Latin America: Extraregional and Intraregional Trade at the End of the Colonial Era 1. Exports Per Head (US $): 1821, 1830, 1840, and

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1 1 History of Latin America: The Great Export Boom Latin America: Extraregional and Intraregional Trade at the End of the Colonial Era 1 Exports Per Head (US $): 1821, 1830, 1840, and Bulmer-Thomas, Victor. The Economic History of Latin America since Independence 2 Ibid.

2 2 History of Latin America: The Great Export Boom Export Commodity Concentration Ratios, circa Brief Timeline of Mexico Mexican struggle for independence from Spain September 16, 1810 Padre Miguel Hidalgo calls for independence 1812 Spanish and provincial delegates write the Spanish Imperial Constitution of Cádiz September 27, 1821 Agustín Iturbide defeats Royalists and achieves Mexican independence July 22, 1822, to March 19, 1823 Iturbide s empire of Mexico 1824 to 1846 Antonio López de Santa Anna in and out of power Liberal Era: Benito Juárez acting and elected president, New Liberal Constitution French intervention in Mexico May 5, 1863 Mexican victory over French troops at Puebla - Cinco de Mayo holiday Reign of French-backed emperor and empress, Maximilian and Carlotta Porfirio Díaz regime The Mexican Revolution October 2, 1835 Texas Rebellion December 29, 1845 United States annexes Texas May 13, 1846 United States declares war on Mexico February 2, 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends war between the United States and Mexico 3 Ibid.

3 3 History of Latin America: The Great Export Boom Lucas Alemán (1853) For liberals, the Church was problematic at to levels. Its wealth was viewed as an impediment to the formation of a modern free-market economy. Its control of education prevented the state from disseminating the rational, scientific and utilitarian education which liberals believed to be necessary for progress. Alemán, a conservative, makes a case for Church and its role in society. Why? First and foremost is the need to preserve the Catholic religion, because we believe in it and because even if we did not hold it to be divine, we consider it to be the only common bond that links all Mexicans when all the others have been broken; it is the only thing capable of sustaining the Spanish-American race and of delivering it from the great dangers to which it is exposed. We also consider it necessary to maintain the ceremonial splendour of the Church, as well as its temporal properties, and to settle everything relating to ecclesiastical administration with the Pope. Ponciano Arriaga - Constitutional Convention of Ponciano Arriaga was a liberal politician who participated in Mexico s the Constitutional Convention after the demise of the conservatives. What did he believe was the major problem the new liberal Mexico faced? One of the most deeply rooted evils of our country an evil that merits the close attention of legislators when they frame our fundamental law is the monstrous division of landed property. While a few individuals possess immense areas of uncultivated land that could support millions of people, the great majority of Mexicans languish in a terrible poverty and are denied property, homes, and work. Such a people cannot be free, democratic, much less happy, no matter how many constitutions and laws proclaim abstract rights and beautiful but impracticable theories impracticable by reason of an absurd economic system. How can a hungry, naked, miserable people practice popular government? Would it not be more logical and honest to deny our four million poor Mexicans all share in political life and public offices, all electoral rights, and declare them to be things, not persons, establishing a system of government in which an aristocracy of wealth, or at most of talent, would form the basis of our institutions? For one of two things is inevitable: either our political system will continue to be dominated for a long time to come by a de facto aristocracy and the lords of the land, the privileged caste that monopolizes the soil and profits by the sweat of its serfs, will wield all power and influence in our civil and political life; or we will achieve a reform, shatter the trammels and bonds of feudal servitude, bring down all monopolies and despotisms, end all abuses, and allow the fruitful element of democratic equality, the powerful element of democratic sovereignty to penetrate the heart and veins of our political institutions. Francisco Bilbao, Chilean Sociability (1844) Bilbao was a Chilean liberal and writer. Like most liberals, Bilbao was opposed to the Church s historical role and function in Latin American society. How does he portray Catholicism and how does it differ from Christianity? Which of the two has oppressed women? Is it possible to extend his example beyond women? America came from Spain and carries her stamp; the Spanish past on American soil brings us to Chile. Let us quickly review the relations that the Catholic Church sanctions with regard to the state, the customs, and the philosophy of the time in which we live. There is no doubt that Christianity was a major advance in the religious rehabilitation of men; but Catholicism... reacted with hostility to the primitive purity of the doctrine of Jesus. Under Catholicism, women are subordinated to their husbands. The result is the slavery of women. Paul, the primary founder of Catholicism, did not follow the moral religion of Jesus Christ. Jesus emancipated women. Paul subordinated them. Jesus was Western in his spirit, that is to say, liberal. Paul was oriental and authoritarian. Jesus founded a democratic religion, Paul an ecclesiastical aristocracy. From there originates the logical consequence of the slavery of women.

4 4 History of Latin America: The Great Export Boom Juan Butista Albedsi, Bases and Points of Departure for the Political Organization of the Argentine Republic (1852) What should Argentinians focus on? Why the emphasis on culture and education? Our youth should be trained for industrial life, and therefore should be educated in the arts and sciences that would prepare them for i ndustry. The South American type of man should be one formed for the conquest of the great and oppressive enemies of our progress: the desert, material backwardness; the brutal and primitive nature of this continent. We should therefore endeavor to draw our youth away from the cities of the interior... and to attract them to the coastal towns so that they may obtain inspiration from Europe, which extends to our shores, and from the spirit of modern life. You will find it useless to fill the minds of youths with abstract notions about religion.. England and the United States have arrived at religious morality by way of industry; Spain has failed to acquire industry and liberty by means of religion alone. Spain has never being guilty of irreligion, but that did not save her from poverty, corruption, and despotism... Bartolomé Mitre, On Immigration (1870) What has European immigration contributed to Argentina? There are four great currents of immigration converging on the Río de la Plata from divers points of the globe: from Ireland, Italy, Spain, and France, nor is the English contingent missing, nor Germany or Switzerland unrepresented in the promotion of our population and industry. By studying the action of these human currents that obey natural forces, it will become clear that without their assistance we would be lagging far behind on the road to prosperity and that we owe more to this spontaneous force than to the cogitations of our sages or the intelligence and foresight of our legislators. Let us run over the benefits this immigration has brought: it has, to a considerable degree, multiplied the reproductive power of the species and considerably contributed to the growth of the population; it has raised the production that is the basis of our wealth from its dejection; it has improved agriculture; it has nourished shipping; it has lent greater value to landed property; it is the nerve of commerce as an agent of production and consumption; its deposits form the basis of our great credit establishments; it promotes immigration and spontaneous settlement of its own steam, without burdening the treasury. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Civilization and Barbarism: The Life of Facundo Quiroga and the Geography and Customs of the Argentine Republic (1845) How does he use Facundo Quiroga to contrast barbarism and civilization? Facundo is a type of primitive barbarism. He recognized no form of subjection. His rage was that of a wild beast. In a fit of passion he kicked out the brains of a man with whom he had quarreled at play. He tore off both the ears of a woman he had lived with, and had promised to marry, upon her asking him for thirty dollars for the celebration of the wedding... Incapable of commanding noble admiration, he delighted in exciting fear; and this pleasure was exclusive and dominant with him to the arranging [of] all his actions so as to produce terror in those around him, whether it was society in general, the victim on his way to execution, or his own wife and children. Wanting ability to manage the machinery of civil government, he substituted terror for patriotism and self sacrifice. Destitute of learning, he surrounded himself with mysteries, and pretended to a foreknowledge of events which gave him

5 5 History of Latin America: The Great Export Boom prestige and reputation among the commonalty, supporting his claims by an air of impenetrability, by natural sagacity, an uncommon power of observation, and the advantage he derived from vulgar credulity.