The Decolonisation of the Americas Explained

The Decolonization of the Americas explained. From Decolonisation of Guyana, to Decolonisation of Mexico and the Mexican War of Independence, to Decolonisation of Brazil. This video covers the independence of every American country and the American Revolutions. The Downfall of the Spanish Empire, Independence of Suriname, and the Haitian Revolution.

Credits
- Research: Mrs Scope
- Audio: Seb. Soto
- Writing and Voice Over: Avery from History Scope

Social Media

Sources
- A. Sluyter – Colonialism and Landscape in the Americas. Annals of the Association of American Geographers , 91(2), 2001, p. 410–428
- M. Van Buren – The Archaeological Study of Spanish Colonialism in the Americas J Archaeol Res (2010) 18:151–201
- E. W. Steinman – Decolonization Not Inclusion: Indigenous Resistance to American Settler Colonialism. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 2016, Vol. 2(2) 219–236
- D. Strang – Global Patterns of Decolonization, 1500-1987 International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 429-454
- D. Strang – From Dependency to Sovereignty: An Event History Analysis of Decolonization 1870-1987. American Sociological Review, Vol. 55, No. 6 (Dec., 1990), pp. 846-860

[jamerican_bae]

France did not just "give" Haiti independence. Do not forget the reparations they forced the nation to pay France, setting the country up for failure in addition to other factors

[DarthTrickter]

you highligthed Puerto Rico as a british colony, when it was a Spanish colony, and you didnt mention Cuba, Dominican Replublic and Cuba and Puerto Rico situation. However besides that great video

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Haiti didn't exactly...get independence on good terms. In 1825, the French demanded they paid 150 million francs as compensation, this was reduced to 90 million in 1838 but it put quite the dent on their development. Not to mention this forced them to take huge loans as well as the US receiving interest payments when it acquired Haiti's treasury in 1911. Haiti finally paid off the debt in 1947. The DR-Haiti border just shows the differences in their development. When you just look at the two sides, you can see that the Dominican side is much greener than the Haitian side. And this is because of many factors. There was a lot of deforestation in 1954 after Hurricane Hazel drowned many trees, and concessionaires stepped up their logging operations in response to intensified demand for charcoal on top of rapid population growth. The geographic makeup of the Island of Hispaniola is such that the mountainous regions tend to cut off the rainfall needed to grow crops and sustain livestock. The northeast trade winds that blow across the island often favor the DR.

Compared to the DR, the area of flat land good for intensive agriculture in Haiti is much smaller, as a higher percentage of Haiti's area is mountainous. There is more limestone terrain, and the soils are thinner and less fertile and have a lower capacity for recovery. Haiti's semiarid climate makes cultivation more challenging. On top of this, the French destroyed the soil by aggressively harvesting the same crops over and over again. France wanted the colony to be extremely profitable. Not just sugar, but coffee too. Over the course of fifty years, a quarter of the colony was all coffee with the original forests cleared. They were also forced to export timber to the French as part of paying off the millions of francs.

[kingace]

I was surprised that the Spanish America decolonization section did not have any mention of the 'Libertador' Simón Bolívar, not even during the Gran Colombia part.

[lukecash]

Best part about History Scope:

This wonderful guy gives us a more sociological, geopolitical perspective on the same events that so many others tend to expound at length regarding military affairs instead.

[jordandino]

This man’s obsession with unification and decolonization

[thomasjohnson]

I always have a long watch later video list, but whenever a History Scope video comes out it goes straight to the front of the queue

[davidmaggiacomo]

New History Scope video Week has been made

[ffreeze]

Why weren't Cuba and the Dominican Republic mentioned?

[jtom]

“This war started in North America when a British officer…”
British officer is an understatement, it was George Washington

[Mer_girl]

"I'm going to talk about all the countries in America" it immediately glosses over central America

[thomasjohnson]

We could have a History Scope meet-up community, and constantly make predictable jokes about how we WILL BE UNITED, which would be just as hilarious the 100, 000th time we make the same joke

[eddie]

I love your videos. I’m always so happy to see a new one up!

[pbix]

Love the South Park reference in the Canadians' faces

[arturomh]

You forgot to mention the spanish-anerican war of 1898 that resulted in the independence of Cuba and Puerto Rico becoming an US colony.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Something interesting to note about the Seven Years' War is while France had to give up New France to the British and Spanish under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, the British granted fishing rights to French fishermen along the Newfoundland coast, and today the islands of St Pierre & Miquelon remain a vestige of the once-vast New France. The history behind St Pierre & Miquelon is that a Portuguese explorer discovered it in 1520, but it was in 1536 that French explorer Jacques Cartier claimed the islands as a French possession. In the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht which ended the War of Spanish Succession, France ceded the islands to the UK, and a small number of American colonists settled there. Then of course the French were granted the islands again after the Seven Years' War.

However, after France helped the Americans fight the UK, a British force invaded and briefly occupied them, destroying all the settlements. In 1793, during the French Revolutionary Wars, another British force landed and once again, got rid of the French settlers. The Treaty of Amiens of 1802 returned the islands to France, but Britain reoccupied them when hostilities recommenced the next year. The 1814 Treaty of Paris gave the islands back to France, though the UK occupied them yet again during the Hundred Days War in 1815. The islands were resettled in 1816, mostly by Basques, Bretons and Normans, thus why the Basque, Breton, and Norman flags are on their coat of arms. So yeah, a lot of back and forth!

[thatcountrieschannel]

My man within the past fortnight so many cool youtubers have just uploaded after a while lol

[iguanaman]

"Empires dont bring prosperity, empires only bring caskets filled with friends you wish were still alive"

Holy shit that gave me chills

[Bogfrog]

20:09 yeah people don’t realize how HOT the Latin American independence movement was. Thanks for recognizing such an important issue!

[jamerican_bae]

This explanation removes so much agency from the Caribbean nations regarding their independence and I dont understand why