texas. Mexico had banned slavery in 1829, in part to keep U.S.

cotton growers out (it failed to do so). In Texas, Anglo settlers who were mostly slaveholders declare

independence from Mexico in 1836, becoming the “Lone Star Republic” Texas accepted into Union in 1845 despite Mexican protest

Conflict ensues, which U.S. wins decisively; Mexico forced to cede territory in Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) in exchange for 15 million dollars

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Westward Expansion of the United States during the Nineteenth Century

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Sectional Conflict Major issue: Will slavery be allowed in new territories? Tobacco cultivation on decline, but as of 1800, renewed

cotton industry due to cotton gin spurs new demand for slaves (importation from African banned in 1808)

U.S. slave population rises from 500,000 in 1770 to 2 million in 1820, partly due to importation before 1808, but also from natural reproduction

Missouri Compromise (1820) attempts to strike balance between slave and free states

Maine admitted as free state with slave state Missouri in 1820 36’30 parallel agreed upon as free/slave state line for future admissions to

the Union (older states including Missouri excepted)

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Sectional Conflict

Missouri Compromise Map - 1820

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Roots of the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) Abraham Lincoln elected president in 1860

Committed to an antislavery position, but not an abolitionist Issue of slavery highlighted principle of states’ rights

and the scope of federal authority Eleven southern states withdraw from Union during

the winter of 1860-1861 Southern economy dependent on cotton as cash crop Northern economy developing industrialization, wage

earners (although New York City economically more reliant on Southern cotton than most Northern cities)

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The American Civil War

First two years of war inconclusive 1863: Lincoln signs Emancipation

Proclamation, makes abolition of slavery explicit goal of the war

Battle of Gettysburg (1863) turns tide against South; North gains even more momentum when hard-nosed Ulysses S. Grant takes command of U.S. forces in March 1864. Grant seeks to annihilate Confederate manpower.

North wins after four years of bloody conflict: Union loses 140,400 soldiers in combat; Confederacy loses 72,500 soldiers in combat. Confederacy ultimately outmatched by manpower and industrial capacity.

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The American Civil War

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The Union and Confederacy in 1864(Light Blue: Union Border States that Permitted Slavery)

American Economic Development California gold rush of 1848, also Canadian gold rushes, attract

migrants from around the globe Others migrate to work in factories, railroad construction sites,

plantations, support services European Migrations: Mostly Irish and Germans before 1880, but

then transitions to mostly Eastern Europeans and Southern Europeans; mass immigration continues until quota laws passed in the 1920s

Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 to limit economic competition from non-whites on the West Coast.

Some, especially Italians, migrate and return several times over the course of their lives.

Roughly 33 million people came to the U.S. from 1820 to 1920.

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Economic Expansion British capital spurs vast expansion of U.S. industry from

the 1840s through the century Massive expansion of rail system:

31,000 miles before 1861, almost all in eastern U.S. Transcontinental railroad completed in 1869 200,000 miles by 1900, coast to coast Necessitates division of U.S. into four time zones in 1881 to keep

railroad times precise

Massive expansion of economy, 1870-1900 Electrification of urban areas Trade unions develop: Knights of Labor organized in 1869; dealt

a major blow by the Haymarket Riot and bombing in 1886

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Societies in the United States

U.S. population is the most culturally diverse in the Western hemisphere in the nineteenth century

Indigenous peoples subject to formal policy of forced assimilation Destruction of buffalo-based way of life on the Great Plains Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 shifts policies away from

collective tribal reservations; divides up lands into individual property in hopes encouraging assimilation into Euro-American society

Native children taken from families, enrolled in white-controlled boarding schools

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Freed Slaves

Slavery ended, but social discrimination remains Northern armies occupy southern states, forced social

program of Reconstruction (1863-1877) Violent backlash follows their departure in 1877 Land-poor freed slaves forced to work as

sharecroppers, kept in a permanent state of debt Racialized violence and intimidation continue; first

Ku Klux Klan rises after the war, although is repressed by federal “Force Acts” in 1870 and 1871

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Canada: Independence without War

Regional divisions in Canadian society, but independence achieved without war British and French Canadians French territories ceded after Seven Years’ War

(1756-1763) Concessions made to large French population

Recognition of Roman Catholic church, French law code

After 1781, British population in Ontario joined by loyalists fleeing U.S. War of Independence

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The War of 1812

U.S. declares war on Britain over encroachments during Napoleonic wars

British forces in Canada repel U.S. attacks Social tensions between French and English

populations remain British wish to avoid repeat of U.S. War of

Independence, gradually extend home rule between 1840 and 1867 Durham Report (1839) by John George Lambton

(1782-1840)

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British North America Act (1867)

Joins Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick as Dominion of Canada Other provinces join later

Provincial and federal governments with governor-general as British representative

Dominion controls all domestic affairs Foreign affairs controlled by London until 1931

First Prime Minister John A. Macdonald (1815-1891) purchases territory, builds trans-Canada railroad (completed 1885)

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Canadian Prosperity

British investments in Canada Policy of economic development: the National

Policy Attract migrants, promote start-up industries, build

transportation infrastructure U.S. also invests in Canada, owning 30 percent of

Canadian industry by 1918

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The Dominion of Canada in the Nineteenth Century

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Canadian Cultural Contrasts

British and French each view selves as principal founding peoples of Canada; principal social tensions were between them Small population of slaves (before it was abolished in

the British Empire in 1833) Later Nineteenth Century: Small groups of freed and

runaway slaves from the U.S., as well as Chinese migrants

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Canadian Cultural Contrasts

Louis Riel (1844-1885): Canadian politician who is métis (mixed Indian and French heritage) Leads Red River Rebellion of 1869-1870; it is

suppressed, but leads to the founding of Manitoba Province

Serves in Parliament in 1873-1874 Leads North-West Rebellion in 1885 Defeated, convicted of high treason, and executed.

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Latin America

Creole elites produce republics with constitutions, but do not really change social order (just kick out peninsulares)

Less experience with self-rule compared to North Americans Spanish, Portuguese more autocratic than British Masses of landless peasants have no political say

Creoles also limit wide participation in politics; less than 5 percent of white males allowed to vote

Overall, leads to very unstable political systems

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Latin America

Conflict with indigenous peoples Especially in Argentina and Chile; conquered indigenous

people to take the most productive agricultural land Caudillos (regional military leaders)

come to power Juan Manuel de Rosas (1793-1877), a

caudillo, becomes dictator of Argentina,maintaining power from 1829 to 1852. He did so in a brutal fashion, and alsocrushed the resistance of indigenous peoples.

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Mexican Reform Attempts

After U.S.-Mexican War the dictatorship of General Santa Anna is removed

La Reforma movement led by Benito Juárez (1806-1872) comes to power

Juárez attempts to limit power of military and church with Constitution of 1857

Meets powerful conservative opposition and is forced out of Mexico City in 1861

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Mexican Reform Attempts

Juárez suspends loan payments to foreign powers to better Mexico’s economic condition, but French, Spanish, and British forces intervene to collect investments

French and Mexican forces clash in 1862; U.S. too busy with its own Civil War to intervene (Monroe Doctrine)

Napoleon III of France triesto install a puppet emperor of Mexico, Austrian Archduke Maximilian, but Mexican forces capture and execute him in 1867.

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The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)

Middle-class Mexicans, peasants, and workers join to overthrow dictator Porfirio Díaz (1830-1915)

Revolutionary leaders Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919) and Francisco (Pancho) Villa (1878-1923) lead masses of landless peasants

Popular, but unable to take major cities Mexican Constitution of 1917 addresses many of the

major concerns of land redistribution

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The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)

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Emiliano Zapata(1879-1919) Porfirio Diaz

(1830-1915)

Pancho Villa(1878-1923)

Latin America in the Nineteenth Century

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Latin American Dependence

Limited foreign investment Small size of Latin American markets

Interest in exploiting raw materials Argentina: beef Guatemala: coffee & bananas

Limited industrializing initiatives foiled by government corruption

Yet significant export-driven rise in economy

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Diversity in Latin America

Complex social structure, based on racial background Europeans, natives, African slaves, and combinations

thereof Increasing migration in nineteenth century from

Asia Some conflicts between cosmopolitan cities and

rural areas Symbol of rural culture: the gaucho cowboy

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