New Countries ─ Capitalism, Revolutions, and Nations in the Americas, 1750-1870

Between 1750 and 1870 the world faced transformations marked by the rise of industrial capitalism, the fall of European empires in the Americas, and the rise of nations there. New Countries explores how these events transformed the Americas in diverging ways. Up to 1790, Saint Domingue’s sugar and slave economy drove Atlantic trades; then revolutionary slaves made Haiti, freeing themselves and ending export production. New Spain’s silver fueled global trades until Bajio insurgents collapsed silver capitalism and undermined Spanish rule after 1810. Meanwhile, Britain triumphed at war while pioneering an industrial capitalism that turned the U.S. South, still-Spanish Cuba, and a Brazilian empire into countries expanding slavery to supply rising industrial centers. The fall of silver left regions from Mexico through Guatemala and the Andes in search of new polities and economies. After 1870 the United States became an agro-industrial hegemon, most American nations turned to commodity exports, and Haitians and diverse indigenous peoples struggled to keep independent lives beyond the reach of industrial powers seeking supplies and markets.

Contributors. Alfredo Avila, Roberto Brena, Sarah Chambers, Jordana Dym, Carolyn Fick, Erick Langer, Adam Rothman, David Sartorius, Kirsten Schultz, John Tutino

John Tutino is Professor of History and International Affairs at Georgetown University, and Director of the Georgetown Americas Initiative that sponsored the workshops that led to this volume. He is author of Making a New World: Founding Capitalism in the Bajio and Spanish North America, also published by Duke University Press.