spirit of independence was growing under the leadership of Simon Bolivar, called El Liberator, the liberator. In the case of Brazil, the Portuguese royal family in the context of conquest of Portugal by Napoleon fled from Lisbon and thereby assisted the transition of Brazil from colony to independent nation. Pedro I renouncing the claim to the Portuguese throne declared independence of Brazil. The Monroe Doctrine The fight for independence intensified when Napoleon fell in .
But Monroe, the President of the USA, came up with his famous Monroe doctrine, which declared that if Europeans interfered anywhere in America, north or south, it would amount to waging a war against the United States. This threat frightened the European powers. By the whole of South America was free from European domination. Thus the U.S.
protected the South American republics from Europe; but there was no one to protect them from the Protector, the United States. Disunity among Latin American Nationalists Latin American nationalists fought not only Spain and Portugal but also each other. In Central America seceded from Mexico. Later ( ) Central America itself split into five republics (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua).
Uruguay split from Brazil in . In Venezuela and Ecuador seceded from Gran Columbia, the republic created by Bolivar. Latin America Caribbean Sea Mexico Cuba Bahamas Belize Honduras Jamaica Costa Rica Guatemala El Salvador Nicaragua Panama Guyana French Guyana (France) Venezuela Colombia Suriname Peru Brazil Bolivia Chile Argentina Paraguay Uruguay Strait of Magellan Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean S E W N Not to Scale The World between Two World Wars regimes to accommodate the rising expectations of several assertive groups. In Mexico, there was violent social protest involving dissatisfied segments of the oligarchy, middle-class intellectuals, and peasant communities.
Elsewhere electoral reform enabled newer social groups to obtain political power through the ballot box. Latin America protested American intervension and disliked their “dollar imperialism”. The opposition to political intervention produced a change in US policy after . Franklin D.
Roosevelt in his “Good