The aim of this book is to offer a comprehensive approach to the history of the South American republics since the South American histories written before were mostly treating of special periods, and few authorities existed for post-revolution times. One of the main questions he tried to answer was why there were so many revolutions in South American countries. Constitutional traditions, inherited from Spain and Portugal, implanted a tendency toward disintegration; Spanish and Portuguese tyranny bred in the people a distrust of all rulers and governments; the war of independence brought to the front military adventurers; civil disorders were inevitable, and the search for forms of government that should be final and stable has been very painful. On the other hand, the generous impulse that prompted the movement toward independence has grown into an earnest desire for ordered liberty, which was steadily spreading among all classes, resulting in a slow evolution toward republicanism. Volume 1: Argentina: The Argentine Land The Spanish Colonial System Completion of the War of Independence The Era of Civil Wars The Modern Argentine Paraguay: Paraguay Until 1632 The Jesuit Republic and Colonial Paraguay The War Uruguay: Portuguese Aggressions and the Settlement of the Country The Revolution Independence and Civil War Brazil: Discovery Early Colonization Independence Events of 1849 to 1864 Republicanism and Emancipation Volume 2: Peru: The Inca Empire The Spanish Conquest The Wars of Independence Chile: The Spanish Conquest The Colonial Period The War of Independence The Formative Period Bolivia: The Conquest and the Mines The War of Independence Bolivia Independent Ecuador: The Spanish Conquest The War of Independence The Formation of Ecuador Modern Ecuador Venezuela: Conquest, Settlement, and Colonial Days The Revolt Modern Venezuela Colombia: Conquest and Settlement Colonial Times The War against Spain Modern Colombia Panama: The Events Leading to Independence

Thomas Cleland Dawson (1865-1912) was a career United States diplomat. He entered the diplomatic service in 1891, when he was appointed Secretary of Legation in Brazil. Dawson was U.S. minister and consul general to the Dominican Republic (1904-1907), during which term he negotiated the American-Dominican Fiscal Convention of 1907; then ambassador to Colombia (19071909), Chile (1909), and Panama (1910). He is the author of The South American Republics in 2 volumes, published in 1903 and 1904.