Colonial The extent of European imperialism in the Old World climbed steadily in the modern age, peaking ca. 1900. At this point, firm European domination had spread across most of the Old World, the only major exceptions being Turkey (the Ottoman Empire), Persia, and Japan. At its peak, the British Empire became the largest empire the world has ever known, at nearly a quarter of the Earth’s land area. The Russian Empire became history’s third-largest empire, behind the British and Mongol Empires.
In the nineteenth century, the European empires experienced three major changes: the Latin American Wars of Independence, the expansion of European territory in Asia, and the Scramble for Africa. Most of the Spanish Empire was lost in the Latin American Wars of Independence (ca. 1810-30), sparked by Napoleon’s occupation of Spain, which (briefly) replaced the reigning Spanish king with Napoleon’s brother. This destabilized the politics of Latin America, where support for independence movements had already grown to dangerous proportions, especially after the success of the American Revolution (the first successful colonial revolution). The Wars of Independence gave rise to the modern nations of Latin America. (Brazil’s independence from Portugal, though achieved in the same period, was obtained peacefully.) Mexico became the primary power of Mesoamerica, while Brazil emerged as the chief power of South America. The United States, however, remained the overwhelmingly dominant power of the New World.

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