Writing in 1904, the Chilean intellectual Nicolás Palacios bitterly complained that his fellow-countrymen inhabiting the southern frontier provinces were “orphans” in their own land. The simile was appropriate. Since the 1870's, the government, through its land policy, systematically and deliberately had excluded Chile's wage-labor class from property ownership in the frontier. As a direct result, many Chilean laborers fell to peonage while European immigrants and wealthy Chileans acquired ownership of much of the public domain. Shortly before World War I, social and political pressures in Chile forced the government to end this discriminatory policy and to begin distributing the remainder of the public domain to nativeborn settlers.

The notarial archive of the Mexican city of Puebla de los Angeles, virtually complete from 1540 on, is a treasure-house of information about social and economic life in the early colony. Many of its earliest documents are, however, in deplorable physical condition, unindexed and chronologically unorganized, which makes them extremely difficult and time-consuming to consult. In order to remedy this condition and make the archive more accessible to scholars both in Mexico and elsewhere, I have indexed and extracted from microfilm the substance of over 1,600 documents executed between 1540 and 1555. These will probably appear in a two-volume collection published by the Editorial Jus in Mexico City. The documents make fascinating reading. There are wills, dowries, contracts, law-suits, partnerships, promissory notes, rentals, powers of attorney, as well as bills of sale itemizing every imaginable kind of property from real estate to livestock to produce to general merchandise.

William Howard Taft was a central participant at the birth of American imperialism. He won praises for his work with the Philippine Islands, first as head of the commission created to restore the Islands to a peaceful state, then as the first civil governor. He gave up this office to become Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. In his position in the Cabinet Taft had direct or indirect oversight over most of America's scattered empire.

By March, 1909, when Taft succeeded Roosevelt in the Presidency, the constitution of the American empire had largely been formulated, even if strictly speaking, it had not been formalized. Civil governments had been set up in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands. The “insular cases” of 1901 had defined the limits of claims of the dependent peoples upon the Constitution of the United States; the new possessions were neither foreign nor domestic, and thus even though the Constitution did not follow the flag, tariffs might. The only armed resistance to American control—in the Philippines—had long since ended. It was then to the surprise and dismay of President Taft that tiny Puerto Rico immediately presented a hostile challenge to his new administration, the constitutional rebellion known as the appropriation crisis of 1909.

In mid-November of 1889, elements of the armed forces stationed in Rio de Janeiro formally overthrew the Brazilian monarchy. Analyses of these events always include the discontent of the army as one of the major factors in the downfall of the empire, along with the disillusionment of the planters following the abolition of slavery without compensation, the gradual acceptance of the inevitability of a republic by Brazil's political elite, and the “religious question,” that is, the conflict between secularism and ultramontanism in the 1870's. Many of the older studies of these events, such as Oliveira Vianna's, stress the armed forces as the major factor in the downfall of the empire; however, several more recent works, for example, that of José Maria Bello, relegate the officers to a far less important role. In this article, both these views will be considered, and then the composition and activities of the Brazilian armed forces will be examined in greater detail.

A social revolution must concern itself immediately with the past, since it is a basic conviction of the revolutionist that the moribund and corrupt order which causes society's distress makes impossible the kind of future that he sees as desirable and necessary. Old institutions, structures, and habits of thought must be abolished or severely modified, and persons who direct or personify those vestiges must change, step aside, or be removed from positions of power and influence.

Religious institutions and beliefs present a peculiarly complicated problem to a social revolution. Invariably associated with traditional ways, they are often too deeply rooted in the national mentality and sentiment to admit of any easy or rapid modification. Obliteration, even if though to be the desirable solution, is usually recognized as impossible; and to change mass attitudes by persuasion alone, is at best a long and uncertain process.

The remarkable career of the adelantado don Pedro de Alvarado is associated in the minds of most with his exploits during the conquest of the Aztec state. To a somewhat lesser degree he is remembered as the conqueror, and later governor, of Guatemala. But in retrospect, perhaps his most significant, though less dramatic, achievement was the fact that he was able to maintain his preëminence for two decades. In an age when Charles V followed a policy of removing conquistadores from positions of political power, Alvarado not only retained the good will of the Crown, but also enhanced his authority and prestige. Despite the many crimes of which he was accused, he was not replaced by royal officials. At his death in 1541 he was one of the most powerful men in the New World, overshadowed perhaps only by Viceroy Mendoza, with whom Alvarado had the shrewd sense to make an alliance.