Download Liberators WHAP/Napp “As the eighteenth century drew to a close

Liberators
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“As the eighteenth century drew to a close, Spain and Portugal held vast colonial
possessions in the Western Hemisphere, although their power had declined relative to that
of their British and French rivals. Despite these efforts, the same economic and political
forces that had undermined British rule in the colonies that became the United States were
present in Spanish America and Brazil. The great works of the Enlightenment as well as
revolutionary documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of the
Rights of Man circulated widely in Latin America by 1800, but very few colonial residents
desired to follow the examples of the American and French Revolutions. Local-born
members of Latin America’s elites and middle classes were frustrated by the political and
economic power of colonial officials and angered by high taxes and imperial monopolies.
But it was events in Europe that first pushed the colonies towards independence.
Napoleon’s decision to invade Portugal (1807) and Spain (1808), not revolutionary ideas,
created the crisis of legitimacy that undermined the authority of colonial officials, and
ignited Latin America’s struggle for independence.
In 1808 as a French army neared Lisbon, the royal family of Portugal fled to Brazil. King
John VI maintained his court there for over a decade. In Spain, in contrast, Napoleon
forced King Ferdinand VII to abdicate and placed his own brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on
the throne. Spanish patriots fighting against the French created a new political body, the
Junta Central, to administer the areas they controlled. Most Spaniards viewed the Junta as
a temporary patriotic institution created to govern Spain while the king remained a French
prisoner. The Junta, however, claimed the right to exercise the king’s powers over Spain’s
colonies, and this claim provoked a crisis. Large numbers of colonial residents in Spanish
America, perhaps a majority, favored obedience to the Junta Central. A vocal minority,
which included many wealthy and powerful individuals, objected. The dissenters argued
that they were subjects of the king, not dependents of the Spanish nation. In late 1808 and
1809 popular movements overthrew Spanish colonial officials in Venezuela, Mexico, and
Alto Peru (modern Bolivia) and created local juntas. In each case, Spanish officials quickly
reasserted control and punished the leaders. Their harsh repression, however, further
polarized public opinion in the colonies and gave rise to a greater sense of a separate
American nationality. By 1810 Spanish colonial authorities were facing a new round of
revolutions more clearly focused on the achievement of independence. In Caracas (the
capital city of modern Venezuela) a revolutionary Junta led by creoles (colonial-born
whites) declared independence in 1811. Although this group espoused popular sovereignty
and representative democracy, its leaders were large landowners who defended slavery and
opposed full citizenship for the black and mixed-race majority. Their aim was to expand
their own privileges.” ~ The Earth and Its Peoples
1. Revolutions in Latin America were
2. In leading the revolutions of South
frequently a power struggle between?
America, Simon Bolivar advocated
(A) masters and slaves
(A) that Spanish colonial rule be replaced
(B) peninsulares and creoles
with an indigenous monarchy
(C) European and indigenous peoples
(B) that Marxism be the basis of the new
(D) Europeans and mestizos
governments
(E) colonial militias and European
(C) popular sovereignty
mercenaries
(D) women’s suffrage
Key Words/ I. Independence Movements in Latin America
Questions
A. The final act in the Atlantic revolutions took place in Latin America
B. Influenced by preceding events in North America, France, and Haiti
C. Native-born elites in Spanish colonies, creoles, were offended by Spanish
monarchy’s efforts to exercise power through heavier taxes and tariffs
D. But unlike North America, little tradition of local self-government
E. Spanish colonial society was authoritarian, divided by class, Catholic
F. Whites were also outnumbered by Native Americans and Africans
G. In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal, deposing the Spanish
king and forcing Portuguese royal family into exile in Brazil
H. With legitimate royal authority in disarray, Latin Americans revolted
I. Outcome was independence for various states in Latin America by 1826
J. In Mexico, the move toward independence began in 1810 in a peasant
insurrection, driven by hunger for land and high food prices
K. Led successively by two priests, Miguel Hidalgo and José Morelos,
peasant insurrection frightened creole landowners and was crushed
L. Later creole elites brought Mexico to independence in 1821
M. Leaders like Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín in South America
found a solution in nativism casting all born in Americas as Americanos
N. Geographic obstacles, however, prevented “Gran Colombia” (Bolívar’s
dream of a united South America)
II. The Ideals of the Atlantic Revolutions and Reactions to the Ideals
A. Universal male suffrage in Western Europe, USA, Argentina by 1914
B. From roughly 1780 to 1890, slavery lost its legitimacy and largely ended
C. Also Russian tsar freed serfs in 1861
D. In the United States, slavery was abolished after civil war
E. Only in Haiti did a redistribution of land follow end of slavery; thus the
economic lives of former slaves did not improve
F. In West and East Africa, the end of the external slave trade decreased
prices for slaves which increased their slavery in Africa
III. Nationalism
A. Nationalism inspired the political unification of Germany under
leadership of Otto von Bismarck and Prussian state
B. Unification of Italy under leadership of Count Camillo di Cavour,
Giuseppe Mazzini, and Giuseppe Garibaldi by 1871
C. Encouraged Greeks and Serbs to assert independence from Ottomans
D. Czechs/Hungarians demanded more autonomy within Austrian Empire
E. A small Zionist movement, seeking a homeland in Palestine, developed
among Europe’s persecuted Jews
IV. Feminism
A. Many women participated in the French Revolution
B. Women’s right conference in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848
C. By 1870s, feminists in the West were focusing primarily suffrage
D. 1893, New Zealand became first country to give women the vote
E. Ironically, in France, female suffrage was not achieved until 1945
Reflections:
1. Which event in Europe contributed most
directly to the wave of independence
struggle in early nineteenth-century
Latin America?
(A) Publication of the Gutenberg bible
(B) The Reconquista
(C) Napoleon’s invasion of Spain
(D) Fascist aerial bombardment of
Guernica
(E) Onset of World War I
2. Why was the struggle for Brazilian
independence distinctive in Latin
American history?
(A) Brazil was the only colony whose
economy was dependent on cash
crops.
(B) Brazil remained a monarchy after
independence.
(C) Brazil abolished slavery before
independence was achieved.
(D) Brazil was the first colony to achieve
independence.
(E) Brazil was the only ethnically diverse
colony where racial hierarchy did
not exist before or after
independence.
3. After the United States, which was the
next New World colony to gain
independence from Europe?
(A) Mexico
(B) Argentina
(C) Brazil
(D) Haiti
(E) Cuba
4. Which social practices of the early
United States were replicated in newly
independent Spanish Latin America?
(A) Slavery was maintained.
(B) Women remained subordinate to
men.
(C) Property restrictions were placed on
voting.
(D) Established colonial elites moved to
the top ranks of political power.
(E) All of the above.
5. Which of the following concerns made
Creole elites, who yearend for
independence from Spain, what we
might call “cautious revolutionaries”?
(A) Fear that the Spanish monarchs
were more capable rulers
(B) Fear that continued rapid
industrialization would create urban
instability
(C) A growing communist threat
inspired by the example of the
Bolshevik Revolution
(D) Fear that slaves and other oppressed
groups would target local elites as
part of a general social upheaval
(E) Fear that women would reject
subordination in the private and
public spheres if independence were
achieved
Thesis Practice: Comparative [For more information on Haiti, turn to the next page.]
Analyze similarities and differences in methods, goals, and outcomes of the independence
movement in Haiti as compared to the rest of Latin America.
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Reading:
“The formal philosophy and rhetoric of enlightenment and revolution proclaimed the
natural desire of all humans to be free, and in the slave plantations of the Caribbean local
slave revolts were common, feared, and ruthlessly suppressed. In the western sector of the
island of Hispaniola in the colony of Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti), French planters had
established one of the most brutal of the slave plantation systems. By 1791, 500,000 black
slaves formed the overwhelming majority of the population, with 40,000 whites, many of
them slave owners, and 30,000 free people of color, both mulatto and black. For decades,
the slaves had escaped psychologically and culturally through the practice of vodoun
(voodoo), a religion that blended the Catholicism of their masters with religious practices
brought from Africa. Physically, they had escaped through maroonage, flight from the
plantations to the surrounding hills. Sometimes the escaped slaves, maroons, established
their own colonies. In the 1750s one of the maroons, François Makandal, built among the
maroon colonies a network of resistance to slavery. Inspired to independence by vodoun
beliefs and using poison to attack individual plantation owners, Makandal apparently
planned to poison the water supply of Le Cap, the main town of northern Saint-Domingue,
but he was captured and burned at the stake in 1758.
In 1791, slave revolts broke out across Saint-Domingue. The inspiration seems to have
been the natural desire for freedom, perhaps abetted by news of the American and French
revolutions. One of the earliest rallying cries, delivered by the poet Boukman Dutty in
Haitian-French patois, “Couté la liberté li pale nan coeur nous tous” – “Listen to the voice
of liberty which speaks in the hearts of all of us.”
The revolt spread. In the western part of Saint-Domingue, white planters welcomed the
support of British troops who came as allies to suppress the slave revolt and also to drive
out the French. In the eastern part of Saint-Domingue, a new leader, Toussaint
L’Ouverture, a freed black, established an alliance with the Spanish rulers against both the
slave system in Saint-Domingue and the French. Toussaint incorporated the rhetoric of the
French Revolution into his own. In 1794, under Robespierre, the French National
Assembly abolished slavery in all French colonies. In response, Toussaint linked himself to
France as he continued his war against slaveowners, who were now aligned with the British
and who resisted the new French decree. By May 1800 Toussaint had become the effective
ruler of Saint Domingue. When Napoleon came to power in 1799 he reversed French
policy on slavery and dispatched French troops to recapture the island and to reinstitute
slavery. Napoleon’s representative deceived Toussaint into suspending his revolution.
Toussaint was imprisoned in 1802 and exiled to France, where he died the next year.
Nevertheless, unified black and mulatto armies continued the struggle against France,
drove out its forces, and abolished slavery. 50,000 French troops died of yellow fever. On
January 1, 1804, independence was proclaimed and the nation renamed Haiti, the Carib
name for mountain. This completed the only known successful slave revolution in history.”
~ The World’s History
How did the fight for freedom differ in Haiti as compared to the other European colonies in
Latin America and the Caribbean?
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