The document compares post-colonial societies in 19th century North and South America. Both regions had high rates of immigration, multi-racial societies, Christianity, and exploitation of indigenous peoples. However, they diverged politically, economically, and culturally. The North had self-rule, Protestantism, industrial and mercantile economies, and racial binaries. The South had viceroyalties, Catholicism, haciendas and mining, racial continuums, and exploitation of native peoples. While some similarities existed, differences in self-rule versus viceroyalties and metropolitan versus peripheral economies may have been root causes of their divergent development.
2. Common elements Rich natural resources, land Indigenous people decline rapidly High rates of immigration, multi-racial society Slavery Christianity Colonial societies that attain liberation Enlightenment influences Foreign investment
3. Divergence Political Stability Civil War emergency and Lincoln's assassination caudillos Economic Development Peripheral South Mercantile/Industrial North Cultural Change Women's Movement
4. Similarities mask differences North Self-rule Protestantism, diversity Plantations and Trade Racial binary, anti-immigrant movements but white society relatively open Native Americans moved, not used as labor South Viceroyalities Catholicism, some syncretic elements Haciendas and mining Racial continuum, no major anti-immigrant movements, but hierarchical Native Americans exploited, integrated
5. "It's not enough merely to list x number of causes. It is the task of the historian to reduce a given list of causes to order by establishing a causal hierarchy, and to relate the items in this hierarchy to one another." -- Fredrik Logevall, H-NET (H-Diplo, H-Asia).
6. Root causes? Hard to Pin Down Not Likely: Protestant v. Catholic Racial mix or hierarchy Possibilities: English Self-Rule v. Spanish Viceroyalties semi-metropole v. periphery
7. Jonathan Dresner, "Comparing 19c North and South America" http://dresnerworld.edublogs.org/resources/19c-north-and-south-america/ Faden, W., A Map of America, or the New World, etc. 1797 http://www.voyagerantiquemaps.com/maps/137/a-map-of-america-or-the-new-world.html
