Download Latin American Independence Movements and Leaders Conditions

Latin American Independence Movements and Leaders
Conditions prior to revolution
American Revolution - The rebellion by the thirteen British colonies in North America from Great Britain was
spurred by several factors, including a number of imposed taxes, repressive acts, and the lack of American
representation in British government. This infuriated many colonists, and eventually became the spark that ignited
the American Revolutionary War. Initial fighting began in 1775 and lasted until October 1781, when the British
army, under the command of General Cornwallis, surrendered in Yorktown, Virginia. The American colonists
subsequently founded a republican government grounded in Enlightenment thought. A wave of revolutions
followed the conclusion of the American Revolution.
French Revolution -The French Revolution (1789–1799)started during the storming of the Bastille, and was a
period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the
French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and
Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Enlightenment principles of democracy, citizenship,
and inalienable rights. These changes were accompanied by violent turmoil, including executions and repression
during the Reign of Terror, and warfare involving every other major European power.
Napoleonic Wars - Evolving from the wars Revolutionary France fought with the rest of Europe, the Napoleonic
Wars were a series of wars fought between France (led by Napoleon Bonaparte) and alliances involving Britain,
Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Austria at different times, from 1799 to 1815.
For the case of Spain and its colonies, in May of 1808, Napoleon captured Carlos IV and King Fernando VII and
installed his own brother, Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish Throne. This pivotal point greatly disrupted the political
stability of both Spain and its colonies. Cities throughout Spain and its colonies in America each formed governing
bodies primarily consisting of local elites. These ruling local elites were called juntas and their underlying principal
in taking power over their communities was that "in absence of the king, Fernando VII, their sovereignty devolved
temporarily back to the community." The juntas swore loyalty to the captive Fernando VII and each ruled different
and diverse parts of the colony. Most of Fernando's subjects were loyal to him in 1808, but after he was restored to
the Spanish crown in 1814, his policy of restoring absolute power alienated both the juntas and his subjects. He
abrogated the Cadiz Constitution of 1812 and persecuted anyone who had supported it. The violence used by
royalist forces and prospect of being ruled by Fernando shifted the majority of the colonist population in favor of
separation from Spain.
Spanish military presence in its colonies
The royalists were the American and European supporters of King Ferdinand. Spanish Americans and Spaniards
formed the royalist army, with Spanish Americans composing 90% of the royalist forces in all fronts. There were
two types of units: the expeditionary units created in Spain and militias created in the Americas. The militias
included some veteran units (called the disciplined militia). Only 11% of the personnel in the militias were European
or American whites.
After Rafael del Riego's revolution, in 1820, no more Spanish soldiers were sent to the wars in the Americas. In
1820 there were only 10,001 Spanish soldiers in the Americas, and Spaniards formed only 10% of the all the royalist
armies, and only half of the soldiers of the expeditionary units were European. By the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824,
less than 1% of the soldiers were European.
Other factors for Independence Movements - Other factors included Enlightenment thinking. The Enlightenment
spurred the desire for social and economic reform to spread throughout Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.
Ideas about free trade and physiocratic economics were raised by the Enlightenment.
Haiti and the French Antilles – Which we covered yesterday!
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Portuguese America – Uruguay - In 1821, the Provincia Oriental del Río de la Plata, present-day Uruguay, was
annexed by Portugal into Brazil under the name of Província Cisplatina before declaring independence on August
25, 1825 (after numerous prior revolts) and joining a regional federation with the United Provinces of the Río de la
Plata, present-day Argentina. The United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, including Provincia Oriental, fought
Brazil during a 500-day war. Neither side gained the upper hand, and in 1828 the Treaty of Montevideo, fostered by
the United Kingdom, gave birth to Uruguay as an independent state.
Spanish America - Central America and the Caribbean
Retreat of European colonialism and change of political borders in South America, 1700–prese
South America - Independence movements in the northern regions of Spanish South America had an inauspicious
beginning in 1806. The small group of foreign volunteers that the Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda
brought to his homeland failed to incite the populace to rise against Spanish rule. Creoles in the region wanted an
expansion of the free trade that was benefiting their plantation economy. At the same time, however, they feared that
the removal of Spanish control might bring about a revolution that would destroy their own power.
Creole elites in Venezuela had good reason to fear such a possibility, for one such revolution had recently exploded
in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue. Beginning in 1791, a massive slave revolt sparked a general
insurrection against the plantation system and French colonial power. By the first years of the 19th century, the
rebels had shattered what had been a model colony and forged the independent nation of Haiti.[2] Partly inspired by
those Caribbean events, free blacks and slaves in Venezuela carried out their own uprisings in the 1790s led by José
Leonardo Chirino and José Caridad González. Just as it served as a beacon of hope for the enslaved, Haiti was a
warning of everything that might go wrong for elites in the cacao-growing areas of Venezuela and throughout slave
societies in the Americas.
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Creole anxieties also contributed to the persistence of a strong loyalist faction in the Viceroyalty of New Granada,
but they did not prevent the rise of an independence struggle there. Creoles organized revolutionary governments
that proclaimed social and economic reforms in 1810 and openly declared a break with Spain the following year.
Venezuela
Verde defeated the Venezuelan revolutionary army, led by Francisco de
Miranda, which surrendered at La Victoria on July 12, 1812, ending the
first phase of the revolutionary war.
After his defeat in 1812, Simón Bolívar fled to New Granada. He later
returned with a new army, while the war had entered a tremendously
violent phase. After much of the local aristocracy had abandoned the
cause of independence, blacks and mulattoes carried on the struggle.
Elites reacted with open distrust and opposition to the efforts of these
common people. Bolívar's forces invaded Venezuela from New Granada
in 1813, waging a campaign with a ferocity captured perfectly by their
motto of "war to the death". Bolívar's forces defeated Domingo
Monteverde's Spanish army in a series of battles, taking Caracas on
August 6, 1813 and besieging Monteverde at Puerto Cabello in
September 1813.
Simón Bolívar
With loyalists displaying the same passion and violence, the rebels achieved only short-lived victories. The army led
by the loyalist José Tomás Boves demonstrated the key military role that the Llaneros came to play in the region's
struggle. Turning the tide against independence, these highly mobile, ferocious fighters made up a formidable
military force that pushed Bolívar out of his home country once more. In 1814, heavily reinforced Spanish forces in
Venezuela lost a series of battles to Bolívar's forces but then decisively defeated Bolivar at La Puerta on June 15,
took Caracas on July 16, and again defeated his army at Aragua on August 18, at a cost of 2,000 Spanish casualties
out of 10,000 soldiers as well as most of the 3,000 in the rebel army. Bolívar and other leaders then returned to New
Granada. Later that year the largest expeditionary force ever sent by Spain to America arrived under the command
of Pablo Morillo. This force effectively replaced the improvised llanero units, who were disbanded by Morillo.
Bolívar and other republican leaders returned to Venezuela in December 1816, leading a largely unsuccessful
insurrection against Spain from 1816 to 1818 from bases in the Llanos and Ciudad Bolívar in the Orinoco River
area.
In 1819 Bolívar successfully invaded New Granada, and returned to Venezuela in April 1821, leading a large army
of 7,000. At Carabobo on June 24, his forces decisively defeated Spanish and colonial forces, winning Venezuelan
independence, although hostilities continued.
Other Important Figure - José de San Martín
Most of the southern South American colonies of Spain, including Argentina, Chile, and Perú, fought their wars of
independence under another influential military leader and politician, José de San Martín, (known as "the Liberator"
in Argentina). San Martín served as "Protector" of Peru until its parliament was assembled. He met with Bolívar at
Guayaquil, and on July 26, 1822, they had confidential talks to plan the future of Latin America.
The Argentine War of Independence was fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine forces under Manuel Belgrano and
José de San Martín against royalist forces loyal to the Spanish crown. On July 9, 1816, an assembly met in San
Miguel de Tucumán, declared full independence with provisions for a national constitution.
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Leaders of the Latin American revolutions
World Reaction:
Europe During the nineteenth century, the new
Latin American countries faced by many
challenges in developing their economies.
Though they were politically independent from
countries such as Spain and Portugal, many
countries remained economically dependent on
Europe, in particular on the United Kingdom.
Latin American countries exported sugar, beef,
copper and coffee to Europe in exchange for
manufactured goods.
United States and Great Britain - As a result
of the successful revolutions which established
so many new independent nations, United
States President James Monroe drafted the
Monroe Doctrine. It stated that the United
States would not tolerate any European
interference in the Western Hemisphere. This
measure ostensibly was taken in order to
safeguard the newfound liberties for which
revolutionaries such as Bolívar and Hidalgo
fought. Actually protection against the vast
naval, political and economic might of the
United States' European contemporaries.
Great Britain's trade with Latin America greatly
expanded in the revolutionary period, so it
supported the revolutionaries against Spain,
which in the past, due to mercantilist ideas, had
The Spanish Empire in America was reduced to threealways
Caribbean
islands:
Cuba
and
Puerto
Rico. Santo Domingo was
denied
Britain
trade
with
the Spanish
under Spanish rule for some years before definitive independence
was
achieved.
After
three
independence wars in
colonies. British diplomatic pressure was
Cuba, the Spanish–American War finally took away the
islands
from
Spain
at
the
end
of
the
nineteenth
century.
sufficient to prevent Spain from attempting
to
seriously reassert its control over its lost
The Empire of Brazil an anomaly in Latin America ascolonies
a large, during
successful
and 1820s
stable and
monarchy
until 1889, when the
the late
early 1830s.
República Velha ("Old Republic") was founded.
Questions
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10.
What were underlying causes of the independence movements in Latin America?
What “thoughts” or “ideas” inspired independence, and what “actions” inspired independence?
Who is Simon Bolivar, and what was his contributions?
How do the Spanish colonies in the Americas gain their independence?
Who is San Martin, and what was his contributions?
How do the Portuguese colonies gain their independence?
What reality did most post-colonial countries face: both politically, and economically?
How does Europe respond to the independence movements?
How does the United States respond to the independence movements?
The graph on page 4 displays South America in 1799, what is noticeably different versus the map displayed
on page 2, which is South America in 1700?
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