Development after Independence: The United States and Spanish America Before independence, the directives of the patron counties Great Britain and Spain guided the economic directions and policies taken by colonies in the United States and Spanish America. However, for a variety of reasons, independence movements developed in the United States and Spanish America. This led to the declaration of independence of 13 U.S. states in 1776 and, in a more gradual process, to the independence of the Central and South American viceroyalties from Spain by 1830. Henceforth the United States and the colonies of Spanish America could decide their own destiny, free as they were from the political dictates of their former mother nations. The results were spectacularly different. The United States is now a country of 50 states and is characterized by wealth, power, and political stability. In contrast, Spanish America is a disunited collection of countries characterized by relative poverty, underdevelopment, and political instability. What led to such disparate results? And in particular, to what extent can these differences be explained by the historical legacy left by colonialism? Before independence, Spanish America was well developed compared to the USA. When the first settlers arrived in the United States in 1607, the Spanish Crown had already founded a dozen large cities, a number of universities, hundreds of churches, and established a profitable trading system based on gold, silver, and agricultural products1. These achievements, combined with the natural advantages of abundance of land and labor, placed Spanish America in an enviable position regarding future development. Subsequently, Spanish America produced great wealth, mainly through its exports of silver and agricultural products. However, the Cro...... middle of paper ......and the early colonial states, and those that were added later. Spanish America, despite piecemeal attempts, was never unified after independence, which limited its political power. Attempts at unification have failed in part due to political instability, which in turn is a consequence of the lack of a democratic tradition. Works Cited Alba, V. The Latin Americans, New York, 1969. Bulmer-Thomas, V. The Economic History of Latin America from Independence, Cambridge, 1994. Andrea, A. and Overfield, J. The Human Record. Sources of global history. Volume II: since 1500, 2nd edition, Boston, 1994.Fukuyama, F. The End of History and the Last Man, New York, 1992.Microsoft Encarta, 1998.Skidmore, T. and Smith, P. Modern Latin America, 3rd Edition, New York, 1992. Strayer, R. The Making of the Modern World, 2nd edition, New York, 1995.