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The Liberators
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“The United States, in winning independence, set a precedent that was more
infectious than could have been predicted. One of the sugar colonies in the West
Indies was the first to follow the path of the new United States. Santo Domingo, a
long and mountainous island, was held by the Spanish in the east and the French in
the west, where the colony was called Saint-Domingue. The French Revolution
temporarily weakened France’s control of its colony. Likewise the message of the
revolutionists that all people were equal was seized upon in 1791 by those
inhabitants of the French colony who decidedly were not equal: the African slaves
on the sugar plantations owned by the French and the mulattos who were neither
slaves nor citizens. In a sudden uprising they took control. In 1794 the French
planters, many of whom crossed to the continent and settled in Louisiana,
persuaded the British to reconquer the colony: Britain needed little persuading,
knowing that the uprising of slaves here might be followed by uprisings in British
slave colonies. But the British failed in their attempt at conquest, losing some 20,000
men to yellow fever or the weapons of the African-American defenders.
In 1801 France sent across the Atlantic a powerful fleet to regain control. Two
years later, with the war resuming in Europe, France withdrew from the island. In
the following year a black man proclaimed himself the emperor of the new nation of
Haiti. After nearly three centuries the Americas again possessed not only an
emperor but a tiny nation which, in the worlds of the English Annual Register,
‘presented an image of liberty and equality highly captivating to men groaning
under degradation and bondage.’ Now the Americas had two independent nations:
the USA and Haiti.
The turbulent events in Europe paved the way for more independent nations.
When in 1808 Napoleon invaded Spain, the Spanish colonies on the far side of the
Atlantic were given their chance to take the side of Spain or seize their liberty. By
1810, all the way from Spanish Mexico to the Spanish colonial ports near the Andes,
there were civil wars or wars of liberation, battles on sea and land, executions of
mutineers and innumerable reprisals. Along the River Plate was seen the strange
sight of the town of Buenos Aires proclaiming its independence while its rival port of
Montevideo, remaining loyal to the motherland, showed its loyalty by bombarding
Buenos Aires. The virtual end of the Napoleonic Wars allowed Spain, liberated at
last, to resist the attempts of its colonies to liberate themselves; but it was too late.
By 1821 the present map of Central and South America had largely taken shape,
with a free Mexico, a new cluster of Central American republics, a free Peru, a free
Chile and a free Paraguay, along with a free Republic of the River Plate which later
was divided into Argentina and Uruguay.” ~ A Short History of the World
1- Describe the events in Saint-Domingue.
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2- Why did the British try to conquer the island?
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3- What happened on the island in 1801 and then two years later?
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4- How did Napoleon’s invasion of Spain affect the Spanish colonies?
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Notes:
I. Independence Movements in Latin America
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had little tradition of local self-government
E. Spanish colonial societymore authoritarian, divided by class, Catholic
F. Whites were also vastly outnumbered by Native Americans, people of
African ancestry, or individuals of mixed race
G. In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal, deposing Spanish king and
forcing Portuguese royal family into exile in Brazil
H. With legitimate royal authority in disarray, Latin Americans took action
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. An abortive rebellion of Native Americans in Peru in the early 1780s,
reminded whites that a society with many exploited could easily explode
N. Yet leaders like Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín required support of
people  solution found in nativism which cast all born in Americas as
Americanos  But lower classes benefitted little from independence
O. And distances among colonies and geographic obstacles there would be no
“Gran Colombia” (Bolívar’s dream of a united South America)
II. The Ideals of the Atlantic Revolutions and Reactions to the Ideals
A. Within Europe following Napoleon’s defeat, representatives at Congress of
Vienna (1814-1815) tried to restore old ways and redrew borders to create a
balance of power but revolutions still broke out in Europe
B. Universal male suffrage by 1914 in Western Europe, USA, and Argentina
C. And from roughly 1780 to 1890, slavery lost its legitimacy and largely ended
D. Also Russian tsar freed serfs in 1861
E. United States was only slaveholding society in which end of slavery occurred
through a bitter, prolonged, and highly destructive civil war (1861-1865)
I. Yet nowhere in the Atlantic world, except Haiti, did a redistribution of land
follow end of slavery economic lives of former slaves did not improve
J. And in West and East Africa, the end of the external slave trade decreased
prices for slaves which increased their use within African societies
K. Europeans justified colonial rule in Africa in late nineteenth century with
claim that they were doing so to emancipate enslaved Africans
III. Nationalism
A. Europe’s modern transformation facilitated nationalism
B. Migration to industrial cities diminished allegiance to local communities
C. Nationalism inspired the political unification of Germany under leadership
of Otto von Bismarck and Prussian state
D. And unification of Italy under leadership of Count Camillo di Cavour,
Giuseppe Mazzini, and Giuseppe Garibaldi by 1871
E. Encouraged Greeks and Serbs to assert independence from Ottomans
F. Czechs and Hungarians demanded more autonomy within Austrian Empire
G. By end of nineteenth century, small Zionist movement, seeking a homeland
in Palestine, had emerged among Europe’s frequently persecuted Jews
IV. Feminism
A. French Revolution many women participated in revolution
B. First organized expressionwomen’s right conference in Seneca Falls, New
York, in 1848
C. By 1870s, feminists in West were focusing primarily suffrage
D. 1893, New Zealand became first country to give vote to all adult women
E. But in France, female suffrage was not achieved until 1945
Complete the Graphic Organizer Below:
Latin American Independence and More Effects of Atlantic Revolutions
Causes and Effects as Well as
Specific Examples Regarding
Latin American Independence
Movements:
Impact on Slavery and
Serfs (Be Specific):
Impact on Women
and Rise of
Feminism:
Questions:
 How were the Spanish American revolutions shaped by the American, French, and
Haitian revolutions that happened earlier?
 What accounts for the end of Atlantic slavery during the nineteenth century?
 How did the end of slavery affect the lives of the former slaves?
 What accounts for the growth of nationalism as a powerful political and personal
identity in the nineteenth century?
 What were the achievements and limitations of nineteenth-century feminism?
1. Which event in Europe contributed
4. Which social practices of the early
most directly to the wave of
United States were replicated in
independence struggle in early
newly independent Spanish Latin
nineteenth-century Latin America?
America?
(A) Publication of the Gutenberg
(A) Slavery was maintained.
bible
(B) Women remained subordinate to
(B) The Reconquista
men.
(C) Napoleon’s invasion of Spain
(C) Property restrictions were
(D) Fascist aerial bombardment of
placed on voting.
Guernica
(D) Established colonial elites moved
(E) Onset of World War I
to the top ranks of political
power.
2. Why was the struggle for Brazilian
(E) All of the above.
independence distinctive in Latin
American history?
5. Which of the following concerns
(A) Brazil was the only colony whose
made Creole elites, who yearend for
economy was dependent on cash
independence from Spain, what we
crops.
might call “cautious
(B) Brazil remained a monarchy
revolutionaries”?
after independence.
(A) Fear that the Spanish monarchs
(C) Brazil abolished slavery before
were more capable rulers
independence was achieved.
(B) Fear that continued rapid
(D) Brazil was the first colony to
industrialization would create
achieve independence.
urban instability
(E) Brazil was the only ethnically
(C) A growing communist threat
diverse colony where racial
inspired by the example of the
hierarchy did not exist before or
Bolshevik Revolution
after independence.
(D) Fear that slaves and other
oppressed groups would target
3. After the United States, which was
local elites as part of a general
the next New World colony to gain
social upheaval
independence from Europe?
(E) Fear that women would reject
(A) Mexico
subordination in the private and
(B) Argentina
public spheres if independence
(C) Brazil
were achieved
(D) Haiti
(E) Cuba
Thesis Statement: Comparative: Independence and After: Haiti and Latin America
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