The intrusion into the South Sea in the seventeenth century first of Dutch fleets of exploration and trade, and later of English traders and English and French buccaneers, was to make the development of some measures for defence if not a constant preoccupation, at least from time to time a very urgent necessity, and a costly one. The reluctance on the part of the Crown to support and give financial aid to permanent land based defences, the great length of the coastline of the viceroyalty, and above all the overriding concern for the protection of the Peruvian treasure fleet, are clear indications that the provision of defence at sea was to become an issue of the first importance.

For three centuries the Church in colonial Spanish America was the primary cultural institution affecting the lives of all Spain's overseas subjects. Education, charity, art, architecture, all the humane arts had been the legacy of the Church as well as its greatest gift to the New World, the Christianization of the Indians. In all these pursuits the Church was ably and dutifully supported by the Crown. Concurrently, clerics of all ranks and occupations were tied closely to the civil authority by the Royal Patronage.

The achievements of the orders of the Church were out of proportion to their numbers. Franciscans, Dominicans, Mercedarians, then Jesuits and others all left their mark on Spanish America and often expanded the empire through missionary activities. Paraguay, an isolated province in the Río de la Plata, was a striking example of the successful toil of various orders. However, in 1767 by command of the regalist Carlos III, the Jesuits were expelled from this region (and the entire empire) and at the turn of the century there remained but three orders in the province, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Mercedarians. Of the three the Franciscans were the most important in the colonial era. Ever since the 1530's, this order was concerned with the conversion and welfare of the Indians. Reductions of the Guaraní were established by the Franciscans long before those of the better known Jesuits. Among the great figures of the Franciscan first century in Paraguay were Fray Martín Ignacio de Loyola and especially fray Luis de Bolaños, the “Apostle of Paraguay.”

On December 1, 1920, General Álvaro Obregón of Sonora became President of Mexico. During the previous May, his supporters had staged a popular coup d'etat which paved the way for his constitutional election. Mexico was then in the throes of revolutionary ferment, and the instability which had accompanied Obregón's ascendancy to Executive Office also threatened to attend his demise. Obregón thus sought to achieve political and social reforms which would strengthen his regime and allow for a peaceful Presidential succession in 1924. As the major institution of coercion during a time of revolutionary violence, the Army had emerged as the most important political institution in Mexico. Although part of a broader political effort which included labor, agrarian and administrative reforms, Obregón's military reconstruction can be viewed as the important keystone in his attempt to consolidate control of Mexico. Obregón’s military reforms sought to insure, first, Army loyalty to the office of President, and, second, military effectiveness when the Army would be called upon to defend the Federal Government. His reforms grew out of the Agua Prieta movement of May 1920, and continued throughout his own administration. As President, Obregón gave intensive attention to military affairs and his military reforms were the most significant achievement of his broadly based effort to consolidate the Mexican Revolution.

The Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires stands as one of the few truly great opera houses of the world. Completed in 1908 after two decades of intermittent disasters which threatened to leave it a crumbling ruin before it ever opened, it remains unsurpassed as a building for the presentation of operas on a grand scale in an elegant setting. With one of the largest auditoriums of the world's opera houses, it combines splendid acoustics and a stunning exterior. Over 3,500 spectators can be easily accommodated in a seating arrangement which could make room for more were the chairs in parts of the house not so commodious nor so generously spaced. Nearly all the most renowned singers of the twentieth century have performed there and deemed it a signal honor.