Building New Nations: The US Constitution and Latin American Caudillos
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Question
What were the Articles of Confederation?
Answer
The first US governing document (1781–1789); created a deliberately weak central government with no power to tax, regulate trade, or maintain a national army.
Question
Why did the framers of the Articles make the central government weak?
Answer
Fear of tyranny after fighting a war against a powerful, distant British government — states wanted to keep power for themselves.
Question
What was Shays' Rebellion (1786–87)?
Answer
An armed uprising of indebted Massachusetts farmers against high taxes and debt collection; exposed Congress's lack of an army and helped trigger the push for a new Constitution.
Question
What is separation of powers?
Answer
Splitting government into independent legislative, executive and judicial branches so no one part can dominate; drawn from Montesquieu's Enlightenment philosophy.
Question
What did the Great (Connecticut) Compromise create?
Answer
A two-house Congress: the House of Representatives based on population, and the Senate with two seats per state — balancing large and small state interests.
Question
What did the Three-Fifths Compromise decide?
Answer
Each enslaved person would count as three-fifths of a person for both representation in Congress and taxation, resolving a dispute between Northern and Southern states.
Question
What did the Commerce Compromise allow and restrict?
Answer
Allowed Congress to regulate trade, but barred it from taxing exports or banning the slave trade before 1808.
Question
Confederation vs federation — what's the difference?
Answer
A confederation is a loose alliance of sovereign states with a weak shared body (the Articles); a federation is a strong central government that shares power with states (the 1787 Constitution).
Question
What is a caudillo?
Answer
A regional strongman in post-independence Latin America who ruled through personal loyalty, a private army and patronage rather than through law or constitutions.
Question
Name three regional conditions that led to caudillo rule.
Answer
Any three of: sudden collapse of Spanish colonial rule (power vacuum), weak new central institutions, vast distances/regionalism, militarized populations from the independence wars, and strong personal loyalty over national identity.
Question
Who is the required case study of caudillo rule, and where?
Answer
Juan Manuel de Rosas, who ruled Argentina (mainly Buenos Aires province) from 1829–1852 through the Federalist party and his enforcement squad, the mazorca.
Question
How did Rosas' rule affect Argentina's path to a national constitution?
Answer
By centralizing personal power while claiming to defend provincial Federalism, Rosas delayed genuine national constitutional government in Argentina until after his fall in 1852.
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Topic 19.7 hub
Nation-building and challenges (c1780–c1870)
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