США и борьба Латинской Америки за независимость, 1815—1830

The word “America” started to imply liberal and republican serving as an antonym to Europe, monarchy, despotism. The first U.S. Minister in Mexico Joel Roberts Poinsett deliberately called the Yorkinos party which he helped to create “American” (Partido Americana). In the end, white English speakers appropriated the monopoly on the notion of “America”.

North Americans were flattered by the fact that creole revolutionaries so readily addressed the ideology of 1776. The Special Agent in the United Provinces of the River Plate and Chile, William Worthington, the Minister in Peru, Samuel Larned, the Texas colonizer, Stephen Austin, even drafted federal constitutional projects for the new nations.

The majority of North Americans now shared a conviction in the final success of the Latin American transition – a conviction founded upon the belief in progress but not on the knowledge of Iberian culture. Not coincidentally, many of the Spanish American Revolution supporters belonged to universalist Protestant denominations which stress the individual over the collective and believe in the possibility of effective social reforms: Hezekiah Niles, William Thornton, Joseph Lancaster were Quakers, Jared Sparks was Unitarian.

The proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine with its principles of non-colonization, non-interference and no-transfer did not entail any responsibilities but laid claim to the leading role in the Western Hemisphere.

The convocation of the inter-American Panama Congress promised to become a good opportunity to proclaim and defend U.S. aims in Latin America. The public discussion around the supposed U.S. participation in Congress activities was destined to clarify attitudes towards new nations of the Western Hemisphere. But just as Henry Clay made the “Spanish American question” a basis for his criticism of the Monroe administration, protests against U.S. participation in the Panama Congress became the first overt action of the Jacksonian opposition to the Adams cabinet.

3) After the failure of the Panama Congress of 1826 early Pan-Americanism ceased to exist. This setback led to the rapid disappointment of U.S. public opinion in the republican prospects of Latin America. The instability at the verge of anarchy and civil war in most of the new nations, and Simon Bolivar s political agenda which, far from copying the northern neighbor’s experience, weakened the North American interest towards “South brethren”.

The failures of U.S. diplomats also contributed to this disillusionment. They were guided by a strange mixture of exalted hopes, arrogant self-confidence, neglect of circumstances, and often (but not always) racial and religious prejudice. U.S. representatives were moved both by a sincere wish to help republican friends and by a desire to attain their personal and national goals, which sometimes contradicted the needs of Latin American states. Those who decided to seek happiness in the South and tried to serve young republics honestly were regularly plagued by troubles but unprincipled adventurers often achieved success. The vigorous colonization of Texas by North American settlers in the 1820s was a private initiative but it corresponded with U.S. national interests and almost irreversibly led to the war with Mexico.

The disappointment of the United States in the Latin American revolutions to a certain extent bid farewell to Enlightenment universalism, to the Humean belief in the possibility of fast socio-political changes from above. Certain contemporaries deemed Catholic countries of Latin America unfit for republican government; certain disillusioned enthusiasts, both Southerners (Joel Roberts Poinsett) and Northerners (Commodore David Porter), expressed racist feelings.

John Quincy Adams called the supporters of Latin American revolutionaries “adventurers and enthusiasts”. We may add that adventurers often were enthusiasts, and enthusiasts acted as adventurers. A merchant, intellectual, revolutionary, journalist, privateer often merged in one person, e.g., William Robinson, David Curtis DeForest or Baptis Irvine. Even the most self-denying enthusiasts tried not to miss an opportunity to profit from their activities in support of Latin America: William Thornton received a right to organize steamboat communication in Columbia and intended to design the bank notes of new nations; William Duane sought to become an intermediary in the weapon supply or to be appointed to a diplomatic position. On the other hand, even the most selfish privateers, merchants, colonists aspired to enlighten the revolutionaries: David Curtis DeForest and Stephen Austin promoted republican values and the U.S. Constitution in Argentina and Mexico.