Contrary to popular belief, Europe was not the locus of democracy and republicanism in the 19th century. That honour belonged to the Americas. The Western Hemisphere contained the vast majority of the world’s functioning republics. People looked to the Americas, not to Europe, when they thought about democracy and republicanism. They scrutinised the United States and the nations of Latin America, both to highlight the virtues of democracy and republicanism as well as to sneer at their vices.
European liberals and many members of the middle and lower classes saw in the Americas models to emulate and progress to cheer. They praised the nations of the Americas and ardently hoped they would succeed and vindicate republicanism as a model of government. In contrast, European royals, aristocrats and reactionaries grew nervous when they heard people praising the Americas, because they knew republicanism undermined their power and control. Thus, they frequently derided democracy and republicanism as unstable, tumultuous and messy. They believed most republics were not far away from collapse at any given moment.
Interestingly, they were not entirely wrong about American republics in the sense that these nations were sometimes unstable and riven by internal conflicts about the contours and limits of citizenship and suffrage. Furthermore, American nations experienced severe and concerted internal challenges. Most of them endured a civil war or multiple civil wars. After the wars ended, each country then faced a period of reconstruction, when the victors of that particular violent conflict faced the challenges of putting the country back together. This included enacting their particular visions of the future and pacifying insurgencies.
Also contrary to popular belief, reconstruction was not a phenomenon that occurred exclusively in the US, but, rather, one that took place throughout the Americas as the victors attempted to knit the sinews of shattered nations back together. Traditionally defined, the period of Reconstruction (with an upper-case R) took place in the US from 1863-77. During these years, Republicans passed three constitutional amendments that ended slavery, granted citizenship to African Americans, and mandated that the right to vote could not be abridged on the basis of colour. Republican governments, voted into power by coalitions of African American and white voters, attempted to remake the southern states. However, angry, embittered white ex-rebels utilised voter fraud, social and economic coercion and paramilitary violence to overthrow these governments, a process they called ‘redeeming’ their states from Republican rule.
The historiography of Reconstruction in the US, not to mention current discussions of Reconstruction in the US, often tends toward myopia. Much of the attention to Reconstruction today concerns whether the US is living through another iteration of Reconstruction. Historians of Reconstruction have largely written about this period as if the rest of the world did not exist.