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After the Fall of Napoleon in 1814. Most, now Italian territories, were returned to the people in the Congress of Vienna. In 1831 Italy was officially founded by Guiseppe Mazzini. It was all the territories and smaller countries that make up the area of Italy today. It went through a couple of revolutions that were eventually resolved and now Italy is a united country.

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Summary

For many centuries, the Italian peninsula was a politically fragmented conglomeration of states. This was the case when the United States announced its independence from Great Britain in 1776. When war broke out between Austria and the Revolutionary French Government in 1792, the French invaded the Italian peninsula, consolidated many of the Italian states, and established them as republics. In 1799 the Austrian and Russian armies pushed the French out of the Italian peninsula, which led to the demise of the fledgling republics.

After Napoleon's rise to power, the Italian peninsula was once again conquered by the French. Under Napoleon, the peninsula was divided into three entities: the northern parts which were annexed to the French Empire (Piedmont, Liguria, Parma, Piacenza, Tuscany, and Rome), the newly created Kingdom of Italy (Lombardy, Venice, Reggio, Modena, Romagna, and the Marshes) ruled by Napoleon himself, and the Kingdom of Naples, which was first ruled by Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte, but then passed to Napoleon's brother-in-law Joachim Murat.

The period of French invasion and occupation was important in many ways. It introduced revolutionary ideas about government and society, resulting in an overthrow of the old established ruling orders and the destruction of the last vestiges of feudalism. The ideals of freedom and equality were very influential. Also of consequence, the concept of nationalism was introduced, thus sowing the seeds of Italian nationalism throughout most parts of the northern and central Italian peninsula.

With the downfall of Napoleon in 1814 and the redistribution of territory by the Congress of Vienna (1814-15), most of the Italian states were reconstituted: the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (often referred to as Sardinia), the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (fused together from the old Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sicily). These were largely conservative regimes, presided over by the old social orders.

Although the Italian peninsula remained fragmented through the mid-1800s, the concept of a united Italy began to take root. Secret societies formed to oppose the conservative regimes. Several of these societies also promoted Italian nationalism and the idea of a unified Italian political state. One such society was the group Young Italy, founded in 1831 by Guiseppe Mazzini. Mazzini was an ardent advocate of the necessity for Italian unification through the desires and actions of the Italian people. Thus, the movement of Italian unification, a process referred to as the Risorgimento (resurgence) proliferated by mid-century.

The revolutions of 1848 ignited nationalist sentiment throughout the Italian peninsula. There were widespread uprisings in several Italian cities that year, mostly by the professional classes (such as doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers) as well as students. Lombardy-Venetia and Milan tried to rise up against Austrian rule. Although the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia sent troops to aid the revolt, it was crushed by the Austrians at Custoza in July 1848. The Italian uprisings were unsuccessful and by 1849 the old regimes were once again in place.

Yet, the idea of the Risorgimento continued to gain adherents after 1848. The final push for Italian unification came in 1859, led by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (then the wealthiest and most liberal of the Italian states), and orchestrated by Piedmont-Sardinia's Prime Minister, Count Camillo di Cavour. A skilled diplomat, Cavour secured an alliance with France. The Franco-Austrian War of 1859 was the agent that began the physical process of Italian unification. The Austrians were defeated by the French and Piedmontese at Magenta and Solferino, and thus relinquished Lombardy. By the end of the year Lombardy was added to the holdings of Piedmont-Sardinia.

The northern Italian states held elections in 1859 and 1860 and voted to join the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a major step towards unification, while Piedmont-Sardinia ceded Savoy and Nice to France. Giuseppi Garibaldi, a native of Piedmont-Sardinia, was instrumental in bringing the southern Italian states into the unification process. In 1860, Garibaldi cobbled together an army (referred to as the "Thousand") to march into the southern part of the peninsula. Landing first in Sicily and then moving onwards into Naples, Garibaldi and his men overthrew the Bourbon monarchy and turned over the southern territories to Victor Emmanuel II, King of Piedmont-Sardinia. In early 1861 a national parliament convened and proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, with Victor Emmanuel II as its king. At this point, there were only two major territories outside of the parameters of the new Kingdom of Italy: Rome and Venetia.

In 1866 Italy joined Prussia in a campaign against Austria (the 1866 Austro-Prussian War) and thus won Venetia. In 1870, taking advantage of the fact that France (the country responsible at the time for guarding the Papal States) was distracted by involvement in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), the Italian army entered Rome. That year, Rome and the Papal States were incorporated into Italy and the Risorgimento completed. During the summer of 1871, the Italian capital moved to Rome from Florence (it was moved from Turin to Florence in 1865).

Major Events

Overall Impact upon U.S. Foreign Policy

The history of recognitions (and the establishment of relations, where applicable) between the United States and the Italian states impacted several different areas of U.S. policy, including:

Trade and Commerce. The industrialization process that swept through the northern United States in the early nineteenth century spread through the northern and central Italian states in the mid-nineteenth century. As a result, the Italian states (and after 1861, the Kingdom of Italy) and the United States both sought to cultivate trade and commercial ties for mutual benefit.

Immigration and Citizenship. By the 1870s Italian immigration to the New World (both to the United States as well as to Argentina, amongst other South American countries) began to increase. Indeed, some of the "fathers" of modern Italy spent time in the United States. Garibaldi spent enough time in the U.S. to gain a U.S. passport, and was offered a commission in the U.S. Army during the Civil War.

U.S. Civil War. The unification of the Italian states impacted the foreign policy of the United States in numerous ways. Perhaps the issue that had the most immediate impact upon U.S. foreign policy in the early 1860s was over the question of recognition of the U.S. Confederacy. The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed just as the U.S. Civil War began. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln wanted to ensure that the new Italian state did not recognize the U.S. Confederacy. Washington also worried that, with Italy's long coastline, Confederate ships might seek shelter in Italian waters. With this in mind, the Italian government gave "strong assurances that no Confederate ship would be admitted to Italian ports unless it was a question of adverse weather conditions or other vis major."

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Unification of Italian States - Countries - Office of the Historian

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German speaking states were freed from Napoleon's Control. The Congress of Vienna had to decide what to do with central Europe. They decided to make a German Confederation consisting of 39 states. It didn't work out so well so instead they tried to make one unified country called Germany.

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Summary

When the United States announced its independence from Great Britain in 1776, Central Europe was a fragmented area of roughly 300 sovereign, independent states (kingdoms, duchies, principalities, free cities, etc.). The German states were bound together in a loose political entity known as the Holy Roman Empire, which dated to the era of Charlemagne in the 800s. By the late eighteenth century, the Holy Roman Empire was, as Voltaire remarked, "Neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire."

During the mid-eighteenth century, a rivalry developed between the Holy Roman Empire's two largest (and strongest) states: the Kingdom of Austria, ruled by the Habsburgs, and the Kingdom of Prussia, ruled by the Hohenzollerns. Traditionally Austria was the dominant German state, and as such the Habsburg king was elected as the Holy Roman Emperor. This influence started to change in the 1740s when Prussia, strengthened by newly acquired lands and an enlarged military, began to challenge Austria's hegemony. The Kingdom of Prussia was the first German state to officially recognize the United States in 1785 when it signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce; Austria did not recognize the United States until 1797, when it accepted Conrad Frederick Wagner as U.S. Consul at Trieste, a city then under the jurisdiction of the Habsburg Empire.

During the early nineteenth century, Napoleon's armies occupied, moved through, or were allied with the German states. In 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and when the Congress of Vienna met in 1814-15, a major question was what to do with Central Europe. The solution was to consolidate the German states and to create the German Confederation, a conglomeration of 39 states, including Austria and Prussia. The members of the German Confederation pledged to come to the aid of any member who was attacked by a foreign power; however, the confederation fell short of any economic or national unity. The first effort at striking some form of economic unification between the members of the German Confederation came with the 1834 establishment of the Zollverein customs union.

In the meantime, the effects of the First Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) began to take hold in Central Europe and North America. During this time there was increased emigration by Germans to the United States in search of greater economic opportunities as well as political, religious, and personal freedom. The combination of these two events propelled the first official acts of recognition between the United States and various smaller German states as they negotiated and signed treaties, conventions, and agreements to regulate trade, commerce, navigation, naturalization, and inheritance rights. In a few cases, the United States established diplomatic relations, such as with the Hanseatic League (the Free Cities of Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg) and the Kingdom of Baden.

The main issue that confronted the idea of German unification by the mid-nineteenth century was the idea of a "greater" Germany versus a "smaller" Germany. The concept of a "smaller" Germany was that a unified German entity should exclude Austria, while the idea of "greater" Germany was that Germany should include the Kingdom of Austria. Proponents of "smaller" Germany argued that Austria's inclusion would only cause difficulties for German policy, as the Kingdom of Austria was part of the greater Austrian Empire, which included large swaths of land in Central and Southeastern Europe that was composed of nearly 15 different minorities. Those who favored "greater" Germany pointed to the traditional role played by Austria, which was mostly composed of Germans, and the Habsburg rulers in German affairs.

The first effort at unifying the German states came in the revolutionary year 1848. Once news of the February 1848 revolution in Paris spread, many felt that the time was finally at hand for German unification. Rural riots broke out in the weeks after February 1848 and spread to the urban areas. Throughout the German states revolutionaries advocated for freedom of the press, a national militia, a national German parliament, and trial by jury. Other ideas that were championed during the heady days of 1848 were the abolition of privilege of the aristocracy, the creation of constitutions in several of the German states, a more fair system of taxation, and freedom of religion.

On May 18, 1848, the German National Assembly met at Frankfurt am Main, representing the first assembly to be freely elected by the German people. Yet, despite the election of an imperial vice regent (Reichsverweser), the government was flawed from the beginning by its lack of a strong executive power. By the autumn of 1849 the revolution disintegrated and hope of fully unifying the German states was extinguished for the time being.

The next attempt at German unification, a successful one, was undertaken by Otto von Bismarck, the Prime Minister of Prussia. Bismarck was a proponent of "smaller" Germany, not to mention a master at the game of real-politik. German unification was achieved by the force of Prussia, and enforced from the top-down, meaning that it was not an organic movement that was fully supported and spread by the popular classes but instead was a product of Prussian royal policies.

The first war of German unification was the 1862 Danish War, begun over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Bismarck allied with Austria to fight the Danes in a war to protect the interests of Holstein, a member of the German Confederation.

The second war of German unification was the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, which settled the question of "smaller" versus "greater" Germany. This brief war (fought over the course of mere weeks) pitted Prussia and her allies against Austria and other German states. Prussia won and directly annexed some of the German states that had sided with Austria (such as Hanover and Nassau). In an act of leniency, Prussia allowed some of the larger Austrian allies to maintain their independence, such as Baden and Bavaria. In 1867 Bismarck created the North German Confederation, a union of the northern German states under the hegemony of Prussia. Several other German states joined, and the North German Confederation served as a model for the future German Empire.

The third and final act of German unification was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, orchestrated by Bismarck to draw the western German states into alliance with the North German Confederation. With the French defeat, the German Empire was proclaimed in January 1871 in the Palace at Versailles, France. From this point forward, foreign policy of the German Empire was made in Berlin, with the German Kaiser (who was also the King of Prussia) accrediting ambassadors of foreign nations. Relations were severed when the U.S. declared war upon Imperial Germany in 1917.

Major Events

United States' Recognition of the Federal German Republic, .

On July 8, 1848, Secretary of State John M. Middleton informed U.S. Minister to Prussia Andrew J. Donelson, that the United States was prepared to recognize any unified, de facto German Government that "appeared capable of maintaining its power." On August 9, 1848, Donelson was appointed as U.S. Minister to the German Federal Parliament at Frankfurt, and presented his credentials on September 13, 1848. However, the failure of this first experiment of German unification led to the U.S. recalling Donelson from service to the Federal German Republic on November 2, 1849. Donelson resumed his previous appointment as U.S. Minister to Prussia.

United States' Recognition of the North German Union, .

Following the establishment of the North German Confederation on July 1, 1867, on November 20, 1867, the U.S. Minister to Prussia, George Bancroft, informed Secretary of State William H. Seward that he had attended the opening of the North German Parliament. He requested, however, that the Secretary formally notify him of the intentions of the U.S. Government concerning the question of the recognition of the North German Confederation. On December 9, 1867, Secretary Seward approved of Bancroft's decision to attend the opening of the North German Parliament since he was the officially-accredited U.S. Minister to the Prussian King Wilhelm I, who was also the hereditary President of the North German Confederation. Furthermore, Seward informed Bancroft that he would disseminate a description of the Confederation's flag so that its ships would be welcomed in American waters. This exchange between Seward and Bancroft implicitly signified a formal recognition of the North German Confederation by the United States.

United States' Recognition of the German Empire and Establishment of Diplomatic Relations, .

Following the establishment of the German Empire on January 18, 1871, the United States recognized the new German Empire by changing the accreditation of its Minister to Prussia to become Minister to the German Empire. On April 8, 1871, U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Prussia George Bancroft presented the new German Emperor Wilhelm I (who was concurrently King of Prussia) with a letter from U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant dated March 16, 1871. The letter from the President congratulated the Emperor on his assumption of the German throne and recognized him as the head-of-state of a federal Germany.

Termination of Relations During the First World War, .

Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 led to the termination of diplomatic relations between Imperial Germany and the United States. On February 3, 1917, U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing informed the German Ambassador in Washington, D.C., Count Johann von Bernstorff, that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had severed diplomatic relations with Germany, that the U.S. Ambassador in Berlin (James W. Gerrard) had been withdrawn, and that the U.S. Government would be returning von Bernstorff's passports.

U.S. Declaration of War Against Imperial Germany, .

Following a series of attacks against American merchant ships on the high seas by German U-boats, on February, 24, 1917, the U.S. Ambassador in London, Walter Hines Pages, received the infamous "Zimmerman telegram" from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. This led to the decision to abandon the plan to adopt "armed neutrality" by placing U.S. naval personnel on civilian ships to guard them against German attacks. On April 2, U.S. President Wilson went before Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Germany in order to make the world "safe for democracy." Following the passage of a Joint Resolution by Congress on April 6, President Wilson issued on the same day a proclamation to the effect that a state of war existed between Germany and the United States.

Overall Impact upon U.S. Foreign Policy

The history of the establishment of recognitions (and relations, where applicable) between the United States and the German states impacted several different areas of policy, including:

Trade and Commerce. Although the Napoleonic period stunted the growth of industrialization in the German states during the early nineteenth century, by the 1820s and 1830s the industrialization process was underway, especially in areas such as Westphalia, the Rhineland, and Upper Silesia. It was also during this time that the first railways were built in the German lands, thus facilitating the transportation of goods to and from the main ports of Hamburg and Bremen. As a result, the German states (and after 1871, the German Empire) and the United States both sought to cultivate trade and commercial ties for mutual benefit.

Emigration, Citizenship, and Naturalization. In the nineteenth century, most German states (and later, the German Empire) had mandatory military service for all male subjects/citizens, whereas the United States did not have any such policy. One point of contention between the U.S. and some of the German states was whether German citizens were emigrating to the U.S. to obtain citizenship and then return to Central Europe and thus eschew military service. In 1868 U.S. Minister to Prussia and the North German Union George Bancroft negotiated a series of naturalization treaties that sought to close this loophole. See Bancroft Treaties for further information.

After the creation of the Second Reich in 1871 there were questions as to whether U.S. officials should abide by treaties concluded with individual states or with Prussia (the German Empire was considered the successor state to Prussia) in dealing with issues of trade, citizenship, or extradition. Two major principles guided U.S. foreign policy towards the German states. First, "where a State has lost its separate existence, as in the case of Hanover and Nassau, no questions can arise." Second, "where no treaty has been negotiated with the Empire, the treaties with the various States which have preserved a separate existence have been resorted to."

Although the Constitution of the German Empire of 1871 stipulated that the Empire was responsible for treaties, alliances, and representing the Empire, the smaller states still retained the right of legation. This included the right to legislate, to grant exequators to foreign consuls in their territories (though not to send German consuls abroad), and to enter into conventions with foreign nations as long as they did not concern matters already within the jurisdiction of the Empire or the Emperor.

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Unification of German States - Countries - Office of the Historian

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Brazilian Realism Art

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Napoleon invaded Portugal so the leaders fled to what is now Brazil. That means that Brazil was a Portuguese colony in the new world. Brazil had a few bloody battles in the fight for their freedom. They were tired of their monarch looking back at Portugal and managing their affairs. So they finally got their leaders to leave Portugal and focus on them.

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Brazilian Independence | 3 Minute History

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Argentinian Realism Art

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When the Spanish arrived in 1500's the area was filled with many indigenous groups. Until the 1800's it was mainly the rise and fall of great empires. In the 1800's Spain imposed a political structure that carried through for a while. After a few military victors Liners was a revolutionary hero who had won many battles. In 1808 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Argentina. After that, a king took the throne and a few more revolts took place.

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Argentinian Independence | 3 Minute History

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When the Spanish first arrived in Argentina in the early 1500s, the area was populated by many different indigenous groups, each with their own language and culture. In the northwest of Argentina, the local populations had been conquered by Inca armies and incorporated into their empire around 1480, only a few decades earlier.

After the Spanish conquest, the American territory was divided into two viceroyalties that directly represented the Spanish king: The Viceroyalty of New Spain (first established after the fall of the Aztec Empire in 1521), which at its peak included the Spanish colonies of North America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and most of Central America, and the Viceroyalty of Peru, founded after the fall of the Inca Empire in 1534, which included Panama and almost all of South America (the Portuguese gained control of present-day Brazil). The area we now know as Argentina formed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which had its capital in Lima.

In the 18th century, the Spanish split the Viceroyalty of Peru into two new viceroyalties: New Granada and Río de la Plata. The Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, established in 1776 with Buenos Aires as its capital, encompassed modern-day Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and part of Brazil.

In the political structure imposed by Spain, most of the people the monarchy chose to occupy important positions were , people born in Spain, which angered the , Europeans born in Latin America. This rivalry, along with the ideas of the American and French revolutions and the prohibition on trade with other nations and foreign colonies, fueled the fire of the criollos' desire for social change.

They got a chance to act in 1806, when a British fleet attacked and captured Buenos Aires. The Spanish viceroy, a peninsular named Rafael de Sobremonte, fled the city with the public treasury during the battle, following a 1778 law stating that treasuries must be kept safe and viceroys must avoid capture during an invasion so they cannot be forced to sign an official surrender. Despite this law, Sobremonte was widely seen as a coward. In his absence, Santiago de Liniers managed to liberate Buenos Aires from the British in 1806 using criollo militias. The Audiencia of Buenos Aires barred Sobremonte from returning and named Liniers an interim viceroy. Fearing subsequent invasions, the population of Buenos Aires, including criollos and slaves, was armed and arranged into military bodies. When the British attacked again in 1807, the militias forced them to surrender.

After the two military victories, Liniers was a revolutionary hero. However, his situation soon changed. Back in Europe, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain in 1808, with Spanish King Ferdinand VII abdicating the throne on May 6 of the same year. Although he had served with the Spanish military for many years, Liniers was a Frenchman (in fact, his birth name was Jacques de Liniers, although he is better known by the Spanish version of his name). Some people in the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata thought that with Napoleon's invasion of Spain, a Frenchman had no place as a viceroy of a Spanish territory. The peninsular Martín de Álzaga led a mutiny and tried to force Liniers out of office in an open cabildo (a special type of assembly). Most of those who supported the mutiny were peninsulares, but a small number of criollos also joined. However, the criollo militias led by Cornelio Saavedra surrounded the plaza where the cabildo was and forced the rebels to disperse. As a price for the failed mutiny, the rebel peninsular militias were disarmed, thus increasing the power of the criollos.

In part to calm the rising tensions between the peninsulares and the criollos, the Junta of Seville, formed in Spain after Napoleon's invasion, sent peninsular Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros to replace Liniers as Viceroy of Río de la Plata in 1809. General Manuel Belgrano encouraged Liniers to fight the appointment, but he decided not to put up any resistance.

As time went on, French troops gained more and more control of Spain, finally taking Seville on February 1, 1810. The Junta of Seville moved to Cadiz and dissolved itself, though the Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies was created to replace it. The news that the Junta of Seville was no more reached Buenos Aires on May 18, sparking the May Revolution, lasting from May 18 to May 25, 1810.

In Buenos Aires, group of criollo lawyers and military officials quickly organized an open cabildo on May 22 to discuss the future of the viceroyalty. The delegates agreed that Cisneros had no right to govern since the government he had been appointed by no longer existed. In his place, a junta was formed to govern the viceroyalty. Initially, Cisneros was appointed president of the Junta, but this was met with so much popular resistance by the angry crowds that formed outside the cabildo (in what is known today as the Plaza de Mayo) that he was forced to resign. On May 25, 1810 Argentina's first independent government, the Primera Junta (First Assembly), was formed. The stated role of the Primera Junta was to rule the viceroyalty in name of the deposed Spanish King Ferdinand VII, but Spain would never regain control of the region. Today, May 25 is a public holiday in Argentina that honors the Primer gobierno patrio or the First National Government.

The Primera Junta was formed by representatives from Buenos Aires, who sent word to other cities in the viceroyalty and asked them to send deputies. However, the other main cities refused to acknowledge the new Junta and armed conflict between the new government and those loyal to the Spanish crown began in 1810.

After years of many battles on multiple fronts, on July 9, 1816, the Congress of Tucumán formally declared the independence of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata from Spain. Today, this is the day Argentina celebrates Independence Day, although the Argentinian War of Independence did not officially conclude until 1818.

Important Figures in the Argentinian War of Independence

José de San Martín (1778-1850)
A national hero in both Argentina and Peru, in 1811 San Martín resigned from his military career fighting for Spain in Europe and Africa and returned to his home country of Argentina to join the revolutionary movement. San Martín was an important war general and helped Argentina, Peru, and Chile gain independence. Today, most Argentinian cities have a statue of San Martín, and in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral there is an eternal flame, lit in 1947 and burning ever since, in tribute to General San Martín and the Unknown Soldier of the War of Independence.

Manuel Belgrano (1770-1820)
Another one of Argentina's libertadores, Belgrano was an important criollo in Buenos Aires who fought against the two British invasions (1806 and 1807), supported the May Revolution and served in the Primera Junta, fought in the Argentinian war of independence, and created the flag of Argentina in 1812. He also played a role in the independence of Bolivia and Paraguay.

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Around the turn of the 18th century, enlightenment ideas, social rivalries, and prohibitions on trade fueled the desire for social change. Learn more about the