Latin America in the Nineteenth Century

A series of wars that took place between 1808 and 1826 brought independence to most former colonies of Spain and Portugal in Latin America. After winning their independence, the new Latin American states began a long, uphill struggle to achieve economic and political stability. There faced immense obstacles, for independence was not accompanied by economic and social changes that could spur rapid Progress. Large estates, generally operated using primitive methods and highly exploited labor, continued to dominate economic life. Far from diminishing, the influence of the landed aristocracy (established upper social class) actually increased. This was the result of the leading military role it had played in the wars of independence and the passing of Spanish authority.

Economic life stagnated, for the anticipated large-scale influx of foreign capital did not materialize, and the European demand for Latin American staples remained far below expectations. Free trade brought increased commercial activity to the coasts, but this increase was offset by the near destruction of some local craft industries by cheap, factory-made European goods.The sluggish pace of economic activity and the relative absence of interregional trade and true national markets encouraged local self-sufficiency, isolation, political instability, and even chaos.

As a result of these adverse factors, the period from about 1820 to about 1870 was for many Latin American countries an age of violence and of alternate dictatorship and revolution. Its symbol was the caudillo (strongman), whose power was always based on force, no matter what kind of constitution the country had. Usually, the caudillo ruled with the aid of a coalition of lesser caudillos, each supreme in his region. Whatever their methods, the caudillos generally displayed some regard for republican (representative government) ideology and institutions. Political parties, bearing such labels as "conservative" and "liberal," were active in most of the new states. Conservatism drew most of its support from the great landowners and their urban allies. Liberalism typically attracted provincial landowners. professional people, and other groups that had enjoyed little power in the past and were dissatisfied with the existing order. As a rule conservatives sought to retain many of the social arrangements of the colonial era and favored a highly centralized government. Liberals usually advocated a federal form of government (in which power is distributed between a central government and regional authorities), guarantees of individual rights, lay (nonreligious) control of education, and an end to special privileges for the clergy and military. Neither party displayed much interest in the problems of the native peasantry and other lower-class groups.

Beginning in about 1870, the accelerating tempo of the Industrial Revolution in Europe stimulated more rapid change in the Latin American economy and politics.European capital flowed into the area and was used to create the facilities needed to expand and modernize production and trade. The pace and degree of economic progress of the various countries were very uneven and depended largely on their geographic position and natural resources.

Extreme one sidedness was a feature of the new economic order in which one or two products became the basis of each country's prosperity, making these commodities highly vulnerable to fluctuations in world demand and price while other sectors of the economy remained stagnant.

The late nineteenth-century expansion was accompanied by a steady growth of foreign control over the natural and human-made resources of the region. Thus, by 1900 a new structure of dependency, or Colonialism, had arisen, called neocolonialism, with Great Britain and, later, the United States replacing Spain and Portugal as the dominant powers in the area.

The new economic order demanded peace and continuity in government, and after 1870 political conditions in Latin America did, in fact, grow more stable. Old party lines dissolved as conservatives adopted the dogma of science and progress, while liberals abandoned their concern with constitutional methods and civil liberties (protections for individuals against unjust government interference) in favor of an interest in material prosperity. The cycle of dictatorship and revolution continued in many lands, but the revolutions became less frequent and less devastating.

These major trends in the political and economic history of Latin America in the period extending from about 1820 to 1900 were accompanied by other changes in the Latin American way of life and culture-notably, the development of a powerful literature that often sought not only to mirror Latin American society but to change it.