Manifest Destiny is an important and influential mythology of the early American Republic. Proponents of Manifest Destiny argued that the United States was fated to spread and expand across the whole North American conflict. Manifest Destiny was an important driving myth in the massive westward expansion of American settlers in the nineteenth century.

The Declaration of Independence, in which the American colonies published a series of grievances against the colonial rule of the British Empire, was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. 

The term Revolutionary War is generally used to describe the military campaign between 1775 and 1783, however in terms of a political revolution the period actually began in 1765 when the American colonists first officially rejected the right of the British government to levy taxes against the American colonists. You probably remember the rallying cry "no taxation without representation" from your various classes in American history. This was the central issue that led to the American War of Independence. 

All of these philosophers rose to prominence after the American Revolution, save Hobbes and Locke. Hobbes promoted absolute monarchy, something that the American Revolution fought against. Locke's ideas about a government that responded to the needs of its people influenced the American Revolution.

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, invaded Spain in 1807, deposing the King and throwing the country into general chaos. This dissolution of authority made colonial governments assert their own authority over their own lands. By 1833, when King Ferdinand VII of Spain died and the Spanish government renounced claims, only Puerto Rico and Cuba remained as Spanish possessions in the Americas.

The Triple Alliance was the association of Tenochtitlan, Texoco, and Tlacopan, three city states in Central Mexico that came together in the early 1400s CE. This association ruled over much of central Mexico for the next hundred years, with authority vested in the king of Tenochtitlan, although most associated city states had some authority. When Hernan Cortes first encountered and then conquered the Alliance in the early sixteenth century, he and his fellow Spaniards related to it as an "Empire," which they named after the largest ethnic group in the Alliance, the Azteca.

The Seven Years' War (called the French and Indian War in the United States and often called the First Real World War by some historians) was fought between the empires of Britain and France from 1756 to 1763. At the time, England and France had massive territorial holdings throughout the world, and there were very few geographic locations that were untouched by the conflict.

The Seven Years' War was fought between England and France from 1756 to 1763. In the United States, the conflict is more commonly called the French and Indian War. The conflict had many direct consequences across the globe, notably the British gaining the Indian subcontinent from France, the reduction of French influence in North America, and deteriorating relationships between the American colonies and Britain. Many colonists resented the British imposition of taxes, tariffs, and quartering laws, whereas in Britain many people felt that the war had been fought in part to protect the colonists from French and Native American invasion, and therefore the colonists ought to help pay for the conflict. The relationship between the colonies and the metropole would never heal, and the build-up of tension eventually led to the American War of Independence, also called the American Revolutionary War.

Pedro II was the second and last Emperor of Brazil. He reigned from 1831 to 1889 and oversaw much of the country’s progression from a former slave colony to a multicultural and relatively liberal society. Pedro II is well known for his commitment to free speech, economic growth, and civil rights. He was also a long-time opponent of the institution of slavery and oversaw its abolition in the waning years of his reign.

Benito Juarez served as President of Mexico on numerous occasions in the mid-nineteenth century. Amongst other things, he resisted French occupation of Mexico, encouraged liberal reforms, and overthrew the Second Mexican Empire and restored the Republic.