The logo for Lesson 11 is a caudillo

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The new Latin American nations were also severely challenged by centrifugal forces. Based at times on regional pride, and at times on the ambitions of local caudillos or politicians, this centrifugal tendency was reinforced by geography, distance, and difficult communications from the national capital to the farthest provinces. And so we note that in the early years of the Independence period the Central American Confederation broke away from Mexico and then divided into five separate nations: the nation of Gran Colombia broke up into Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador (and later Panama); Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay were carved out of the successor states of the two Viceroyalties of southern South America. (See Map, Figure 10-13). Only Brazil, blessed with more favorable geography and the stability of a monarchical system, was able to successfully resist this tendency toward fragmentation.