America Latina

Latin America
2011
Styvaly M. de Alba Correa 5B 1445699
Estudios Regionales de América Latina Prof. Víctor Néstor Aguirre Sotelo
16/09/2011


INDEX

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………3
Content ……………………………………………………………………………4
Bibliography..……………………………………………………………………6

INTRODUCTION

In this essay we are going to discuss the way Latin America has been changing through the time, the way European countries and the United States administered territories in Latin America a lot of time in a variety of ways. Some were traditional colonies while others enjoyed "dominion" or commonwealth status in the British Empire. Others were formally incorporated intotheir Mother Country.
Nevertheless most of them are now free but they had to go through several things that we are about to see to get this liberty.

LATIN AMERICA

Latin America is generally understood to consist of the entire continent of South America in addition to Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean whose inhabitants speak a Romance language. The peoples of thislarge area shared the experience of conquest and colonization by the Spaniards and Portuguese from the late 15th through the 18th centuries as well as movements of independence from Spain and Portugal in the early 19th century.
After the passing of the 19th century Latin America was not only able to continue to function without creating a new nationhood but also able to stay away from warfare andconflicts that would destroy the country. The only major war that occurred was from 1932-1935 was the Chaco war between Bolivia and Paraguay. One unfortunate aspect was that there was violence in the country against peasant protesters and Indian minorities as landowners who were being killed while the “caudillos” were trying to keep their power. A theme of Latin America was the revolution in thebeginning of the 20th century. This revolution was mainly about the political structure and governmental reform.
With the population growing this brought about economic problems that needed severe change for Latin America to survive in the 20th century. The last theme of the chapter is throughout all these political and economical problems facing Latin America they were still able to grow as aculture. This growth was in areas of painting, architecture, and literature.
The Mexican Revolution, from 1910-1917, was the great event of the early 20th century in Latin America, though it directly affected only the one major nation (Stearns p.614). The revolution dates back to 1900 when intellectuals started to look at how corrupt Porfirio Diaz was as a leader. This soon spread out to morepeople such as urban workers and the peasantry. Their main goal was to get the economic side of Mexico back in their rule and not outsider rule such as the United States investors. The peasant leader was Emiliano Zapata who believed in "Land and Liberty". Pancho Villa was the Bandit leader who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.
After Diaz escaped Francisco Madero tried to become the new leaderbut people felt that he was not looking out for the working-class and he soon lost the revolution. Zapata began to make new revolts, which in turn scared the U.S. and they in turn ordered the execution of Madero. In 1916, with the backing of the U.S., Venustiano Carranza took control. A new constitution was formed in 1917, which gave Mexico the right to own all minerals; this reduced foreigninvestors and benefited the mestizo and Indian peasants.
In 1920, revolutionaries pressed for new leadership; under the presidency of Alvaro Obregon, the long period of disorder drew to a close, and the results of revolution took clearer shape (Stearns p.616). The “caudillismos”, a name for Latin American leaders, were put down and a single political party to control. The PNR (National...