<P> Once in the New World, religion was still a prevalent issue which had to be considered in everyday life . Many of the laws were based in religious beliefs and traditions and often these laws clashed with the many other cultures throughout colonial Latin America . One of the central clashes was between African and Iberian cultures; this difference in culture resulted in the aggressive prosecution of witches, both African and Iberian, throughout Latin America . According to European tradition "(a) witch--a bruja--was thought to reject God and the sacraments and instead worship the devil and observe the witches' Sabbath ." This rejection of God was seen as an abomination and was not tolerated by the authorities either in Spain nor Latin America . A specific example, the trial of Paula de Eguiluz, shows how an appeal to Christianity can help to lessen punishment even in the case of a witch trial . </P> <P> Paula de Eguiluz was a woman of African descent who was born in Santo Domingo and grew up as a slave, sometime in her youth she learned the trade of witches and was publicly known to be a sorceress . "In 1623, Paula was accused of witchcraft (brujeria), divination and apostasy (declarations contrary to Church doctrine)." Paula was tried in 1624 and began her hearings without much knowledge of the Crowns way of conducting legal proceedings . There needed to be appeals to Christianity and announcements of faith if an individual hoped to lessen the sentence . Learning quickly, Paula correctly "recited the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Salve Regina, and the Ten Commandments" before the second hearing of her trial . Finally, in the third hearing of the trial Paula ended her testimony by "ask (ing) Our Lord to forgive (me) for these dreadful sins and errors and requests...a merciful punishment ." The appeals to Christianity and profession of faith allowed Paula to return to her previous life as a slave with minimal punishment . The Spanish Crown placed a high importance on the preservation of Christianity in Latin America, this preservation of Christianity allowed colonialism to rule Latin America for over three hundred years . </P> <P> Following the model of the U.S. and French revolutions, most of Latin America achieved its independence by 1825 . Independence destroyed the old common market that existed under the Spanish Empire after the Bourbon Reforms and created an increased dependence on the financial investment provided by nations which had already begun to industrialize; therefore, Western European powers, in particular Great Britain and France, and the United States began to play major roles, since the region became economically dependent on these nations . Independence also created a new, self - consciously "Latin American" ruling class and intelligentsia which at times avoided Spanish and Portuguese models in their quest to reshape their societies . This elite looked towards other Catholic European models--in particular France--for a new Latin American culture, but did not seek input from indigenous peoples . </P> <P> The failed efforts in Spanish America to keep together most of the initial large states that emerged from independence--Gran Colombia, the Federal Republic of Central America and the United Provinces of South America--resulted a number of domestic and interstate conflicts, which plagued the new countries . Brazil, in contrast to its Hispanic neighbors, remained a united monarchy and avoided the problem of civil and interstate wars . Domestic wars were often fights between federalists and centrists who ended up asserted themselves through the military repression of their opponents at the expense of civilian political life . The new nations inherited the cultural diversity of the colonial era and strived to create a new identity based around the shared European (Spanish or Portuguese) language and culture . Within each country, however, there were cultural and class divisions that created tension and hurt national unity . </P>

How would you describe latin american nations in the early 1800s