This volume looks at the birth of the republics of the Americas and the early anticolonial struggles for independence, beginning with the War of Independence in North America, the liberation struggle in Haiti, and then the movements in South and Central America led by Simon Bolivar and Francisco Morazan.

Here Alberto Prieto argues that the Cuban Revolution marked a turning point in the history of the Americas, with imperialism still mired in the Cold War, while revolutionary movements emerged that subsequently led to the rise of the new social movements and the revival of the concept of Latin American unity.

The first volume in a comprehensive history of Latin America by one of the continent's most prominent historians. It begins examining pre-Columbian society and the violent clashes with the colonizers, the subsequent emergence of a mestiza culture, and the development of a national identity that foreshadowed the struggles for independence.