Chapter 12, Sections 3 and 4. How did British control of India and US influence in Latin America affect these societies?

The British government gave a trading company, the British East India Company, power to become actively involved in India's political and military affairs. The Sepoy Mutiny started due to a rumor that the troops' new rifle cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. The cow was sacred to Hindus. The pig was taboo to Muslims.

British rule of India brought order and stability to a society badly divided. It also led to a fairly honest, efficient government. A new school system was set up (and English was used as the official language). Arrogance and racism led to a strong Indian Nationalist Movement.

The first Indian nationalists were upper-class, English-educated, and from urban areas. In 1885 a small group of Indians met in Bombay to form the Indian National Congress (INC).

Mohandas Gandhi had been a lawyer working in South Africa on behalf of Indians there. He returned home and became active in the Independence movement based on nonviolent resistance.

The most famous Indian author was Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Tagore's life mission was to promote pride in a national Indian consciousness in the face of British domination.

As a result of the Spanish-American War, Cuba effectively became a protectorate of the United States. By the treaty that ended the war, Puerto Rico was also annexed to the United States.

In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt supported a rebellion that allowed Panama to separate from Colombia and establish a new nation. The United States built the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

In the early 1900s, the United States began to pursue "dollar diplomacy," extending its influence by investing in Latin American development.

Emiliano Zapata aroused the masses of landless peasants in Mexico and began to seize and redistribute the estates of wealthy landholders. A new constitution was enacted in 1917, and resulted in political and land reform.

Latin American prosperity was based on a few exports. Latin America remained economically dependent on Western nations and their foreign investment. The indigenous peoples (and freed slaves) were still poverty stricken.