Conservatism In Latin America

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Pages: 4

“I am Nubian! All my people await me, to defend their liberty! A foreign people treads our land and threatens us with vile slavery; they boldly display their powerful pikes and honor commands us and god commands us to die for the fatherland, rather than see it a cowardly slave to the barbarous oppressor!” (Krauze 3-4). This statement made by Jose Marti shows the urge for freedom and liberalism in Latin America. This cry and push for Liberalism lead to many struggles along the way. Liberals and Conservatives found inspiration in a variety of ways including examples by other countries. The everlasting fight between Conservatives and Liberals and the challenges that were faced lead to the creation of what is now modern day Latin America. Many …show more content…
Liberalism ideas were very wide spread throughout Latin America but when it came to actually implementing the ideas many factors played in. Lack of infrastructure and lack of a strong economy were the two main issues both Liberalism and Conservatism faced (Chasteen 120). The lack of money in Latin American countries was difficult to work around. During many of the fights for independents many businesses lost money or even control of their businesses. This is seen with the Mexican and Peruvian silver mines. During the war their shafts were destroyed and their equipment was damaged. This was extremely costly to restore and with the countries in the state they were capital investors were hard to come by (Chasteen 120). Lack of infrastructure made it even more difficult for Liberalism ideas to take hold. This caused great difficulty with moving goods from the interior to the exterior to trade. With no railroads and the general geography of Latin America some countries even experienced decline over this period (Chasteen 121). This made it excruciatingly hard for Liberal and Conservative governments to grow stronger. With problems all across the nations and very little capital to use this caused great struggles with maintaining control over their …show more content…
As seen with the quote from Jose Marti the fight for freedom and liberty was strong in Latin America. Nationalism caused many people to feel a strong sense of passion for their country and their race. Nationalism is defined as a political movement espousing a strong state, national pride, and economic development. Usually in Latin America nationalist were against any “imperialist” influence (Chasteen A5). These Nationalist in general opposed the outside influence of strongest nations for fear of being controlled. Even still many outside businesses, countries and individuals found ways to use Latin Americas weaken state. British, French and the United States of America all used the weaken state of Latin American Liberal governments. Individuals from other countries would buy and build railroads to provide infrastructure for goods and allow for trade. Other foreigners would exploit the mines, agriculture and banks businesses. Filibusters, such as William Walker, would even try to take over and farther profit from countries in extreme distress. This would cause these individuals to gain wealth but very little if any would trickle doing to the common worker in Latin America. These people and countries using Latin America made it that much more difficult for Liberals and Conservatives to grow their respective