The document provides an overview of modern Latin American history from the late 18th century onwards. It discusses factors such as the Haitian revolution, the wars of independence from European colonial powers, the influence of the American and French revolutions, the rise of caudillos or strongmen, and ongoing political instability between conservative and liberal factions in the early national period. It also examines the impacts of the Monroe Doctrine, European imperialism, and increasing US intervention and domination over the 19th-20th centuries.

1. Modern Latin America

2. • The Haitian War for Independence
(1791-1803) began as a struggle
between the privileged white
planters and the less privileged
affranchis (those of mixed blood)
and became a race war when the
third and largest racial element, the
pure blacks, ultimately dominated.
• During the early years of the war,
some wealthy plantation owners
were able to escape Haiti with their
slaves, which contributed to the
spread of race conflict, especially in
neighboring Cuba.
• Latin American wars for
independence were an outgrowth of
deep-seated political, economic, and
social frustrations.

3. • Within colonial Latin America a class
system exalted the Europeans, gave
lesser privilege to the American-born,
pure-blooded whites, and repressed all
others.
• Mercantilism, an economic system which
held that colonies existed for the benefit
of the motherland, stagnated economic
development throughout the New World.
• Adding to political frustration, trade was
exclusive and monopolistic, conducted by
Europeans in European ships. Mestizos,
Indians, and blacks were treated worse
and taxed heavily.
• Catalysts for independence were the
American Revolution and French
Revolution. These influenced Simon
Bolivar of New Granada and Miguel
Hidalgo in Mexico in their quests for
independence from Spain.

4. • Strong-willed individuals, known as
caudillos, routinely used force to achieve
their personal ends. Throughout the 19th
century hundreds existed but most never
rose above the local level and controlled
a handful of men.
• A few caudillos were motivated by
patriotism for the fatherland and a few
by purely selfish desires. The power of
the caudillos was his ability to deliver his
followers to the cause of his choice.
• In the decades following independence,
the unresolved struggle between
conservatives, who favored a monarchy,
and liberals, who wanted a republic, led
to wars. Other political ideologies, such
as federalism versus centralism, as well
as economic disputes among the ruling
class also sparked intraclass wars.

5. • The Monroe Doctrine of 1823
outlined a policy for intervention in
Latin America in order to prevent a
monarchic counterrevolution against
republican governments and to
deter the expansion of European
colonies in the New World.
• Only on rare occasions did the
United States threaten military
intervention to enforce the Monroe
Doctrine.
• More than one hundred
interventions took place in Latin
America during the 19th century.
Not all interventions were initiated
by nations. Many were acts of
individuals.

6. • South America’s plentiful natural
resources can now reach global
markets, particularly Asia, faster than
ever.
• Solid American relations with Latin
America could mean substantial energy
self-sufficiency in the Western
Hemispheric pan-region and
independence from the turbulence of
Eurasia.
• Imperial systems can be compared to
bubbles blowing up in size, expanding
and rising, then bursting and falling.
Latin America has always been caught
in others’ imperial bubbles, and never
been able to form its own…its own
underdevelopment was integral to the
rise of world capitalism.

7. • Beginning with the arrival of Christopher
Columbus, competition to conquer the
hemisphere’s vast expanses was ruthless.
United only by a commitment to spread
Catholicism, the Spanish and Portuguese
monarchies divided all the colonies of the
New World.
• Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes
destroyed Mexico’s Aztec empire in the
1520s. With Spain’s direct domination of
Portugal from 1580 to 1640, Spain
controlled the entire Western Hemisphere.
• Native populations were conquered by the
sword and exotic diseases, while Christian
charity justified the bleeding of the New
World for its silver and gold.
• After the Protestant Reformation, the New
World reentered calculations of the global
balance of power, with France and the
Netherlands undermining Catholic Spain by
seizing territories from Canada to the
northern coast of South America.

8. • America’s psychology toward Latin America
reflects a striking continuity over the centuries.
America’s hemispheric domination from the 1790s
through the War of 1812 and onward succeeded
in supplanting European powers through a mix of
pocketbook diplomacy and military conquest.
• The United States declared war on Spain on April
21, 1898, supposedly to liberate Cuba and
initiate its democratic evolution. Roosevelt sought
to also control the Philippines, which the United
States simultaneously seized.
• None of the forty governments America has over-
thrown in Latin America since 1898 became
democratic; the plan was to implant democracy in
form only.
• China’s economic interest in Latin America is a
blessing and a curse, bringing current account
surpluses for the first time in decades, along with
fierce competition, as China rivals in their own
market and in exports to the first world.

9. • The United States is coming to
realize that Latin America is a
strategic economic opportunity, and
is increasing its investment with the
aim of generating a strong, low-cost
manufacturing base to compete with
Asia.
• After centuries of rule by mercantilist
powers, Latin America and Africa
remain largely neglected by their
powerful neighbors while doing little
more than posturing for brotherhood
with their actual neighbors.
• Latin America could still become a
solidly second-world region due to
big economies like those of Brazil
and Mexico, vast oil and gas
resources, and proximity to the
importing giant that is the United
States.

10. • Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva born October 27,
1945, known popularly as Lula, served as
President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.
• Lula had little formal education. He did not
learn to read and write until he was ten
years old, and quit school after the fourth
grade in order to work to help his family.
• As a young man, Lula joined the labor
movement and rose steadily in the ranks.
He served two terms as president of the
Steel Worker’s Union of Sao Bernardo do
Campo and Diadema, areas home to most
of Brazil’s automobile manufacturing
facilities.
• On February 10, 1980, Lula along with
other academics, intellectuals, and union
leaders, founded the Partido dos
Trabalhadores (PT) or Worker’s Party. This
was a left-wing party with progressive
ideas created in the midst of Brazil’s
military government.

11. • As President, Lula’s government chose
a reformist line, passing new
retirement tax, labor and judicial
legislation, and discussing university
reform.
• Lula’s social programs like Bolsa
Familia (Family Allowance) and Fome
Zero (Zero Hunger) are trademarks of
his time in office.
• Lula’s Administration’s economic
policies significantly raised the living
standards; the consumerist middle class
rose from 37% to 50% of the
population.
• Since his Presidency, Lula has attained
numerous medals and was rated the
most popular Brazilian president of all
time. In 2010, Time Magazine named
Lula one of the most influential leaders
in the world.