The document compares post-colonial societies in 19th century North and South America. Both regions had high rates of immigration, multi-racial societies, Christianity, and exploitation of indigenous peoples. However, they diverged politically, economically, and culturally. The North had self-rule, Protestantism, industrial and mercantile economies, and racial binaries. The South had viceroyalties, Catholicism, haciendas and mining, racial continuums, and exploitation of native peoples. While some similarities existed, differences in self-rule versus viceroyalties and metropolitan versus peripheral economies may have been root causes of their divergent development.

1. 19th Century Americas Comparing Post-Colonial Societies

2. Common elements Rich natural resources, land Indigenous people decline rapidly High rates of immigration, multi-racial society Slavery Christianity Colonial societies that attain liberation Enlightenment influences Foreign investment

3. Divergence Political Stability Civil War emergency and Lincoln's assassination caudillos Economic Development Peripheral South Mercantile/Industrial North Cultural Change Women's Movement

4. Similarities mask differences North Self-rule Protestantism, diversity Plantations and Trade Racial binary, anti-immigrant movements but white society relatively open Native Americans moved, not used as labor South Viceroyalities Catholicism, some syncretic elements Haciendas and mining Racial continuum, no major anti-immigrant movements, but hierarchical Native Americans exploited, integrated

5. "It's not enough merely to list x number of causes. It is the task of the historian to reduce a given list of causes to order by establishing a causal hierarchy, and to relate the items in this hierarchy to one another." -- Fredrik Logevall, H-NET (H-Diplo, H-Asia).

6. Root causes? Hard to Pin Down Not Likely: Protestant v. Catholic Racial mix or hierarchy Possibilities: English Self-Rule v. Spanish Viceroyalties semi-metropole v. periphery

7. Jonathan Dresner, "Comparing 19c North and South America" http://dresnerworld.edublogs.org/resources/19c-north-and-south-america/ Faden, W., A Map of America, or the New World, etc. 1797 http://www.voyagerantiquemaps.com/maps/137/a-map-of-america-or-the-new-world.html