1. By:
Chantel Henderson
History 141

2.  After the War of Reform (1857-60), Mexico owed a total of
82.2 million pesos to France, Britain, and Spain.
 Benito Juarez, the liberal president, requested to Congress to
have all foreign interest payments suspended for 2 years due
to lack of funds to pay it.
 On October 31, 1861 Britain, France and Spain signed the
Convention of London which agreed they would send a joint
expedition to seize Vera Cruz.
 On December 14, 1861, a fleet of 6,243 Spaniards landed on
Vera Cruz, followed by 3,000 French troops, and 700 British
marines on January 8, 1862.
 For the Spanish and British, their goal was to collect the
debts owed to their nations, but the French had a plan to
make an excuse to put Archduke Maximilian of Austria on the
throne.
 Juarez did not have the money and resources to put up a
good fight, but to Juarez’s advantage the foreigners were
being taken down by yellow fever. Soon, the Spanish and
British realized what the French’s intentions were and
withdrew in April 1862.

3.  Napoleon III of France was made to believe that the Mexican population was
just waiting to overthrow the Liberals.
 On March 5, 1862, 4,000 French reinforcements led by General Guillaume
Latrille de Lorencez joined 6,500 other French in Vera Cruz.
 Juarez’s army was no match for the French because it consisted of
amateurs and guerillas, who couldn’t be counted on to stay loyal.
 On May 5, 1862 (Cinco de Mayo), the 6,500 troops of the French thought
they would be welcomed by their Mexican Conservative allies in Puebla.
They were instead surprised by 3,791 Liberals commanded by General
Ignacio Zaragoza. De Lorencez threw his forces at them, but just ended up
expending half of their ammo and sustaining 476 casualties.
 In September and October 1862, Napoleon III sent over around 26,000 more
troops to Vera Cruz and replaced de Lorencez with General Forey.
 The second attack against Puebla started on March 16, 1863. Defending the
city was 23,930 men under General Ortega and another 8,000 men under
General Comonfort. The Mexican Liberals were able to hold off the French
until March 29. Then on May 10, the French ambushed the Mexicans killing
1,000 soldiers and capturing another 1,000.
 After Puebla was taken down, the French moved along to Mexico City which
was abandoned by Juarez, the Cabinet and any Mexican soldiers because of
the little defense there. The French were welcomed enthusiastically when
they arrived in June.

4.  Archduke Maximilian was asked to be Mexico’s new Emperor in June 1863,
formally accepted on April 9, 1864, landed in Vera Cruz on May 28 and
entered Mexico City on June 12.
 Meanwhile, 27,000 French and 8,000 Conservative troops were chasing
Juarez north. The Liberals were defeated at every battle they encountered.
 Maximilian had multiple problems. One problem was money. The war was
costly and he had to depend on Napoleon III for funds. However, he did not
spend his money thoughtfully. He would have balls and banquets, buy
extravagant gifts for his loyal followers, and spent a lot of money restoring
his castle.
 After the American Civil War was over, 3,000 Union soldiers joined the Liberal
soldiers and fire arms just happened to be left by the Mexican border for the
Liberals to find them.
 Then the U.S. sent 50,000 troops to the Mexican border and demanded the
French to leave Mexico in February 1866.
 Juarez and his Liberal army was becoming stronger and the French were
losing battles.
 Napoleon III told Marshall Bazaine to make one last attempt to destroy Juarez
then come home.
 Maximilian slowly started to realize that Napoleon was going to desert him,
but with his wife giving him hope that he could still win, Maximilian formed a
Native army.

5.  Ultra-Conservatives convinced Maximilian that victory was still possible and
Conservative Generals Marquez and Miramon returned from exile ready to fight
Juarez.
 Bazaine tried to convince Maximilian to abdicate, but failed to do so. He
destroyed any war supplies he could not carry off hoping that it would help
change Maximilian’s mind, but that didn’t work either. The French army left
from Vera Cruz on March 12, 1867.
 The Conservatives persuaded Maximilian to join the 10,000-man army they
formed in Queretaro.
 Three Liberal armies converged on Queretaro: “The Army of the North”, “The
Army of the Center”, and “The Army of the West”. It consisted of about 40,000
men.
 On March 27, on instructions to go to Mexico City, General Marquez went to
Puebla also to relieve the Conservatives besieged by Porfirio Diaz. Diaz heard of
Marquez’s approach and was prepared to take him on. Marquez was defeated in
Puebla and fled to Mexico City, then Cuba.
 On May 14, Maximilian planned to make a break-out out of Queretaro, but Col.
Miguel Lopez betrayed Maximilian and let some Liberals through his trenches.
The Liberals took the town with ease.
 Maximilian was captured on May 15 with Mejia. They were tried at court-
marshal and were sentenced to death along with General Miramon.
 Benito Juarez returned to Mexico City on July 15.
 This war ended the struggles between the Conservatives and Liberals but only
for 33 years.

6.  Oil is Venezuela’s biggest resource.
 In the 1950s, the development of oil by local oligarchs and
foreign corporations united together to drive Venezuela to be
a first world country.
 But the political instability has hindered their progress.
 In the early 1970s, Venezuela and other founding member of
OPEC collected the single largest transfer of wealth without
war in history.
 The country relied on the income of oil too much and
abandoned its agricultural economy.
 In the 1980s, prices in oil dropped which created deficits,
major debts, and accelerating inflation.
 In 1998, Hugo Chavez became president of the country and is
still president to this day.
 The socialist governing of the country with a selfish and
narcissistic president who uses his oil money more for political
purposes rather than taking better care of his country and
citizens has obstructed Venezuela’s development into a first
world country.

7.  Brazil’s economy is one of the world’s ten largest .
 Exports near $100 billion a year with only 10 percent
of it in agriculture.
 Some of the agriculture include
beef, oranges, sugar, coffee, poultry, pork, and soy.
 80% of South America’s top 500 companies are
Brazilian.
 They also manufacture and export things such as steel
and airplanes.
 Racism does not segregate people in Brazil. There are
many different races in Southern Brazil and they all
refer to themselves as “Brazilians”.
 However, class separates them more than anything.
 Although the country brings in a huge income, there
are still shantytowns and other poor areas in the big
cities.
 There is also a large amount of crime and violence in
these areas as well.

8.  Chile is as long as America is wide with a
coastline of 3,000 miles long.
 Chile is Latin America’s role model and is the
only country in Latin America that stands a
chance to become a first world country in the
near future.
 Santiago is the continent’s second business
hub behind Sao Paulo.
 It also has a great government style that
promotes education and technology which
have doubled incomes since 1990 and put the
poverty level below 15%.
 It also keeps out of disorderly continental
affairs, but looks for practical alliances all
over.
 The government remains stable with a
president, Michelle Bachelet, who is a former
revolutionary, torture victim, divorced single
mother, pediatrician, and ex-defense
minister.

9.  The Football War was a four day war between Honduras and El
Salvador from July 14, 1969 to July 18, 1969.
 The main cause was because Honduras was taking the land away
from the many Salvadoran immigrants and giving it to Honduran-
born people.
 This left many people homeless and upset them.
 It is called the Football War because during the war the North
American Qualifying rounds for the 1970 FIFA World Cup for
football (soccer) were being held.
 During the qualifying rounds between Honduras and El Salvador,
the fans rioted against each other from current tensions.
 The fighting between the two nations had begun and after the
first day of fighting the Organization of American States called for
a cease fire and withdrawal of El Salvador’s forces in Honduras.
 The cease fire was arranged on July 18, but didn’t take full effect
until July 20.
 900 Salvadoran troops and civilians were killed and 100 Honduran
combat troops and 2,000 Honduran civilians were killed during
the 100 Hour War.

10.  Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in
Coyoacan, Mexico.
 She is one of the most famous Mexican artists
and commands the most highest selling prices
of any Latin American artists.
 Frida is most famous from her self portraits and
real life experiences.
 She was known as a surrealist as an artist.
 With hardships from a near fatal accident to a
rocky marriage with Diego Rivera to 3
miscarriages, Frida had real emotions that she
portrayed in her paintings.
 She died on July 13, 1954 from illnesses but her
paintings didn’t become famous until the 1980s
when Neomexicanismo became popular.