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.

The Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches in American history. It was given by President Lincoln in November 1863 at the commemoration of a battleground. The Address is famous for its brevity as well as its meaningfulness to Americans at the time and to this day.

Democracy in America was written by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835. The book was written after Tocqueville’s travels around America. The book was a consideration of the changes being wrought by the infant Industrial Revolution - changes in standards of living and relationships between the workers and the government, as well as the capitalist upper classes. Tocqueville believed that American capitalist society was extremely fluid, allowing for a great social movement between the rich and the poor.

The Federalist Party, led by Alexander Hamilton, was an 18th century political group that proposed a strong central federal government.

Reconstruction is the term used to refer to the period of time in the South immediately after the end of the Civil War and lasting for several decades. In the Reconstruction period the South was integrated back into American politics, social life, and economics. It was also a time of massive social change as freed slaves were either integrated or prevented from integration by discriminating laws.