War and Nation Building in Latin America: Crash Course World History 225

In which John Green teaches you about nation-building and nationalism in Latin America. Sometimes, the nations of Latin America get compared to the nations of Europe and are found wanting. This is kind of a silly comparison. The rise of democratic, economically powerful nations in Europe came about under a very different set of circumstances than the way nations arose in Latin America, so the regions are necessarily a lot different. But why? John will explore whether it was a lack of international war which impeded Latin America's growth, which sounds like a crazy thing to say, but you should hear him out.

Citations:

Citation 1: Centeno, Miguel Angel. Blood and Debt: War and the Nation-state in Latin America. Penn State U. Press. University Park, PA. 2002 p. 86
Citation 2: Centeno p. 90
Citation 3: Centeno p. 175
Citation 4: Centeno p. 275

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[thisishowirelax]

"When it comes to history and picking winners and losers, we should remember that we are not at the end of history, we're in the middle of it".

What a really cool quote.

[elgranqenk]

Yeah, Latin America had a lot of dictators, but you forgot to mention that the US put all of them on charge. Ups.

Am I the only one who has spent so much effort and time in trying to stop the video at exactly the right time to be able to read those little facts in the intros of the videos.

[Spectacurl]

Also every time LATAM tries to create its own institutions USA pops up like "Do you need some democracy?" And places a Bloody Dictatorship...

[urbanprimitive]

He barely touched upon USA neo-colonialism. And you really can't understand the history of Latin America without it. Latin America has, for a very long time, not permited to grow organically. It has almost always been pushed my the USA government. We have no idea what kind of societies they would have developed had this not been the case. Better ones, would be my geass.

[paugtab]

Let's put one thing clearly here, this is not the history of Latin America, but a summary of the Charles Tilly theory. This tittle of the video don't help us. A narrative about all "Latin America" Countries together is like puts USA, Canadian and Greenland history's in just one paper, is a very hard work. If you, dear reader of this message, are searching for the history of Latin America, have in your mind that at the beginning of spanish colonization, they divided your Colonies in FOUR big administrative regions, CALLED VICE-REIGNS, and for that and other reasons, these regions made different historic narrative. So, between, the XVI and XVIII century we have the Vice-Reign of New Spain (Mexico and Central America), Vice-Reign of Granada (after Gran Colombia, that corresponds to present Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador) Vice-Reign Del Perú and the Vice-Reign of La Plata. Now you can begin a narrative thinking in this four divisions that will, after, made a lot of countries, and that births can be realized under the Charles Tilly theory, that is just one of the visions. In other side, Brazilian history is linked to Portugal's history, it was a totally different and crazy narrative, you can perceive it, when you realize that it is the only America's country (in north and south) that had a real monarchy (Mexican monarchy do not count much, was just four years). If you are trying to understand it, you will have to understand the history of Portugal too, and made a exercise of imagination: "Suppose the thirteen colonies received the British King George and all his court (that never puts his feets at a colonie, like others Europeans Kings), and they saying "Well, this new lands are amazing, so, forget all the things about tea, Great Britain is now just another part of our great empire and I will rule it all here, in Pennsylvania (U.S.A) ", a little crazy, no? ... But if you are searching for " Latin America" attempts to integration, you can finding cool thing's IF YOU SEARCH IN YOUTUBE FOR -> ( moska e kevin johansen la edad del cielo ) Or -> ( mercedes sosa chico volver a los 17 ).

[enriethmartinez]

"The United States is not America" THANK YOU!

[IsidorosEduardos]

John, this time you got one important thing wrong: Brazil is, basically, the exception to (almost) everything you mentioned:

-Portugal actually tranfered it's government (and all institutions) to Brazil in 1808, when the portuguese royal family fled in the face of Napoleon. That means that the portuguese nation-state (one of the oldest) was tranfered directly to Brazil.

-We did not have a significant war for independence when the Empire of Brazil separated from the United Kingdom of Brazil, Portugal and the Algarves (which had it's capital in Rio de Janeiro) in 1822. It was, mostly (with the exception of one battle), peaceful.  

-Taxation was not only huge, as it was burdensome to the economy during most fo our history. That was actually the reason for the greatest civil war in brazilian history, the Ragamuffin War (Guerra dos Farrapos) between 1835-1845.

-We fought the bloodiest international war in the continent, the War of the Triple Alliance (in which Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay fought Paraguay) in the XIX century.


Why is all this worth mentioning? Brazil is the largest nation, the biggest economy and the strongest military power in the region.

Also, as a bonus fact, we did not have a republican system of government until 1889. The Empire of Brazil was a Constitutional Monarchy and had only one constitution during this whole time, making it a very stable national state... Until the  proclamation of the Republic.

So, dear John Green, you lost a big opportunity to use the "Brazil-tage" to show these exceptions.

[jordanarielbruno]

I would have expected a mention of operation Condor...

[msbiomol]

"... and all they ask in exchange is that the CIA be allowed to run your country, and also that multinational corporations be allowed to extract all your resources and keep the profits". I love these videos, but I never thought I would be so pleased with a short simplification of Latin America's history.

[danielmathews]

"when a government needs money from its people to function it kinda has to listen to them" Funny joke!

[thoughtfulpug]

""Very Brief and not as destructive". Never go to Paraguay. That's all Im gonna say.

[blinkDanna]

As an American of Latin American descent (Uruguay) I'm so happy to be learning anything about that region. It is so often glossed over or completely skipped. It would be great if you could do a mini series about it.

[israfel]

Re: military strongmen leaders, half of the time when Latin Americans have democratically elected a national political leader, we've killed them and replaced them with a US-friendly strongman!

I highly recommend the book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" for anyone interested in the topic of this video.

[TheForeignersNetwork]

This is an okay version of why Latin America is the way it is, but I think you're severely understating the role that colonialism and foreign intervention has had on Latin American history. Colonialism not only divided the population by class, but it also set up extractive economic institutions that continue to function into the present day. Latin America has spent centuries resisting foreign powers, and imperialism (especially corporate imperialism) remains one of the biggest problems that the region faces in the post-modern era.

[jewsexy]

Latin American countries never waged war over territory and weren't ever highly destructive? Buzz wrong. You seem to be forgetting the Paraguayan war and the Chaco war. In both cases Paraguay fought it's neighbors in a desire to annex territory. In the event of the war of the triple alliance Paraguay not only lost territory (And was almost completely swallowed up by Brazil and Argentina) but the country saw the death of over 50% of the male population! In some Paraguayan cities as high 90% of the male population were killed off. The Paraguayan war saw the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people! The Chaco war was also rather devastating seeing casualties in the hundreds of thousands and was largely waged over the desire for oil in what would become Alto Paraguay.

[rebelyellx]

The "War of the Triple Alliance" (or Paraguayan War) in 1864-1870 was an extremely violent and deadly war in South America! Paraguay's male population was chopped down by about 60-90%!

so yes Latin American countries do fight violent wars.

[butarch]

10:00 thats a photo of chilean soldiers in Lima the capital of peru after the battle of chorrillos in the war of the pacific.

[bennolee]

can you guys talk about operation condor?

[AdrianLikesFlags]

my... that moment when you said "THIS IS AMERICA".

I cried tears of happiness.