Latin America 1800s timeline

Summery

Spain was in control of this area giving it the name Spanish America. Populations were changing all throughout Spanish America due to all the changes Spain was forcing. Haiti adopted a new constitution and became the second colony to declare independence from Spain. Spain made many invasions to ensure their control. Spain agreed to have a liberal constitution for Spanish America. Spanish America is renamed Latin America because many colonies declared independence from Spain. Many wars broke out which lead to the success of the colonies. More trade was occurring, and slavery was being abolished in most independent colonies.

1800: Spain surrenders Louisiana to France

1800: The population of Spanish America is 12.6 million of which 5.84 are in Mexico and 1.1 in Peru

1800: The population of Chile is mostly made of mestizos (300,000 out of 500,000 people)

1800: There are 550,000 black slaves in Spanish America, notably 212,000 in Cuba, 88,000 each in Peru and Venezuela, and 70,000 in Colombia

1800: Peru's population has declined to one million from the five million of Inca Peru

1801: Spain deposes Peru's viceroy Ambrosio O'Higgins for his revolutionary leanings

1801: A constitution is adopted in Haiti, where there are virtually no whites left with Toussaint president for life

1802: France invades Haiti and deports Toussaint

1803: France tricks and kills Haiti's rebel Toussaint L'Ouverture

1804: Haiti (the former French colony of Saint-Dominique) declares independence from France, the second colony after the USA to become independent in America, and the first black slave revolt to triumph against the white masters, and Toussaint L'Ouverture's lieutenant Jean-Jacques Dessalines becomes its "emperor", but no European or American country recognizes it

1805: The population of Mexico is 5.8 million

1806: Venezuelan hero Francisco Miranda fights against the Spanish government in Nueva Granada

1806: Rio is the largest city in Brazil with 50,000 people and most people live in the countryside (only 165,000 out of 3 million live in cities)

1806: British troops seize Buenos Aires (Argentina) from Spain

1806: Haiti's "emperor" Jean-Jacques Dessalines is overthrown by the army

1807: Local militiae expel the British from Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Nov 1807: Napoleon invades Portugal while the British ship Portugal's king to Brazil

1807: The population of Brazil is 3.5 millions, of which 2 millions are African slaves and 500,000 are Indios

1807: Haiti splits in two

1808: Napoleon's France invades Spain and Portugal

1808: The "Gazeta de Rio de Janeiro" is published in Brazil

1808: A popular insurrection returns Santo Domingo to Spain

1808: Dom Joao VI of Portugal moves the capital of Portugal to Rio in Brazil after Napoleon invades Portugal, and transforms Rio into one of the most modern capitals of Latin America

1808: The viceroy of Nueva Espana declares independence from Napoleon's Spain

Sep 1810: The Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo issues his "grito de dolores" and leads a failed insurrection by Indios against white people in which thousands die

1810: Criollos establish anti-Spanish juntas in Venezuela (april, Simon Bolivar), Argentina (may, Mariano Moreno), Nueva Granada/Colombia (july, Simon Bolivar), Ecuador (august), Chile (september, Bernardo O'Higgins),

May 1810: The viceroy of Argentina is ousted by a junta faithful to Ferdinando VII and Mariano Moreno assumes power

Apr 1810: A junta including the creole Simon Bolivar in Venezuela begins an independence war against Napoleonic Spain

1810: Brazil signs a trade treaty with Britain that de facto grants Britain a monopoly in Brazil

1810: Buenos Aires has 50,000 people, the largest in Argentina

1811: The gaucho Jose Artigas starts a revolutionary movement in La Banda Oriental/Uruguay

1811: Nueva Grenada issues a constitution but civil war breaks up between the various parties

Jan 1811: Miguel Hidalgo is defeated and executed in Mexico

Jul 1811: A congress led by Bolivar and Miranda declares the independence of Venezuela

1811: A junta led by Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia declares Paraguay's independence from Argentina

Dec 1811: Jose Miguel Carrera seizes power in Chile

1811: Argentina is ruled by a triumvirate including Bernardino Rivadavia

1812: Argentinian general Manuel Belgrano defeats Spain at in the battle of Tucuman

1812: Britain exports more goods to Brazil than to all of Asia combined

Mar 1812: Spain accepts a liberal constitution for Spanish America

Jun 1812: Spain defeats Miranda in Venezuela

1813: Colombian hero Antonio Narino fights against the Spanish government in Nueva Granada

Apr 1813: Hidalgo's follower Jose Maria Morelos tales Acapulco

Sep 1813: Followers of Jose Maria Morelos at Chilpancingo draw a charter for Mexico's independence

Nov 1813: Jose Maria Morelos is captured by Mexican troops

1813: Ferdinand VII is restored king of Spain by British intervention

1813: Bolivar invades Venezuela from Nueva Grenada

1813: Argentina extends the vote to mestizos and indios, and outlaws torture, slavery and the Inquisition

Mar 1813: The viceroy of Peru launches an offensive against Chile

Jan 1814: Bolivar is proclaimed dictator of Venezuela

Mar 1814: Bernardo O'Higgins replaces Carrera as the leader of the Chilean rebels

Sep 1814: Bolivar is defeated and expelled from Venezuela

Sep 1814: Jose de San Martin is put in charge of Argentina's army

Oct 1814: O'Higgins is defeated in Chile and flees to Argentina

1814: Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia is appointed dictator of Paraguay and creates an egalitarian society

1814: Britain occupies Guyana

1814: France returns Santo Domingo to Spain

1815: Jose Artigas controls all of La Banda Oriental/Uruguay with capital in Montevideo

1815: Ferdinand VII sends Spanish troops led by general Pablo Morillo to restore order in Nueva Grenada

1815: Jose Maria Morelos is executed in Mexico

Dec 1815: Joao declares the "United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves"

Jan 1816: The Congress of Tucuman (shunned by Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia) proclaims the independence of the United Provinces of The Rio de la Plata (Argentina) with capital in Buenos Aires but local caudillos in the countryside resist the central government

1816: Nueva Granada/Colombia abolishes slavery

1816: Brazil invades Uruguay

Dec 1816: With help from Haiti, Bolivas invades Venezuela's Orinoco region

TM, ®, Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

Feb 1817: O'Higgins defeats the Spanish troops at Chacabuco

1817: The USA helps Colombian revolutionaries against Spain

Jan 1817: Argentinian general Jose de San Martin crosses the Andes and invades Chile

Feb 1818: Chile declares its independence from Spain, with O'Higgins as its first president

May 1818: San Martin leads the Chilean troops to win a battle against the Spanish troops at Maipu

1818: Brazil has 3.8 million people, of which 2 million are blacks, 1 million white, 600,000 free mestizos and 200,000 indios

Aug 1819: Bolivar defeats the Spanish at the battle of Boyaca near Bogota (Colombia)

Dec 1819: Nueva Granada is dissolved and Gran Colombia (Colombia, Panama, Venezuela) is born wth three million people (2 million in Colombia)

Dec 1819: Buenos Aires writes a constitution but the other provinces of Argentina oppose it

Aug 1820: Troops under Jose de San Martin including many British volunteers under Thomas Cochrane invade Peru from Chile to liberate it from Spanish rule

1820: Sugar, cotton and the coffee are the main exports of Brazil

1820: Portugal defeats and exiles the gaucho caudillo Artigas, and Uruguay is reconquered by Brazil

1821: Uruguya is turned into the Provincia Cisplatina of the kingdom of Portugal and Brazil

1820: Haiti is reunited under Jean Boyer

1820: Argentina is devasted by civil war, and Juan Manuel de Rosas leads a regiment of gauchos (the "colorados")

1820: Jean-Pierre Boyer unifies Haiti and becomes its dictator

Feb 1821: The creole Augustin de Iturbide and the mestizo Vicente Guerrero declare the independence of Nueva Espana, and declares a Mexican Empire (Mexico, California, Texas, Central America) that has six million people

Apr 1821: Dom Joao returns to Portugal and leaves his son Pedro as governor of Brazil

Jul 1821: Spanish troops depose the viceroy of Nueva Espana

Sep 1821: The creole Augustin de Iturbide and the mestizo Vicente Guerrero enter the liberated Mexico City

Sep 1821: Simon Bolivar is elected first president of Gran Colombia

1821: Guatemala declares its independence from Spain

1821: The USA citizen Moses Austin obtains Spain's permission to establish a colony of Anglosaxons in Texas

Jul 1821: Jose de San Martin liberates Lima from the Spaniards and declares Peru's independence, a country with one million people

1821: The Congress of Cucuta declares the union of Venezuela and Colombia, abolishes slavery and choose a republican government under Simon Bolivar with Francisco Jose de Paula Santander as his vicepresident (and de facto ruler of Colombia)

Jun 1821: Bolivar defeats the Spanish at Carabobo

Jul 1821: San Martin enters Lima, but Spain still controls most of Peru

1821: The Dominican Republic (Spanish half of Hispaniola) declares its independence from Spain

1821: Bernardino Rivadavia dominates Argentinian politics, but Buenos Aires has little control over the "guacho" provinces

May 1822: Venezuela general Antonio Jose de Sucre defeats Spain at the Battle of Pichincha and, joining Bolivar, liberates Ecuador

May 1822: The creole Augustin de Iturbide declares himself emperor Agustin I of Mexico

Jul 1822: Bolivar and San Martin meet in Ecuador to decide the future of Peru and Ecuador

Jul 1822: Bolivar incorporates Ecuador into Gran Colombia

Sep 1822: Prince Pedro declares Brazil's independence

1822: Haiti invades the Dominican Republic

1822: Ecuador achieves independence from Spain

Sep 1822: San Martin resigns in Peru

Dec 1822: Pedro I, under pressure from the Brazilian scientist Jose Bonifacio, declares Brazil (4 million people of which half are slaves) independent from Portugal and himself emperor

1822: Haiti's Jean Boyer coquers Santo Domingo from Spain

Mar 1823: Augustin de Iturbide is overthrown and the United Provinces of Central America secede from Mexico

Jan 1823: Bernardo O'Higgins is overthrown as president of Chile by general Ramon Freire opening a rift between conservatives and liberals

Jan 1823: Pedro of Brazil hires Cochrane to fight the last remaining Portuguese troops

Aug 1823: Cochrane expels from Brazil the last remaining Portuguese troops

1823: Former regions of Nueva Espana (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua) declare the United Provinces of Central America

1823: Slavery is abolished in Chile

1823: Ramon Freire Serrano becomes president of Chile

Sep 1823: Bolivar arrives in Lima

1823: The USA intervenes in defence of the Latin American states ("Monroe Doctrine") against the Holy Alliance (Austria, Prussia, France, Russia, Spain) that wants to restore the monarchies

Feb 1824: Peru appoints Bolivar dictator

Mar 1824: Brazil enacts a monarchical constitution

Aug 1824: Simon Bolivar defeats Spanish troops at the battle of Junin

1824: The USA becomes the first country to recognize the independence of Brazil

1824: Augustin de Iturbide tries to regain power in Mexico but is executed

Oct 1824: A liberal constitution is enacted in Mexico, with the abolition of the Inquisition and of torture, and with Guadalupe Victoria as president

1824: Bernardino Rivadavia is forced to resign in Argentina

Dec 1824: Simon Bolivar's general Sucre defeats Spanish troops at the battles of Ayachuco in Peru

Aug 1825: Upper Peru declares its independence from Argentina (United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata) and adopts the name Bolivia in honor of Simon Bolivar, with general Sucre (a native) as its dictator

1825: Venezuela's population is 700,000

1825: Uruguay (Banda Oriental) secedes from Brazil to join the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata (Argentina), and Brazil declares war on Argentina

1825: Costa Rica begins to export coffee

1825: Portugal recognizes the independence of Brazil

Jan 1826: The last Spanish garrison in Peru surrenders to Simon Bolivar

1826: Jose Antonio Paez, leader of the llaneros of the countryside, leads a failed Venezuelan uprising against Gran Colombia

1826: There are ten independent countries in Latin America: Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Haiti, Paraguay, La Plata, Brazil, and the population of Latin America is about 20 million

1826: Bolivar organizes the Congress of Panama to promote Latin American union

1826: Portuguese king Joao dies and Brazil's emperor Pedro is forced by the Brazilians to renounce the throne of Portugal

1826: Bernardino Rivadavia drafts a new Argentinian constitution and is reappointed president

1827: General Jose de La Mar becomes the first president of Peru

1827: There are five revolutions in one year in Chile

1827: A treaty grants special privileges to Britain in the trade with Brazil

1827: Diego Portales founds the Conservative Party in Chile

Jul 1827: Bernardino Rivadavia is ousted in Argentina

1828: Bolivar declares himself dictator of Gran Colombia against the will of Santander who is forced into exile

1828: Peru invades Bolivia and Colombia declares war on Peru

1828: Brazil is defeated by Uruguay and Argentina at the Battle of Las Piedras, and Uruguay is granted independence under president Joaquin Suarez

1828: Vicente Guerrero loses Mexico's elections and rebels against the results

1829: Conservative minister Diego Portales becomes the most influential politician in Chile, winning the civil war against the liberals and subdueing the military

1829: Colombia and Bolivia win the war against Peru

1829: Bolivar's former general Andres de Santa Cruz, an indio, becomes dictator of Bolivia

1829: Cusco's general Agustin Gamarra becomes dictator of Peru

Dec 1829: Juan Manuel de Rosas, leader of the gauchos of the countryside, becomes governor of Buenos Aires, the first representative from the provinces to obtain so much power in the country

1829: The Venezuelan writer Andres Bello, who has lived 20 years in Britain, relocates to Chile and promotes education and law

1829: Mexico abolishes slavery

1829: Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the son of Spanish immigrants from rural Veracruz, defeats Guerrero and the conservative vice-president Anastasio Bustamante becomes president of Mexico

1830: Simon Bolivar leaves Bogota for exile and Venezuela (dec 1829, under Jose Antonio Paez) and Ecuador (may, under former Bolivar's Venezuelan-born general Juan Jose Flores) secede from Gran Colombia, Venezuela having lost more than 50% of its population (or 500,000 people) during the struggle from independence (1810-30)

1830: An overland trail is opened to Los Angeles that brings Anglosaxon colonists to Mexico's California

1830: Fructuoso Rivera, hero of the liberation war, is appointed president of Uruguay

Dec 1830: Simon Bolivar dies largely forgotten and abandoned

Apr 1831: Following popular protests ("Noite das Garrafadas"), Pedro I abdicates and leaves Brazil to his five-year old son Pedro II

1831: Slave insurrection in Jamaica

1831: Gran Colombia is renamed Nueva Grenada

1832: Santander returns from exile to rule Colombia/ Nueva Grenada

1832: The first spinning mill opens in Mexico

1832: Ecuador annexes the Galapagos islands

1832: Santa Anna overthrows Bustamante in Mexico

May 1832: Silver mines are discovered in Chile (Chanarcillo)

1833: Britain invades the Malvinas/Falkland islands of Argentina

1833: Slavery is abolished in the British colonies, notably the sugar-producing islands

1833: Luis Jose de Orbegoso becomes president of Peru

Apr 1833: Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is elected president of Mexico by the National Congress, but the government is run by vicepresident Gomez Farias who enacts anticlerical laws

1833: Chile proclaims a constitution, largely fashioned by the pro-clerical Portales that recognizes Catholicism as the state religion

1834: Slavery is abolished in Guyana

Apr 1834: Mexico's president Santa Anna abrogates the liberal constitution and the anticlerical laws, dissolves the National Congress and installs himself as dictator, while the liberal leader Lorenzo de Zavala exiles himself to Mexico promoting the cause of Texan independence

1834: After general Agust¡n Gamarra is deposed, Peru plunges into civil war

Apr 1835: The gaucho Juan Manuel de Rosas is appointed dictator of Argentina

1835: Bolivia's dictator Santa Cruz conquers Peru after helping to quell an army rebellion against Peruvian president Lu¡s Jose de Orbegoso

1835: The "Guerra dos Farrapos" erupts in Brazil, pitting the Republic of Rio Grande do Sul against the Brazilian government, with Giuseppe Garibaldi supporting the farrapos

1835: Britain occupies the coast of Honduras (Belize)

1835: Manuel Oribe, a supporter of Argentina's dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, becomes president of Uruguay

Mar 1836: Mexico's dictator Santa Anna crushes a Texan uprising at the battle of the Alamo (San Antonio), but general Sam Houston defeats the Spanish and Texas declares its independence

Oct 1836: Santa Cruz proclaims the federation of Peru and Bolivia

Dec 1836: Chile fights a war against Peru and Bolivia

Dec 1836: Santa Anna enacts the "Siete Leyes/ Seven Laws", a centralist amendment to the Mexican constitution

1836: Jose Vicente Rocafuerte Rodriguez becomes president of Ecuador

Dec 1836: Mexico enacts a new constitution

1837: Portales, most influential politician of Chile (although never its president), is murdered in an attempted military coup

1837: Bustamante is elected president of Mexico

1837: The liberal Jose Ignacio de Marquez is elected president of Colombia/ Nueva Grenada

1837: Argentinian intellectuals led by poet Echeverria found the Asociacion de Mayo to fight the dictator Rosas (including Bartolome Mitre and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento)

1838: The United Provinces of Central America is dissolved, making Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua independent

1838: France bombards Mexico in the "Guerra de los Pasteles" but Santa Anna defeats them

1838: Rivera deposes Manuel Oribe in Uruguay, and Oribe's "Blancos" start a civil war against Rivera's "Colorados"

1838: Juan Pablo Duarte founds a secret society to find for the independence of the Dominican Republic

1838: Brazil imports 46,000 African slaves in just one year

1838: The indio pro-clerical Rafael Carrera seizes power in Guatemala and imposes a ruthless dictatorship

1839: The Uruguayan Civil War ("Guerra Grande") erupts between the liberal "colorados" of Montevideo (supported by France, Britain, Brazil and liberal Argentinians) and the conservative "blancos" of Cerrito (supported by Argentina's dictator Rosas)

Jan 1839: Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia, forces the dissolution of the union between the two countries, ends the career of Bolivia's dictator Santa Cruz and allows Agustin Gamarra to seize power in Peru

1839: Regional leaders try to overthrow Colombia's president Marquez ("Guerra de los Supremos")

1840: Francia dies and Paraguay elects two consuls, one being Carlos Antonio Lopez

1840: Peru begins to develop the deposits of guano on a mass scale, leading to an economic boom

1840: Sao Paulo has become the biggest producer of coffee, which has passed sugar and cotton as Brazil's main export, shifting the economic center of mass towards the south

1840: Chile's first steamship starts running (made in the USA)

1841: Jose Ballivian becomes president of Bolivia

1841: Santa Anna seizes power again in Mexico

1841: The general Manuel Bulnes, hero of the war against Bolivia, is appointed president of Chile, presiding over a period of peace and prosperity

1841: Peru and Bolivian go at war and Peru's dictator Gamarra is killed at the Battle of Ingavi

1841: Pedro appoints the Conservative Party to form a government in Brazil

1841: Peru starts exporting guano

1842: Garibaldi leads an Italian legion for the "colorados" in the Guerra Grande in Uruguay

1842: The University of Chile is established

1842: The University of Chile opens with Andres Bello as its first president

1842: Peru and Bolivian sign a peace treaty

1843: Venezuela is ruled by general Carlos Soublette, a follower of Paez who grants civil liberties

1843: Former president Joaquin Suarez succeeds Fructuoso Rivera in Uruguay while Manuel Oribe lays siege to Montevideo (for eight years)

1843: Jean-Pierre Boyer is overthrown in Haiti and Santo Domingo is separated again from Haiti

1844: Carlos Antonio Lopez becomes dictator of Paraguay

1844: Pedro appoints the Liberal Party to form a government in Brazil

1844: Santa Anna is overthrown in Mexico and exiled to Spanish Cuba

1844: The Dominican Republic declares its independence from Haiti

1845: The farrapos surrender in Brazil

1845: Jose Herrera becomes president of Mexico

Dec 1845: Texas is annexed by the USA

1845: Ramon Castilla, a mestizo, becomes dictator of Peru

1845: The general Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera is elected president of Colombia/ Nueva Grenada

1845: British ships are authorized to search Brazilian ships for slaves in order to enforce the end of the slave trade

Sep 1845: Britain and France enforce a blockade of Buenos Aires to defend Uruguay

1845: Ecuador's dictator Flores is overthrown by the Liberals

Jan 1846: Jose Herrera is deposed and general Mariano Paredes is appointed president of Mexico

Apr 1846: The USA provokes a war with Mexico

1846: One fifth of the population of San Francisco is Anglosaxon immigrants

1846: The first iron mill is built in Brazil

1846: Britain adopts free trade, which puts the sugar-producing islands at a disadvantage against slave-operated plantations in Cuba and Brazil

1847: Paez replaces Soublette with Jose Tadeo Monagas as Venezuela's president, but Monagas declares himself dictator

1847: Benito Juarez, a Zapotec indio, becomes the governor of Oaxaca in Mexico, and the mestizo Porfirio Diaz becomes his right-hand man

1847: A conference in Lima of Latin American countries foils an attempt by former Ecuador's dictator Flores to bring the West Coast of South America under the rule of Spains' queen Isabella II

1847: The indios of Yucatan rebel against the elite class in the "Caste War" of Mexico

Sep 1847: The USA reach Mexico City

Feb 1848: At the end of the Mexican war (treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo), the USA acquires New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and California (almost half of Mexico's territory)

1848: Manuel Isidoro Belzu becomes dictator of Bolivia

1848: Britain and France end the blockade of Buenos Aires in Argentina

1848: Brazil imports 60,000 African slaves in just one year

1849: Paez attemps a coup against Monagas, but is arrested and exiled

1849: Juan Rafael Mora becomes president of Costa Rica

1849: Pedro appoints the Conservative Party to form a government in Brazil

1849: The liberal Jose Hilario Lopez becomes president of Colombia

1849: The Partido Liberal is formed in Chile

1850: At the end of the "Caste War" the population of Mexico's Yucatan has declined by 40%

1850: Mexico's silver production reaches its pre-independence level (560 thousand kgs), about half of the world production

1850: Latin America's population is 33 million

1850: The population of Latin America is 30 million (Mexico and Brazil 7 million each, Argentina 1 million)

1851: A military coup installs general Jose Maria Urbina as dictator of Ecuador, handing the power to the liberals from Guayaquil

1851: Cattle products account for 78% of Argentina's exports

1851: A railway opens between Lima and its port of Callao

1851: Colombia abolishes slavery

1851: The conservative Manuel Montt becomes the first civilian president of Chile, but has to suppress violent protests by liberals who denounce the rigged elections, killing thousands of people

1851: Manuel Oribe's "Blancos" of the "Partido Nacional" are defeated in Uruguay by the "Colorados"

1851: Justo Jose de Urquiza, governor of Entre Rios, declares Entre Rios independent from Argentina, and joins an alliance with Brazil and Uruguay against Argentine-supported Oribe

1852: Urbina of Ecuador expels the Jesuits and abolishes slavery

1852: Slavery is abolished in Uruguay

1852: The first steamboat sails up the Amazon River in Brazil

Feb 1852: The civil war in Uruguay ends with the victory of the "colorados" (supported by Brazil and by Argentinian rebels led by general Justo Jose de Urquiza) and the overthrow of Argentine's dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas by Justo Jose de Urquiza

May 1852: The "Pact of San Nicolas" appoints Urquiza head of Argentina, while his opponent Bartolome Mitre goes into exile

1853: The United Provinces of Central America adopts a constitution under Urquiza and the name Argentina, but Buenos Aires de facto secedes and the capital moves to Parana

Jun 1853: Santa Anna is appointed again dictator of Mexico, drives to exile both Benito Juarez and Melchor Ocampo of Michoacan

1853: Peru annexes a piece of Amazon forest claimed by Ecuador

1853: A new constitution in Colombia grants state great autonomy

May 1854: The Mexican liberals led by the illiterate indio guerrillero Juan Alvarez and by Ignacio Commonfort proclaim the "Plan de Ayutla" against Santa Anna

1854: Peru abolishes slavery

1854: The first railway is inaugurated in Brazil

1855: The USA builds the Panama railway

1855: Manuel Isidoro Belzu appoints general Jorge Cordova to be his successor

Jul 1855: Benito Juarez returns to Mexico from his USA exile

Aug 1855: Santa Anna is forced to leave Mexico

1855: The USA adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua and appoints himself president

Nov 1855: Alvarez enters Mexico City as the new president and forms a government that includes the liberals Benito Juarez, Miguel Lerdo, Jose-Maria Iglesias and Melchor Ocampo

Dec 1855: Alvarez resigns and is replaced by Ignacio Comonfort

1856: Ecuador's Urbina appoints general Francisco Robles as his successor but remains de facto in power

1856: Gabriel Antonio Pereira, of the "Partido Nacional", becomes president of Uruguay

1857: Jose Maria Linares becomes dictator of Bolivia

Feb 1857: Mexico proclaims a new liberal and anticlerical constitution, largely drawn by Benito Juarez

Dec 1857: Mexican general Felix Zuloaga stages a coup against Comonfort and Juarez, starting the "Guerra de Reforma/ War of the Reform"

May 1858: Benito Juarez, a Zapotec indio, is elected president of Mexico by the liberals in Veracruz

1858: Colombia/ Nueva Grenada adopts the name Granadine Confederation

1858: A military coup removes Monagas and installs Paez again as president of Venezuela

1859: Mexico passes a law expropriating the Church of all its lands (but the beneficiaries are mostly foreigners and rich Mexicans), starting a civil war

1859: Peru occupies the southern provinces of Ecuador

Oct 1859: Urquiza defeats the militia of Buenos Aires led by Bartolome Mitre at the battle of Cepeda and forces Buenos Aires to reenter the federation of Argentina

1860: Gabriel Garcia Moreno, representing the conservatives from Quito, allies with Flores to restore order in Ecuador and becomes the new dictator, fostering education and road building and restoring the influence of the Catholic Church ("virtue, faith and order")

1860: Chile is the world's leading copper exporter

Mar 1860: Santiago Derqui from Cordoba becomes president of the reunited Argentina

1860: William Walker is executed in Nicaragua

1860: Bernardo Berro of the "Partido Nacional" is elected president of Uruguay

1860: Juarez restores order in Mexico

1860: Peru enacts its 15th constitution

1860: The Liberal Party wins the elections in Brazil (but only about 1% of the population is entitled to vote)

Jan 1861: Benito Juarez's government seizes power in Mexico City and ends the Guerra de Reforma

Jul 1861: Britain, France and Spain ally against Mexican reforms

Sep 1861: The militia of Buenos Aires led by Bartolome Mitre rebels again and this time defeats Urquiza, so that Mitre can become president of a truly united Argentina

1861: Jose Joaquin Perez is chosen to become president of Chile by Montt

1861: General Jose Maria de Acha seizes power in Bolivia

1861: Santo Domingo's dictator Pedro Santana asks Spain for annexion

TM, ®, Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

Jan 1862: British, French and Spanish troops attack Mexico over a financial dispute, but Britain and Spain soon withdraw

1862: Bartolome Mitre is appointed president of Argentina, thus reuniting the country after the civil war

1862: The USA recognizes Haiti's independence

1862: Francisco Solano Lopez succeeds his father in Paraguay and creates a powerful army

1862: Ecuador declares war on Colombia

May 1862: The French invaders are defeated by the Mexican army at Puebla on the "Cinco de Mayo"

1863: British ships enact a six-day blockade of Rio to force Brazil to free slaves

Oct 1863: Guatemala defeats El Salvador in a war, with Honduras siding with El Salvador and Nicaragua and Costa Rica with Guatemala

1863: Castilla loses power in Peru and is succeeded by Juan Antonio Pezet

1863: The USA supplies weapons to the Mexican government fighting against France

1863: Ecuador loses the war against Colombia

1863: Venezuela abolishes the death penalty for all crimes (the first country in the world)

1863: Paez leaves Venezuela that plunges into anarchy

1863: The railway from Santiago to Valparaiso is inaugurated

1863: The Granadine Confederation adopts the name United States of Colombia

May 1863: France defeats Mexico and captures Ciudad de Mexico, while Juarez flees north

Sep 1864: Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay attack Lopez's Paraguay ("War of the Triple Alliance")

1864: Mariano Melgarejo seizes power in Bolivia, and establishes a depraved regime

1864: 70% of Chile's exports come from copper, gold and silver

May 1864: France crowns the archduke Maximilian of Austria emperor of Mexico

1865: Mariano Ignacio Prado repels a Spanish naval attack and becomes dictator of Peru

1865: Jamaican ex-slaves stage a revolt against the British

1865: Spain abandons Santo Domingo

Apr 1865: Guatemalan dictator Rafael Carrera dies

1866: Ecuador's writer Juan Montalvo founds the newspaper "El Cosmopolita" to criticize the dictatorship of Garcia Moreno

Mar 1867: France withdraws from Mexico, Maximilian is overthrown and executed by Benito Juarez, who restores his government in Mexico City

1868: Bartolome Mitre is replaced by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento the "schoolmaster" as president of Argentina, the first civilian president since Rosas seized power, who embarks on a program of mass education and foreign immigration

1868: Mining production in Mexico is finally back to 1808 values

1868: The colonel Jose Balta becomes dictator of Peru

1868: Lorenzo Batlle y Grau of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay

1869: Argentina has 1.8 million people

1869: Jose Marti is arrested in Cuba for his anti-Spanish activities

1869: France intervenes in Haiti

1869: The newspaper "La Prensa" is founded in Argentina

1869: Pedro appoints the Conservative Party to form a government in Brazil

Mar 1870: Paraguay surrenders to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, losing almost 40% of its territory, and Paraguay's dictator Lopez commits suicide

1870: Urquiza is assassinated in Argentina

1870: Antonio Guzman Blanco of the Liberal Party becomes president of Venezuela, dominating its political scene for 18 years

1870: The newspaper "La Nacion" is founded in Argentina

1870: The population of Mexico is 9 million

1870: The Republican Party is founded in Brazil

1870: Tomas Guardia seizes power in Costa Rica

1871: The liberal Federico Errazuriz becomes president of Chile

1871: Spain intervenes in Haiti

1871: The liberal Justo Rufino Barrios seizes power in Guatemala

1872: Mexico's president Juarez dies (possibly poisoned) and is succeeded by Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada

1872: The USA businessman Minor Cooper Keith opens a banana plantation in Costa Rica

1872: Manuel Pardo is the first civilian president of Peru, but his tenure is rocked by the collapse of the guano economy

1872: Germany intervenes in Haiti

Jul 1872: El Salvador and Guatemala defeat Honduras in a brief war

1873: Britain forces Zanzibar to outlaw the slave trade

1873: Manuel Ferraz de Campos Salles and Prudente de Moraes sign a republican manifesto calling for an end to the empire

1873: The railway between Mexico City and Veracruz is inaugurated

1874: The first cable between Brazil and Europe

1874: Chile increases the number of men who can vote (but still fewer than 50%)

1874: Domingo Faustino Sarmiento is replaced by Nicolas Avellaneda as president of Argentina (280.000 immigrants have entered Argentina during Sarmiento's rule)

1875: Gabriel Garcia Moreno of Ecuador is assassinated, opening an age of anarchy

1875: Peru exports 20 million tons of guano (fertilizer from bird droppings)

1875: Brazil provides about half of the coffee traded in the world

1876: The mestizo Porfirio Diaz overthrows Mexico's president Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada in the name of free elections, but proceeds to create a dictatorship but also to develop the infrastructure of Mexico

1876: Mariano Ignacio Prado again becomes dictator of Peru

1876: Anibal Pinto Garmendia becomes president of Chile

1876: Chile supplies 38% of the copper traded in the world

1876: The population of Peru is 2.7 million

Apr 1876: Guatemala defeats El Salvador again, forcing the formation of a pro-Guatemalan government in Salvador led by Rafael Zaldivar.

1877: Britain intervenes in Haiti

1878: Following their victory in the elections, Pedro appoints the Liberal Party to form a government in Brazil

1879: Gold boom in Guyana

1879: Chile fights a border war against Peru and Bolivia ("War of the Pacific")

1879: The civil war in Colombia kills 80,000 people

1879: Argentinian general Julio Argentino Roca is dispatched to eradicate the last remaining indios

1880: The liberal but pro-clerical Rafael Nunez is elected president of Colombia

1880: 90% of Mexicans are illiterate

1880: Cattle and sheep products account for 90% of Argentina's exports

1880: Nicolas Avelaneda is replaced by Julio Argentino Roca as president of Argentina

1881: Domingo Santa Maria becomes president of Chile

1881: Francesco Matarazzo arrives in Brazil from Italy and begins building an economic empire

1881: Jose Marti mobilizes the Cuban community in the USA against Spain

1882: Ignacio de Veintemilla seizes power in Ecuador

1882: Maximo Santos of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay

1882: Argentina's first meat-packing plant is built by British investors

1883: At the end of the "War of the Pacific" Bolivia loses its access to the sea (the port of Antofagasta) and the nitrate fields to Chile, Peru loses its southern provinces to Chile and is left bankrupt

1883: Jose Maria Placido Caamano becomes dictator of Ecuador

1883: Sao Paulo in Brazil has 35,000 people

1884: A railway is inaugurated between Mexico City and El Paso

1885: Costa Rica finance minister Mauro Fernandez launches a program of mass education

1885: El Salvador defeats Guatemala at the Chalchuapa Battle and Justo Rufino Barrios is killed, thus ending his dream of conquering Central America

1886: Peru's general Andres Avelina Caceres seizes power

1886: The Conservative Party wins the elections in Brazil

1886: Colombia enacts a new constitution drafted by president Rafael Nunez, that proclaims a unitarian Republic of Colombia instead of the previous federalist United States of Colombia (one of the longest lasting constitutions in the world)

1886: Maximo Tajes of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay

1886: Jose Battle y Ordonez founds the newspaper "El Dia" in Uruguay

1886: Roca is replaced by his brother-in-law Miguel Juarez Celman as president of Argentina

1886: The liberal wealthy landowner Jose Manuel Balmaceda becomes president of Chile (beginning of the liberal republic), and invests heavily in schools and railways

1887: The Partido Democratico is founded in Chile

1888: Peru signs the "Grace Contract" that grants Britain 66 years of monopoly on the railroads but saves the country from bankruptcy

1888: Chile annexes the Easter Islands

1888: The railway from Mexico City to Monterrey to Laredo is inaugurated

1888: Slavery is abolished in Brazil (the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery), and European immigration booms (132,000 in 1888)

1888: Antonio Guzman Blanco retires from politics opening a decade of anarchy in Venezuela

1888: A financial crisis hits Argentina

1888: Colombia signs a concordat with the Catholic Church

Nov 1889: A military coup led by general Deodoro da Fonseca deposes Brazil's king Pedro I, abolishes the constitution and inaugurates the republic, with power alternating between Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, and Brazil enters a stage of rapid economic growth

1889: Costa Rica holds its first free elections

1889: The first Conference of American States is held in Washington

1889: Brazil's population is 14 million, of which 15% are black and 32% mulatto

1889: The first International Conference of American States is held in Washington, resulting in the founding of the "International Union of American Republics"

Aug 1890: Argentinian president Celman is forced to resign by popular protests and vicepresident Carlos Pellegrini succeeds him

Apr 1890: Leandro Alem organizes the Marxist-leaning Union Civica in Argentina

1890: Julio Herrera y Obes of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay

1890: 900,000 Europeans have emigrated to Brazil since 1822

1890: 1.74 million Europeans have emigrated to Argentina since 1851, mostly from Spain and Italy

1890: Brazil's population is 14.3 million

1890: The production of nitrate in Chile has tripled in ten years

1890: The first general strike is held in Chile

Oct 1891: Balmaceda is deposed in a coup staged by the parliament, and naval captain Jorge Montt Alvarez becomes president of Chile (beginning of the parliamentary republic)

1891: Peru's anti-clerical writer Manuel Gonzalez Prada help found the party "National Union", a defender of the Quechua indios

Feb 1891: Brazil proclaims a new US-inspired federalist constitution ("Old Republic") and Deodoro de Fonseca is elected first president

Nov 1891: Deodoro de Fonseca is overthrown by vice-president and army marshal Floriano Peixoto, who begins a military dictatorship

1892: The conservative Luis Saenza Pena is elected president of Argentina

1892: Leandro Alem founds the Union Civica Radical in Argentina

1892: A railway linking Bolivia with the Pacific coast (Oruro-Antofagasta) is inaugurated

1893: Second navy rebellion in Brazil

1893: Revolucao Federalista in Brazil

1893: Argentina's Radicals attempt an armed insurrection

1893: The liberal Jose Santos Zelaya seizes power in Nicaragua

1894: Juan Idiarte Borda of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay

1894: Juan Justo organizes the Partido Socialista Argentino

Mar 1894: Prudente Jose de Morais e Barros, a former governor of Sao Paulo, becomes the first civilian president of Brazil

1894: The USA sends troops to Nicaragua

1894: Colombia's president Rafael Nunez dies and the country plunges again into anarchy

1895: Luis Saenza Pena resigns and is succeeded by the conservative Jose Uriburu as president of Argentina

1895: Policarpo Bonilla is elected president of Honduras

1895: Britain and Venezuela argue over the border of Guyana

1895: Jose Eloy Alfaro, representing the anti-clerical liberals from Guayaquil, becomes president of Ecuador

1895: Jose Nicolas de Pierola of the Partido Civilista leads a revolution against general Avelina Caceres and becomes president of Peru, leading the country to rapid economic growth (beginning of the "Aristocratic Republic")

1895: Jose Marti lands in Cuba and proclaims the independence of Cuba from Spain but is killed by Spanish troops

1896: Federico Errazuriz Echaurren becomes president of Chile

1892: Leandro Alem of Argentina's Union Civica Radical commits suicide and is succeeded at the leadership of the party by his nephew Hipolito Yrigoyen

1896: War of Canudos in Brazil

1896: Aparicio Saravia of the "Partido Nacional" (the "Blancos") starts a civil war in Uruguary

1897: Juan Lindolfo Cuestas of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay

1898: The USA defeats Spain and gains the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico, ending Spanish rule in America

Nov 1898: Sao Paulo's governor Manuel Ferraz de Campos Salles becomes president of Brazil

1898: Jose Uriburu is succeeded by the conservative Julio Roca as president of Argentina

1899: Civil war erupts in Colombia between liberals and conservatives ("Guerra de los Mil Dias")

1899: Banana tycoon Cooper Keith founds United Fruit Company in Costa Rica

1899: Eduardo Lopez de Romana becomes president of Peru during the stable "Aristocratic Republic"

1899: Cipriano Castro becomes dictator of Venezuela

1899: Nicaragua becomes a de-facto colony of the USA

Source

Image credit