North America As a part of the
British Empire, Canada immediately entered World War I when it broke out in 1914. Canada bore the brunt of several major battles during the early stages of the war, including the use of
poison gas attacks at
Ypres. Losses became grave, and the government eventually brought in
conscription, despite the fact this was against the wishes of the majority of
French Canadians. In the ensuing
Conscription Crisis of 1917, riots broke out on the streets of
Montreal. In neighboring Newfoundland, the new dominion suffered a devastating loss on 1 July 1916, the
First day on the Somme. The United States stayed out of the conflict
until 1917, when it joined the Entente powers. The United States was then able to play a crucial role at the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that shaped
interwar Europe. Mexico was not part of the war, as the country was embroiled in the Mexican Revolution at the time. The 1920s brought an age of great prosperity in the United States, and to a lesser degree Canada. But the
Wall Street crash of 1929 combined with
drought ushered in a period of economic hardship in the United States and
Canada. From 1926 to 1929, there was a popular uprising against the anti-Catholic Mexican government of the time, set off specifically by the anti-clerical provisions of the
Mexican Constitution of 1917. Once again, Canada found itself at war before its neighbors, with numerically modest but significant contributions overseas such as the Battle of Hong Kong and the Battle of Britain. The entry of the United States into the war helped to tip the balance in favour of the
allies. Two Mexican tankers, transporting oil to the United States, were attacked and sunk by the Germans in the
Gulf of Mexico waters, in 1942. The incident happened in spite of Mexico's neutrality at that time. This led Mexico to enter the conflict with a declaration of war on the Axis nations. The destruction of Europe wrought by the war vaulted all North American countries to more important roles in world affairs, especially the United States, which emerged as a "
superpower". The early Cold War era saw the United States as the most powerful nation in a Western coalition of which Mexico and Canada were also a part. In Canada, Quebec was transformed by the
Quiet Revolution and the emergence of
Quebec nationalism. Mexico experienced an era of huge economic growth after World War II, a heavy industrialization process and a growth of its middle class, a period known in Mexican history as
"El Milagro Mexicano" (the Mexican miracle). The Caribbean saw the beginnings of
decolonization, while on the largest island the
Cuban Revolution introduced Cold War rivalries into Latin America. The
civil rights movement in the U.S. ended
Jim Crow and empowered black voters in the 1960s, which allowed black citizens to move into high government offices for the first time since Reconstruction. However, the dominant
New Deal coalition collapsed in the mid-1960s in disputes over race and the
Vietnam War, and the conservative movement began its rise to power, as
the once dominant liberalism weakened and collapsed. Canada during this era was dominated by the leadership of
Pierre Elliot Trudeau. In 1982, at the end of his tenure, Canada enshrined a new constitution. Canada's
Brian Mulroney not only ran on a similar platform but also favored closer trade ties with the United States. This led to the
Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement in January 1989. Mexican presidents
Miguel de la Madrid, in the early 1980s and
Carlos Salinas de Gortari in the late 1980s, started implementing liberal economic strategies that were seen as a good move. However, Mexico experienced a strong economic recession in 1982 and the Mexican peso suffered a devaluation. In the United States president
Ronald Reagan attempted to move the United States back towards a hard anti-communist line in foreign affairs, in what his supporters saw as an attempt to assert moral leadership (compared to the Soviet Union) in the world community. Domestically, Reagan attempted to bring in a package of
privatization and
regulation to stimulate the economy. The end of the Cold War and the beginning of the era of sustained economic expansion coincided during the 1990s. On 1 January 1994, Canada, Mexico and the United States signed the
North American Free Trade Agreement, creating the world's largest free trade area. In 2000,
Vicente Fox became the first non-
PRI candidate to win the Mexican presidency in over 70 years. The optimism of the 1990s was shattered by the
9/11 attacks of 2001 on the United States, which prompted military intervention in
Afghanistan, which also involved Canada. Canada did not support the United States' later move to
invade Iraq, however. In the U.S. the
Reagan Era of conservative national policies, deregulation and tax cuts took control with the election of
Ronald Reagan in 1980. By 2010, political scientists were debating whether the election of
Barack Obama in 2008 represented an end of the Reagan Era, or was only a reaction against the bubble economy of the 2000s (decade), which burst in 2008 and became the
Late-2000s recession with prolonged unemployment.
Central America Despite the failure of a lasting political union, the concept of
Central American reunification, though lacking enthusiasm from the leaders of the individual countries, rises from time to time. In 1856–1857 the region successfully established a military coalition to repel an invasion by United States adventurer
William Walker. Today, all five nations fly
flags that retain the old federal motif of two outer blue bands bounding an inner white stripe. (Costa Rica, traditionally the least committed of the five to regional integration, modified its flag significantly in 1848 by darkening the blue and adding a double-wide inner red band, in honor of the French tricolor). In 1907, a
Central American Court of Justice was created. On 13 December 1960, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua established the
Central American Common Market ("CACM"). Costa Rica, because of its relative economic prosperity and political stability, chose not to participate in the CACM. The goals for the CACM were to create greater political unification and success of
import substitution industrialization policies. The project was an immediate economic success, but was abandoned after the 1969 "
Football War" between El Salvador and Honduras. A
Central American Parliament has operated, as a purely advisory body, since 1991. Costa Rica has repeatedly declined invitations to join the regional parliament, which seats deputies from the four other former members of the Union, as well as from
Panama and the
Dominican Republic.
South America In the 1960s and 1970s, the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay were overthrown or displaced by U.S.-aligned military dictatorships. These dictatorships detained tens of thousands of
political prisoners, many of whom were tortured and/or killed (on inter-state collaboration, see
Operation Condor). Economically, they began a transition to
neoliberal economic policies. They placed their own actions within the United States
Cold War doctrine of "National Security" against internal subversion. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Peru suffered from an
internal conflict (see
Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and
Shining Path). Revolutionary movements and right-wing military dictatorships have been common, but starting in the 1980s a wave of democratization came through the continent, and democratic rule is widespread now. Allegations of corruption remain common, and several nations have seen crises which have forced the resignation of their presidents, although normal civilian succession has continued.
International indebtedness became a notable problem, as most recently illustrated by
Argentina's
default in the early 21st century. In recent years, South American governments have drifted to the left, with
socialist leaders being elected in Chile,
Bolivia, Brazil,
Venezuela, and a leftist president in Argentina and
Uruguay. Despite the move to the left, South America is still largely capitalist. With the founding of the
Union of South American Nations, South America has started down the road of economic integration, with plans for political integration in the
European Union style.
Caribbean Throughout the 20th century, several island countries, such as
Jamaica and
Barbados gained independence from British rule. As a result, many of the English-speaking states and territories shifted their economies to tourism and offshore bank industries. During the Cold War, the Caribbean has faced a series of military interventions from the United States, such as the
Banana Wars and the
Cuban Missile Crisis. ==See also==