Unit 3: "Order and Progress": Liberalism and Neocolonialism
Unit Objectives:
- Identify the main tenets of nineteenth-century Latin American Liberalism Evaluate the impact of Church-State conflicts in Latin America throughout the latter part of the 1800s
- Analyze the various ways that neocolonial economic policies accompanied liberal politics
- Evaluate the overall legacy of "order and progress" on Latin America by the turn of the twentieth century
In this unit, we'll take a critical look at how the liberal ideals of "order" and "progress" impacted Latin American politics, social relations, economics, and various other aspects of everyday life. By 1850, failed liberal politicians had once again risen to prominence in most places throughout the region. In one of its most public manifestations, the liberal political program directly clashed with Catholic institutions. Most liberals supported anticlerical ideas (or steps to curb the political power of the Church) as part of their efforts to modernize and even "whiten" their respective populations. During this unit, we'll consider the uneven balance sheet created by order and progress through the end of the 19th century. Most modernizing efforts in Latin America benefited foreign investors and ruling elites, while simultaneously eroding the traditional economic and social support systems of everyone else. Indeed, millenarian movements (social movements with heavy religious overtones that sought the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, among other outcomes) gained steam in some rural areas in response to the negative impacts of order and progress. Canudos in Brazil's Bahia and Tomochic in northwestern Chihuahua, México, were the sites of two such movements in the 1890s.
Image: "Antonio Conselheiro Procession" by Unknown - unknown. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonio_Conselheiro_Procession.png#/media/File:Antonio_Conselheiro_Procession.png