Why did Spanish speaking areas of the New World fragment into so many countries while English and Portuguese speaking areas formed large countries?

Question

I realize that there are large Spanish speaking countries, namely Mexico and Argentina. But, for instance, why are the smaller Central American countries not part of Mexico?

In: Other

Answer 1

Don’t forget that the US almost failed and broke apart into smaller constituent countries. We barely came together as a whole country and still had to fight a civil war to keep it that way. Various Latin American states tried to do the same thing, for example: the Federal Republic of Central America. But whereas the US was able to form a strong central government and deal with local desires for independence (via diplomacy or warfare), those various conglomerations were not.

For example, those Central American states *were* part of Mexico during the First Mexican Empire, but they seceded from it much like the Southern US States tried to do in the US.

Answer 2

There was the Grand Colombia, it broke into the successor states of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela; Panama was separated from Colombia in 1903

Answer 3

>Why did Spanish speaking areas of the New World fragment into so many countries

Because to be a single country they’d need to be either a single ethnic group, or at least multiple ethnic groups agreeing on a set of laws to be governed by the same government.

>while English and Portuguese speaking areas formed large countries?

And that’s before we get into your premise being completely wrong anyway.

What large countries are you thinking of when you say that? Brasil and USA specifically?

Cause the rest of it is carved up to all hell, all the African, Asian, and Pacific Island colonies are all kinds of jumbled up. Colonialism did some serious shenanigans across all 3, but no “large” countries of colonial descent really exist in those regions, not to the USA equivalent degree anyway.

China and Russia are the ones on Eurasia, but obviously neither has anything to do with English or Portuguese.

Answer 4

If you’re specifically referring to countries in Central and South America I’d encourage you to skim Wikipedia for their histories – it gives a fair account of how the Spanish Empire in the New World broke apart as well as why Brazil is one country.

Also not all British colonies revolted – that’s why we have Canada, and why the US later invaded Florida.

History from a perspective other than one centralized on the revolutionary colonies is pretty interesting.