In Latin America, national feelings grew strong in the Spanish colonies. This happened because of the unhappy relationship between the Creoles or the American-born Spaniards and the European Spaniards.

The first to champion the cause of Latin American freedom was the Venezuelan Creole, Francisco de Miranda (1750 1816). Owing to his great activity, a revolutionary congress deposed the governor and established the independence of Venezuela in 1811.

Exhibit 16.9
Simon Bolivar

The next patriot to lead Latin America to freedom was Simon Bolivar (1783 1830). He won a decisive victory against the Spaniards in 1819, and became the President of New Granada and Venezuela. He lent a helping hand to the people of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The revolutionaries were successful, and the Spaniards were driven out by 1825. He was called the Washington of South America. However the most capable leader of Latin America was San Martin (1778 1850) who played a great part in liberating Chile and Peru.

Patriotic movements started in Mexico in 1810, and Mexico gained independence by 1821. A new era in the relations between the U.S. and Latin America started during the presidency of Woodraw Wilson. In March 1913, he declared that one of the chief objectives of his administration would be to cultivate friendship and to deserve the confidence of the republics to the South. Wilson adopted the policy of "watchful waiting" and left Mexico to the solution of its own problems.

The policy of collaboration and co-operation with the Latin American states, inaugurated during Wilson’s Presidency, has been continued by later administrations. President Roosevelt followed it and termed it the "Good Neighbor" policy.

In 1915, growing collaboration among the American states expressed its opinions in the meeting of a Pan-American Financial Conference at Washington and in the conclusion of an arbitration treaty by Argentina, Chile and Brazil. In 1916, commissions dealt with the problems of improved telegraph and railway communications and the elaboration of a uniform commercial law.

A Pan-American Conference of 1923 made provisions for fact-finding commissions in cases of disputes. This work was elaborated at a conference in Washington in 1929, and continued by conferences in 1933, 1936 and 1938.