What dang crazy butterflies, PODs, ASBs, WTFBBQs would it take to have Latin America as the prosperous united democracy and Anglo-French America as the disparate collection of sometimes squabbling, frequently impoverished states?
This is not to say the Spaniards were not also bad but in comparison to the English or French they were much better.The English claimed that they were more benign than the Spanish, who they depicted as monstrous and rapacious; the reality was that the English colonies of Trinidad and Jamaica were little better than death camps.
Today:The Spaniards for their part learned to govern with less of an iron hand.
They reduced demands for labor and tribute, and the encomienda system was never reestablished after 1680.
They assigned land grants to individual Pueblos, giving them clear European title to their own lands.
And they adopted a more tolerant approach to the traditional religion of the Pueblos.
Spanish New Mexico in the eighteenth century became more concerned with defending its northern borders against Apache, Navajo, Ute, and Comanche attacks than it was with subjugating and converting its Pueblo populations.
Change occurred at a slower rate and in both directions as Hispanic and Pueblo people interacted and intermarried.
The Spanish colony was restored and survived in New Mexico, but not entirely on Spanish terms.
Pueblo people had to make adjustments and accommodations in order to survive, but their resistance and resilience also reshaped Spanish New Mexico.
Some South American nations have many native legislators. Also, some have had native Presidents. President Morales of Bolivia is the most current. He is Aymara Native.there are more Indians living in South America and thriving better than those in USA or Canada and there are more Indians than in the past living in South America. Whereas if you look at the Native Americans in North America, there are less Native Americans than in the past.
Le Grand Dèrangement, or the Expulsion of 1755. The roundup and mass deportation of Acadians, which presaged British domination of much of North America, involved much cruelty, as indicated by letters from British governor, Major Charles Lawrence. In an attempt to eliminate the Acadians from Acadia, the British packed them by the hundreds into the cargo holds of ships, where many died from the cold and smallpox. At the time, Acadians numbered about 15,000, however, the Expulsion killed almost half the population.
Look what the bad Spaniards did:Of the thousands sent to Massachusetts, 700 reached Connecticut and then escaped to Montreal. Many reached the Carolinas; some in Georgia were sold as slaves; many eventually were taken to the West Indies as indentured servants.
The UK. even today will not apologize to these people.According to Cajun Country, after Spain gained control of Louisiana in the mid-1760s, Acadian exiles "who had been repatriated to France volunteered to the king of Spain to help settle his newly acquired colony." The Spanish government accepted their offer and paid for the transport of 1,600 settlers. When they arrived in Louisiana in 1785, colonial forts continued Spain's services to Acadian pioneers (which officially began with a proclamation by Governor Galvez in February of 1778). Forts employed and otherwise sponsored the settlers in starting their new lives by providing tools, seed corn, livestock, guns, medical services, and a church.