Why Didn't the Spanish Colonies Unify Like the USA?

The colonies of Spain spanned most of the Americas, yet for some reason they became a hodgepodge of independent countries, rather than a federal union like the USA. So, what prevented the emergence of a Spanish American Union?

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[MariaMartinez-researcher]

In this case, size does matter. On top of all other factors, the American 13 British colonies were tiny in comparison to the huge kingdoms, vicekingdoms, captainships and other administrative divisions of a continent-sized group of Spanish colonies. Which included the fallen Inca and Aztec empires plus the remnants of the Mayan empire, each one larger than most European countries.

[ImperialDiecast]

If there is one thing Jared Diamond taught me, it is that it is much easier to create a big country horizontally (along a latitude) than it is to create it vertically along a longitude, because vertically the geography and climate and culture changes a lot quicker than along a latitude.

[mejsjalv]

People were still very much isolated, despite most people speaking Spanish. It is still so. For example, I'm from Costa Rica. Travelling to Mexico, USA, Canada or Europe is cheaper than travelling to the lower half of South America. Taking a trip to Colombia, Peru or Ecuador is affordable, but going to Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay or Bolivia... That'd be a pricy flight.

We all developed very different political approaches and cultural identities and regional dialects that may not be fully mutually intelligible. I can talk with someone from Chile without any issue, but if I hear two Chileans talking to each other, I may get lost in translation. Would be much like dropping an American that has never been out of the USA right in the middle of Scotland just to see how it goes handling the dialect.

[LucioDesignOK]

Great video! But as other people commented, San Martín helped liberate Peru too, and also he didn't left South America because of Bolivar, he actually left because of infighting between Federal and Unitarian factions in Buenos Aires (ended up in a bloody civil war), which he didn't want to have anything to do with. San Martín is often poorly researched in these types of content as is often overshadowed by Bolivar and the civil unrest that came after the revolutions. One of his famous quotes when asked for participating on the civil war was: "General San Martín will never use his sword to fight its own people''.
He is also the most iconic revolution hero in Argentina btw.

[keithdean]

Enjoyed the video. I do have to say, that I don't think a unifying "American" (USA) identity really got started until after the American Civil War. Prior to that, and for some time after, most "Americans" identified with their individual state rather than the nation as a whole. That was one of the major obstacles the US Constitution had to overcome, how much power was the Federal Government to have as opposed to how much power each state had. It's been a major balancing act ever since.

There is a very old joke, about a group of American Tourists taking a tour of the Panama Canal. As they turn a corner, someone had spraypainted, "YANKEE GO HOME, " on the wall. The tour guide began to apologize when one member of the tour who was from Texas stated, "Oh, that's ok son. Where I come from, we don't like them too much either." For a long time, the USA was like that.

[jgcooper]

quite ironic to see a video about the lack of hispanoamerican union narrated with a british accent, and not a single word mentioning the british interference.

[Epsilonsama]

The big difference is that Spanish America werent colonies but Viceroyalties which meant that they were different colonies but extensions of the Spanish Crown with each Viceroyalty simply having it's own Royal Court and each Viceroy being a representative of the Crown. Spanish America was just as part of Spain as the Court of the Iberic Peninsula.

[tiagorodrigues]

Meanwhile in Brazil:
Revolutionary movements: We want independence!
Portugal (later Brazil it self): So you have chosen... death.

[twistedtoucan]

i was really only vaguely interested in the topic. but by the first 30 seconds, your animation and sense of humor got me hooked. what an enjoyable way to learn some history! i'll def be watching more. fantastic work!

[megaton]

This is a pretty interesting question that i never knew i wanted to know the answer to

[CSLucasEpic]

There was one guy that tried to unify what once was the Viceroyalty of the River Plate (Virreynato del Rio de La Plata), which would be Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia today, a few years after independence of those countries took place. Juan Manuel de Rosas, who ruled the Argentine Federation during a time of civil war. He made several attempts to re-unite the territories into one giant super nation, but failed because of several factors, including foreign invervention from France and Great Britain, and even Brazil.
Today Juan Manuel de Rosas is a very divisive figure, with half of the people seeing him as a patriot and a hero of the South American cause, while the other half see him as a horrible bloodthirsty warmonger, with nothing in between.

[IsidorosEduardos]

Even more fascinating than understanding why the American Spanish empire fragmented is to understand why Portuguese America didn't. Brazil is as large as the rest of South America and kept its territorial integrity. Many different historical explanations ensued, and the debate rages to this day.

[gabriel]

Spanish America was more than 10 times bigger than the Thirteen Colonies, with a much more diverse population. There are also other English speaking countries in Americas except US

I think that comparing Spanish colonies with the Portuguese is more interesting. There is just one Portuguese speaking country in Americas. In that time, Brazil didn’t have a national identity and managed to stay as a single nation

[DamonNomad]

I suspect that if the Anglo colonies had all been warm and fertile enough to support plantation economies growing high value cash crops that they would have ended up just as divided as the Spanish colonies in the New World did. The colonies (later States) south of the Mason-Dixon Line had an economy that was quite similar to that of the Spanish colonies as described in this video.

[rubenreyes]

The concept that the British colonies were more “developed” than their Spanish counterparts is laughable. One data point: there were 12 universities in latin america by the time Harvard was founded, the oldest 100 years before. The main reason for the lack of union in Latin America is geography: not only many times larger than the original 13 colonies but spanning from thousands of miles in North-South direction, as opposed to US East-West direction

[lucasbakeforero]

I am Colombian and knew many of the reasons already, yet I find your videos so well done I wanted to see it. Great work!

[franciscovieiradebem]

Communication also had a major role in keeping Brazil united.

When the kingd of Portugal set his court in Rio de Janeiro, the local leaders, who have never met untill them did so. And in this gathering they'd found much more in common than differences between them.

So much so that when King João went back to Portugal, he warned his son Pedro that Brazil was in the verge of breaking up with Portugal and Pedro should act to, at least "keep the Brazilian crown on the family"

[FuckTheWorldc]

Imagine trashing Spain for not promoting literacy when the first universities built in the americas where built by the spanish and the catholic church.

[GrayShark]

It is interesting how Brazil din managed to unite all Portuguese colonies in south America.

[ggg]

This analysis fails to consider the humongous difference in size between the 13 British colonies and all of the spanish colonies in central and south America. Also the much bigger and diverse cultural heritage in spanish colonies due to miscegenation.