Brazil had already acknowledged them; so the United States was the second Power to hold out the hand of fellowship to our neighbours. England followed soon after.
This acknowledgment of a brave People’s struggle for freedom, came after more than twenty years of terrible warfare.
Our neighbour Republics—recognized in 1822,—have the honour of having won their own Liberty without the aid of foreign Allies. For though they had the sympathy of all free Peoples, and the moral support of both the English and the United States Governments, and though hundreds of foreign young men—whole legions of them—volunteered in the Patriot Armies and shed their blood for Spanish-American Independence, yet the Patriots of the Southern Republics had to stand up alone and unaided by any Government.
They won their Independence by patient endurance of every conceivable suffering, by rising above momentary defeats, and by courageously persisting to the end under the command of their devoted Liberators.
In the language of San Martin, “God granted them success.”
AMERICA FOR THE AMERICANS
So at last, the Spanish-American Republics were recognized. Their Freedom was practically won.
But the Kings of Continental Europe felt their thrones tottering and their crowns loosened.
After the wars of Napoleon, the whole of Europe was in political ferment. So it always happens after long wars.
The Peoples of Continental Europe, who for generations had been down-trodden by Kings and Emperors, had learned from the United States and France, of such things as Liberty, Constitutions, and the right of Peoples to a voice in their own government. Everywhere the Peoples of Europe were preparing to demand constitutional governments. Then, too, a wave of infidelity was sweeping through the world, the result of the terrible French Revolution.