Introduction for Chapter 27

27 The Americas in the Age of Liberalism 1810–1910

> How did liberal political and economic ideas shape the development of the Americas in the nineteenth century? Chapter 27 examines major trends in the nineteenth-century Americas. In the United States, Cuba, and Brazil slavery endured until the second half of the nineteenth century. In Spanish America land remained concentrated in the hands of colonial elites. By 1900 millions of immigrants from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia had settled in the Americas. New political systems and governing institutions emerged quickly in the United States, Canada, and Brazil, while in much of the rest of the continent political rivals struggled to share power. The United States managed to nurture internal markets and assume an influential place in both Atlantic and Pacific trade. Across Latin America, new nations with weak internal markets and often poorly consolidated political systems struggled to accumulate capital or industrialize.

image
Yaqui Woman Indians across the Americas found their world under assault during the nineteenth century as new nation-states completed the process of territorial consolidation begun in the colonial era. Yaqui people like the woman depicted here faced the dual pressures of the United States’ westward expansion and Mexico’s integration of northern borderlands. (Library of Congress LC-USZ62-104492)

LearningCurve

After reading the chapter, use LearningCurve to retain what you’ve read.

1810–1825 1879–1883
Wars of independence in Latin America War of the Pacific
1845 1886
First use of term manifest destiny in United States; Texas and Florida admitted into United States Abolition of slavery in Cuba
1845–1847 1888
Mexican-American War Abolition of slavery in Brazil
1857–1861 1889
Mexican Wars of Reform Brazilian monarchy overthrown and republic established
1861–1865 1898
U.S. Civil War Spanish-American War
1865–1870 1904
Paraguay War (War of Triple Alliance) United States secures the rights to build and control the Panama Canal
1867 1910
Dominion of Canada formed Mexican Revolution
1868–1878 1914
Cuban Ten Years’ War Panama Canal completed