The History of Latin America By Alex Hazday and Megan Lipsky ** the essay portion of the AP exam will not cover any of this material pre-1492, however.

The History of Latin AmericaBy Alex Hazday and Megan Lipsky

** the essay portion of the AP exam will not cover any of this material pre-1492, however it is noteworthy and worth reviewing in order to

understand modern Latin America**

MesoamericaOlmecs• First complex society• Human power for labor (pyramids,

temples, altars, drainage systems) and trade (jade and obsidian for art)

• No written language• Abandoned their cities- mysterious

disappearance

Maya• Southern Mexico• Teotihuacan in C. Mexico• Terrace farming• Cacao bean- stimulant as well as

currency• City-kingdoms- pyramids• Jaguar• Chichen Itza- unsuccessful unification-

9th – 11th centuries c.e.• 8th centuries c.e.- cities decline• 11th century- Maya are eradicated• Calendar

Mesoamerica continued…Toltec- 900 to 1175 c.e.• Compact regional empire in C.Mexico• Irrigation cotton, beans, maize,

peppers, tomatoes, chilies• Nomadic invaders from N.W. Mexico

and civil strife = eradication of entire population by 1175

Aztec (Mexica)- 1200 to 1492-ish • “disorderly”- kidnapping women, seizing other

lands• 1345 c.e.- founded Tenochtitlan, settled Lake

Texoco- chinampas• Early 1400’s- Moctezuma launches military

campaigns to earn tribute dominate Mexico

• Hierarchical and patrilineal society. Priestly class.

• Calpulli- organized community groups• Commoners work lands for aristocrats,

contribute to public works projects• Slave population (indigenous)• Women- goal = mother of warriors. Death in

childbirth was as celebrated as death on the battlefield

• Polytheism human sacrifice to gods• Ball game

South America

Chavin Cult- 900 to 800 b.c.e.• early Andean society- Peru and Bolivia• 1000 b.c.e- maize arrives culture

explosion• Large temples, pyramids, art• Copper, silver, gold metallurgy• Population boom• Polytheism- fertility for the harvest

Moche- 300 to 700 c.e.• First society to the west of the Andes• Irrigation• Integration of smaller societies leads to

economic zones• No written records• Social diversity

South America

• Kingdoms of Chuchito (Bolivia and Peru) and Chimor/Chimu fall under the domination of the Incas

• Late 1400’s- Inca empire stretches from the Amazon to Argentina, 11 million people• Cuzco- administrative, religious, ceremonial capital – red stone buildings, pop.-

300,000• Machu Pichu• Quipu- strings tied together in patterns, form of communication and record-keeping of

statistical info• Society= rulers, aristocrats, priests, peasants (no large merchant class)• No long distance trade, llama• Rulers- absolute deity from the sun, dead rulers were mummified and brought out of

their tombs to be paraded around during ceremonial occasions• Allyu- Inca communities• Peasants work together on state lands to support the ruling, priestly, and aristocratic

classes. Surplus went to government storehouses. • Men supplied tribute through labor - mita• Women supplied tribute through textiles, pottery, and jewelry

Inca- 1450 to 1492-ish

Spanish Caribbean• The Taino (Arawak) people inhabited the Caribbean since the late centuries B.C.E.-

small farming communities• 1492- Tainos offer little resistance to Columbus and his Spanish explorers.• Encomienda system- exploit natives• 1518- disease strikes the Caribbean, Taino population is wiped out• Spaniards look towards the mainland

Conquest of Mexico and Peru• Hernan Cortes- Mexico, annihilates the Aztec. Cortes and his army of 450 soldiers

conquer Tenochtitlan, driven away by Aztec soldiers, starve the city into surrender. Smallpox- decimates population Spanish win

• Francisco Pizarro- Peru, annihilates the Inca. Pizarro ad his 600 men arrive in Peru after a wave of smallpox had weakened the population. Pizarro holds the Inca emperor hostage for gold, deceived and murdered thousands of the Inca elite, 1540 c.e.- Spanish firmly establish themselves in the Andes.

Spanish Colonial Administration

• Mexico and Peru ruled by viceroys and audiencias (councils appointed by the king)

• Portugal wins ownership of Brazil in the Treaty of Tordesillas. Governed by nobles with a governor.

• Colonial Latin America- European- style cities and exploitation of land and people

Colonial Society

• Mestizos- Spanish and Portuguese settlements. The child of one Spanish and one native

• Peninsulares Mestizos Africans and Natives• Spanish new world revolved around silver and

the haciendas (large private estates)• Brazil surrounded the engenho (sugar mill)• Silver main mining cities- Zacatecas in Mexico

and Potosi in Peru• Spanish missionaries set up schools and churches

Mexican Independence

• 1810- Miguel Hidalgo (a parish priest)leads peasant revolt

• Morelos = student, military skill & executed in 1811• 1821- Iturbide (a general) proclaims independence from Spain.

Mexico is briefly a military dictatorship 1822- republic• 1823- Iturbide is deposed by creoles. Creoles declare the

establishment of a republic.• 1830- Mexico splits into independent states• 1850’s- “la reforma”- liberal movement led by President Benito

Juares. Decreased the power of the church, granted universal male suffrage

Mexican Revolution 1911- 1920• Fundamentally: a class conflict• Goal: land reform• Middle class workers and peasants join together to

overthrow dictator Porfirio Diaz.• More than 95% were landless become radical• Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa- revolutionary leaders

that organized massive peasant armies. Fighting for “tierra y libertad” No match for Mexican government. 2 million people died

• Result: Constitution of 1917 which provided for land redistribution, state supported education, minimum wage, universal suffrage, restrictions on foreign economics

Simon Bolivar 1783-1830

• Led the independence movement throughout S. America

• Inspired by George Washington• Took arms against the Spanish in 1811• 1824 his armies overcame the Spanish

throughout S. America (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru)

• His goal of Gran Colombia fails in the 1830’s

Brazilian Society

• Brazilian life surrounded the engenho (sugar mill)

• Every ton of sugar = 1 human life• 1530= slaves in Brazil• 1888= slavery is outlawed. Led to legal

freedom but no political equality

Brazilian Independence• 1807 Portuguese royal family flees to Rio to escape Napoleons

invasion• Pedro 1st, the kings son, agrees to Brazilian indep. In 1821. Becomes

the 1st emperor 1822-34 – anti-slavery writings• Pedro abdicates the throne • No social change, only creole elites benefited, they replaced

peninsulares as the elite• Getulio Vargas (1883–1953) staged a coup and practiced a policy

called import substitution industrialization• Vargas instituted reforms that were beneficial to urban workers,

but because he did nothing to help the landless peasants, the benefits of the economic recovery were unequally distributed

• Vargas turned Brazil into a Fascist state and is overthrown in 1954• 1964= Brazilian Solution

Argentina• Society organized by ethnicity and color = white• British investments in sheep and cattle = Argentina becomes an exporter

of meat (Lincoln sheep and Hereford cattle). Pampas become farmland agricultural economy

• Oligarquia (oligarchy)- a small group of wealthy landowners• In 1930 General Jose Uriburu overthrew the popularly elected president

and initiated thirteen years of rule by generals and the oligarquia• 1943 Colonel Juan Peron (1895–1974) led another coup and established a

government that modeled itself on Germany’s Nazi regime• Eva Duarte Peron (who championed the “decamisados”) allowed Peron to

win the presidency in 1946 and to establish a populist dictatorship• rapid industrialization = Argentina in debt. Peron is unable to create a

stable government, and soon after his wife died in 1952 he was overthrown in a military coup

Cuban Revolution• In the 1950s the Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista presided over a

corrupt, repressive regime• United States and a small class of wealthy Cubans dominated the

economy. • 1959 Fidel Castro led a popular revolution that forced Batista to

leave the country, redistributed land, lowered urban rents, raised wages, and seized the property of U.S. and Cuban corporations

• Castro turned to the Soviet Union for economic aid, thereby committing his nation to economic stagnation and dependence on the Soviet Union

• In April 1961 some fifteen hundred Cuban exiles whom the CIA had trained landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in an effort to overthrow Castro, but the attempt failed

• 1962= Cuban Missile Crisis