Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/401

 AMERICA, AUSTRALASIA, AFRICA, AND ASIA 389 reaction, did not mend matters, and there was a long period of struggle between Republicans and Royalists from one end of the continent to the other ; which ended in the g^b ejection of the royalists, and the establishment American of various republics controlled by military dictators Re P UDlics - which combined and dissolved their combinations in a very bewildering fashion. Ultimately the whole of Spanish South America took shape as nine independent republics; in which it still appeared for a long time that every president or virtual dictator held his position so long as he could escape assassina- tion and crush rivals, but no longer. Stable governments, how- ever, at last succeeded, and the way was prepared for a great development of South American wealth and commerce. A similar process took place in Central America and in Mexico. When the British Empire was torn in two by the war of American Independence, the new nation which emerged con- sisted only of the thirteen British colonies which 2 The occupied the sea-board between Nova Scotia and United Florida. They, like the French revolutionists, had states - before them the task of inventing a constitution, which should at once satisfy the demand of each separate member of the United States for self-government, and provide a central govern- ment which could enforce what would be to the common advantage as against the selfish claims of individual The states. Under the constitution devised, each state Constitution, had its own separate legislature and administration, while there was a central or federal legislature and administration in which all shared. The federal administration was completely controlled by a president elected for a term of four years. The lands to the westward, beyond the borders of the existing states, were under the control of the federal government. As these lands were occupied by new settlers pushing westwards, they were formed into new states, and added to the number of the original thirteen, with state govern- ments on the same model. Thus the United States gradually expanded westwards till the Pacific was reached, the appropria- tion of Texas involving a war with Mexico in 1847. The war also secured California to the United States, and about the