The Latin American wars of independence were followed by … more wars?

The Napoleonic Wars sparked some serious wars of independence throughout Latin America. One portion of Spanish America after another became independent from Spain, and Brazil likewise became independent from Portugal. During these wars, the United States declared its “Monroe Doctrine,” pledging to keep European nations from making any additional encroachments into the New World. But, despite the American “Monroe Doctrine,” European nations continued to interfere in Latin America, even after the Spanish and the Portuguese had officially been kicked out of their former colonies. The Brazilian War of Independence would end in 1824, and the Spanish American wars of independence would finally end in 1833. But the remaining portions of the nineteenth century saw further wars in Latin America. Commercial considerations kept European powers in the picture there, although the distances continued to create some logistical challenges for the faraway Europeans. This post will focus specifically on the wars in South America, and how they rocked the continent in the post-independence parts of the nineteenth century. It is a story of distant empires interfering in local politics, and even of conflicts with similar cultures that were much closer to home on the continent.

The Chincha Islands of Peru being occupied by Spanish sailors, 1864

How much was Latin America involved in the World Wars?

Anecdote about the European blockade of Venezuela, in the early twentieth century

In 1902, three European nations imposed a naval blockade on the Caribbean-and-Atlantic coastline of Venezuela. The three European nations were Great Britain, Germany, and Italy. All of these European countries would later be fighting both of the others at least once during the future world wars. But, at this time, these three European countries were united – due to some foreign debts that the Venezuelans were then refusing to pay. The Venezuelan president, Cipriano Castro, assumed that the United States would then invoke the Monroe Doctrine on Venezuela’s behalf. But the American president (which was Theodore Roosevelt) saw this doctrine as applying “only to European seizure of territory, rather than intervention per se” – as Wikipedia’s page on the crisis puts it. Thus, the blockade instead went unopposed, and managed to disable the navy of Venezuela. A compromise was eventually worked out in 1903, with the European blockade being maintained in Venezuelan waters throughout the negotiations. But it was one of a number of precursors to the Latin American involvement in the World Wars. Despite the American Monroe Doctrine, there had been much European colonization in the Americas during the nineteenth century. But the Venezuelan Crisis of the early twentieth century reminded Latin Americans of how connected with Europe they still were. And naval affairs in South America would soon lead to a naval arms race.

Blockade of Venezuelan ports, 1902

A review of Boris Fausto’s “A Concise History of Brazil”

Note: The edition that I’m reviewing here was expanded by Boris Fausto’s son Sergio Fausto, to bring it up to date.

The most populous country in Latin America, with even more people than Mexico

Brazil is the most populous country in Latin America, with even more people than Mexico. It is also the only country in Latin America (or anywhere in the Americas) that speaks Portuguese. This often surprises North Americans, because they expect South America to speak Spanish. And in many other South American countries, they do. But in fairness, Spanish and Portuguese are extremely similar languages, so they’re not too far off. Of all of the major Romance languages, Spanish and Portuguese seem to me to be the closest. In the Old World, Spain and Portugal were neighbors on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula. And in the New World, they are the two dominant languages of South America, with a large border between their respective spheres. Famously, Spain and Portugal both had territorial ambitions on this continent, and appealed to the Pope to settle the boundary between their respective territories there. Spain then got everything to the west of that boundary, while Portugal then got everything to the east of it. The boundary may not be as linear as it once was, but you can definitely see its influence in the modern map of South America. This explains why the modern nation of Brazil speaks Portuguese, rather than Spanish. And it explains many other things about Latin American geography.

Original edition of this book

A review of “Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity” (audiobook)

“I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins

and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead

and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

– Closing lines of the “Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed” (381 CE), a modified version of the “Nicene Creed” (325 CE) – as translated by the 1975 ecumenical version from the “International Consultation on English Texts” (or ICET)

In the eleventh century, Christianity was split into two groups: the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church. These churches are the subjects of this audiobook.

A review of PBS’s “Black in Latin America”

The trans-Atlantic slave trade had massive effects on Latin America, and not just the future United States. Because of this, there are significant Black populations scattered throughout the Americas. All of them have roots in the kidnapping of slaves from Africa, of course, but Blacks in each country have a distinct story of their own. Their history transpired differently in some of those countries than it did in others. This program surveys black history in six of these countries. These countries are as follows: Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. Since this series has only four episodes, some episodes have to cover more than just one country, although some are focused on just one of them, which allows for greater depth of coverage. (Incidentally, this program is hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a professor of African American Studies who is himself an African American.)

The Portuguese presenting themselves before the Manikongo – Kingdom of Kongo, Africa

Forgotten battlegrounds of the Cold War: Latin America

If the Cold War were a chess game, Latin Americans were often the pawns …

Long before the Cold War began, American president James Monroe had introduced the now-famous “Monroe Doctrine” in 1823. This doctrine said, in essence, that “the American continents … are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.” (Source: Monroe Doctrine, 1823) Theodore Roosevelt later added a corollary of his own to this doctrine in 1904, in response to the Venezuelan Crisis of 1902-1903. This “Roosevelt Corollary” basically said that “Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.” (Source: Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, 1904)

Fidel Castro visits United States, 1959

Keeping European powers (like the Soviet Union) out of the New World …

The United States has not always adhered to this doctrine, but it has often been involved in Latin American politics under the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (and the original, for that matter). During the Cold War, the Soviet Union actually supported left-wing regimes throughout Latin America, and were thus interfering in the Americas. True adherence to the Monroe Doctrine thus required that we try to keep them out of the Americas, and prevent communism from gaining a foothold in our own “backyard.”

Map of Latin America

Latin America became independent because of Napoleonic Wars – (well, partially)

" ... the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers ... "

- The Monroe Doctrine, expressed by James Monroe (then the President of the United States) in his Seventh Annual State of the Union Address (2 December 1823)

What does Napoleon have to do with Latin American independence?

When Napoleon's troops went to occupy Spain and Portugal, they set off a chain reaction of events that had massive effects on the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America - including, eventually, independence. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Napoleon Bonaparte