Chapter Outline

Chapter 31: THE AMERICAS IN THE AGE OF INDEPENDENCE

Chapter Outline

The building of American states

The United States: westward expansion and civil war
1. By 1820s all adult white men could vote and hold office
2. Rapid westward expansion after the revolution
  1. Britain ceded all lands east of the Mississippi River to United States after the revolution
  2. 1803, United States purchased France's Louisiana Territory, west to the Rocky Mountains
  3. By 1840s, coast-to-coast expansion was claimed as the manifest destiny of the United States
3. Conflict with indigenous peoples followed westward expansion
  1. 1830, Indian Removal Act forced eastern natives to move west of the Mississippi
  2. Thousands died on the "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma
  3. Stiff resistance to expansion: Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876, Sioux victory
  4. U.S. massacre at Wounded Knee, 1890, ended Indian Wars
4. The Mexican-American War, 1845-1848
  1. Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1836, was annexed by United States in 1845
  2. U.S.-Mexican conflict over the border ended with resounding U.S. victory
  3. By Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, United States purchased Texas, California, New Mexico
5. Sectional conflict: north versus south over slavery
  1. Nineteenth-century cotton cultivation in the south was dependent on slave labor
  2. Northern states did not want slavery expanded into new territories
  3. Abraham Lincoln elected president, 1860; publicly opposed to slavery
6. The U.S. Civil War, 1861-1865
  1. With Lincoln's election, eleven southern states seceded from the Union
  2. Southerners believed their economy of cotton and slaves was self-sufficient
  3. Northerners fought to preserve the Union as much as in opposition to slavery
  4. In 1863, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made abolition a goal of the war
  5. By 1865, the industrial north defeated the agricultural south
  6. The war ended slavery, enhanced authority of the federal government
The Canadian Dominion: independence without war
1. Autonomy and division characterized Canadian history
  1. French Quebec taken by Britain after the Seven Years' War
  2. British authorities made large concessions to French Canadians
  3. After 1781, many British loyalists fled United States to seek refuge in Canada
2. The War of 1812 unified Canada against U.S. invaders
  1. Anti-U.S. sentiments created sense of unity among French and British Canadians
  2. 1830s, tensions between French citizens and growing English population
  3. 1840-1867, British authorities granted home rule to Canadians
3. Dominion of Canada created in 1867
  1. A federal government with a governor-general acting as the British representative
  2. Britain retained jurisdiction over foreign affairs until 1931
4. Prime Minister John Macdonald strengthened Canadian independence and unity
  1. Persuaded western and maritime provinces to join the Dominion, 1860s
  2. Transcontinental railroad completed, 1885
Latin America: fragmentation and political experimentation
1. Creole elites faced political instability after independence
  1. Creole leaders had little experience with self-government
  2. White minority dominated politics; peasant majority was without power
  3. Political instability aggravated by division among elites
2. Conflicts between farmers and ranchers and indigenous peoples common
  1. Intense fighting in Argentina and Chile; modern weapons against native peoples
  2. Colonists had pacified most productive land by 1870s
3. Caudillos: military leaders who held power after revolutionary era
  1. Juan Manuel de Rosas dominated Argentina from 1835-1852
  2. Took advantage of chaotic times; brought order to Argentina
  3. Used personal army to crush opposition; opposed liberal reforms
4. Mexico: war and reform from 1821-1911
  1. Shifted from monarchy to republic to caudillo rule
  2. La Reforma: liberal movement in 1850s led by President Benito Juarez
  3. Granted universal male suffrage; limited power of priests and military
  4. Reforms strongly opposed by landowning elites
5. Mexico: revolution (1911-1920)
  1. Fundamentally a class conflict: 95 percent of people were landless and impoverished
  2. Middle class joined with peasants and workers to overthrow the dictator Diaz
  3. Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa led popular uprisings in countryside
  4. With U.S. support, Mexican government regained control
  5. New constitution of 1917 brought sweeping reform

American economic development

Migration to the Americas
1. Industrial migrants to United States and Canada
  1. In 1850s, 2.3 million Europeans migrated to the United States, and the number increased after that
  2. The low cost of immigrant labor contributed to U.S. industrial expansion
  3. 1852-1875, two hundred thousand Chinese migrated to California to work in mines and railroads
2. Latin American migrants mostly worked on agricultural plantations
  1. Italians migrated to Brazil and Argentina
  2. Asians migrated to Cuba and the Caribbean sugar fields
Economic expansion in the United States
1. British capital crucial for early development of U.S. industries
  1. Foreign capital supported textile, iron and steel, railroads
  2. Helped create an industrial rival that soon surpassed Britain
2. Railroads integrated national economy by late nineteenth century
  1. Two hundred thousand miles of railroad in United States by 1900, coast to coast
  2. Economic stimulus: 75 percent of steel went to railroads, supported other industries
3. Railroads changed American landscape and timetables; set time zones by 1880s
4. Dramatic economic growth between 1870 and 1900
  1. New inventions and technologies: electric lights, telephones, and so on
  2. Labor conflicts over wages and working conditions: big business usually won
Canadian prosperity
1. The National Policy: plan to develop national economy
  1. Wanted to attract migrants and British capital but to protect Canadian industries
  2. Construction of Canadian Pacific Railroad opened the west to settlement
  3. Boom in agricultural and industrial production late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
2. Heavy U.S. investment in Canada; owned 30 percent of Canadian industry by 1918
Latin American dependence
1. Colonial legacy prevented industrialization of Latin American states
  1. Spain and Portugal never encouraged industries
  2. Creole elites continued land-based economies after independence
2. British didn't invest in industry in Latin America; no market for manufactured goods
  1. Instead invested in cattle and sheep ranching in Argentina
  2. Supplied British wool and beef; most of profits returned to Britain
3. Some attempts at industrialization with limited success
  1. Diaz encouraged foreign investors to build rails, telegraphs, and mines
  2. Profits to Mexican oligarchy and foreign investors, not for further development
  3. While Mexican industry boomed, average Mexican standard of living declined
4. Economic growth in Latin America driven by exports: silver, beef, bananas, coffee

American culture and social diversity

Multicultural society in the United States
1. By late nineteenth century, United States was a multicultural society but was dominated by white elites
2. Native peoples had been pushed onto reservations
  1. Dawes Act, 1887: encouraged natives to take up farming, often on marginal land
  2. Slaughter of buffalo threatened plains Indians' survival
  3. Children sent to boarding schools, lost native language and traditions
3. Freed slaves often denied civil rights
  1. Northern armies forced the south to undergo Reconstruction (1867-68)
  2. After Reconstruction, a violent backlash overturned reforms
  3. South rigidly segregated; blacks denied opportunities, political rights
4. American women's movement had limited success in nineteenth century
  1. "Declaration of Sentiments" issued by American feminists in 1848
  2. Sought education, employment, and political rights
5. Migrants: 25 million Europeans to America from 1840-1914
  1. Hostile reaction to foreigners from "native-born" Americans
  2. Newcomers concentrated in districts like Little Italy and Chinatown
  3. Antagonism to Asians led to legal exclusion of Chinese and Japanese migrants
Canadian cultural contrasts
1. Ethnic diversity beyond dominant British and French populations
  1. Significant minority of indigenous people displaced by whites
  2. Blacks free after 1833 but not equal; former slaves, some escaped from United States
  3. Chinese migrants came to goldfields of British Columbia, worked on railroad
  4. Late nineteenth and early twentieth century, waves of European migrants
  5. Expansion into Northwest Territories increased British and French conflicts
2. Northwest Rebellion by the métis, descendents of French traders and native women
  1. Conflict between natives, métis, and white settlers in west, 1870s and 1880s
  2. Louis Riel, leader of western métis and indigenous peoples
  3. Riel organized a government and army to protect land and trading rights
  4. Canadian authorities outlawed his government and exiled him, 1870s
  5. In 1885 Riel again led métis resistance against railroads and British settlements
  6. Rebels were subdued, and Riel was executed for treason
3. French Canadians suspicious of British elites after Northwest Rebellion
Ethnicity, identity, and gender in Latin America
1. Latin American societies organized by ethnicity and color, legacy of colonialism
2. Large-scale migration in nineteenth century brought cultural diversity
  1. Small number of Chinese in Cuba assimilated through intermarriage
  2. Larger group of East Indians in Trinidad and Tobago preserved cultural traditions
  3. European migrants made Buenos Aires "the Paris of the Americas"
3. Gauchos: Argentine cowboys on the pampas
  1. Gaucho society: ethnic egalitarianism, mostly mestizos or castizos (mixed race)
  2. Distinctive gaucho dress, independent, celebrated in legend and song
  3. Caudillo rule disrupted gaucho life: impressed into armies, lands enclosed
4. Male domination central feature of Latin American society in nineteenth century
  1. Machismo: culture of male strength, aggression
  2. No significant women's movement; some efforts to improve education for girls