Latin American Revolutions, c. 1789-1830

Latin American Revolutions, c. 1789-1830

1. Latin American Revolutions

2. Colonial Political Structures Council of the Indies – Spanish royal advisors with absolute power of the Americas viceroys - direct representatives of the king Spain : New Spain (modern Mexico, Southwest United States, and Central America) New Granada (modern Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador) Peru (modern Peru and Chile) Rio de la Plata (modern Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay) Portugal : Brazil audiencia - royal court of appeals

3. modern political borders

4. Colonial Social Structure sistema de castas – caste system peninsulares – whites born in Europe creoles – whites born in the Americas; owned land and dominated Latin American economies mestizos - mixed European and native ancestry mulattos - mixed European and African ancestry zambos – mixed African and native ancestry

5. Colonial Economic Structure encomienda - grant of Indian laborers made to Spanish conquerors and settlers in Mesoamerica and South America; basis for earliest forms of coerced labor in Spanish colonies haciendas - rural estates in Spanish colonies in New World; produced agricultural products for consumers in America; basis of wealth and power for local creole aristocracy

6. Colonial Economic Structure mining – Cerro Potosi, Peru (modern Bolivia) and Zacatecas, Mexico Cerro Rico and the Imperial Municipality of Potosí , Gaspar Miguel de Berrío (1758)

7. Colonial Economic Structure mining – American silver funded global trade with Asia

8. Revolutionary Influences creoles were inspired by Enlightenment ideas Latin American revolutions were prompted by the American and French Revolutions and the Napoleonic occupation of Spain and Portugal

9. Revolutionary Influences creole elites: resented state control of colonial trade resented social dominance of peninsulares resented exclusion from government positions were attracted by ideas of a free press, free trade, and legal equality amigos del pais - clubs and associations dedicated to improvements and reform in Spanish colonies; called for material improvements rather than political reform 18 th century silver water heater from Bolivia used for drinking maté and coca-leaf teas; this would have been used by elite creoles and peninsulares

10. Haitian Revolution 1789: St. Domingue (western Hispaniola) was the world’s most profitable colony.

11. Haitian Revolution 452,000 enslaved persons (2/3 African-born) controlled by 32,000 whites produced ~40% of sugar and ~60% of coffee consumed in Europe. Many of the 16,000 gens de couleur and 12,000 freedmen were prosperous, well-educated artisans, shopkeepers or landowners, but did not have the same rights as white Frenchmen. Free Women of Color with their Children and Servants  by  Agostino Brunias (late 1700s)

12. Haitian Revolution August 1789: During the French Revolution, the new National Assembly issued The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen which recognized that France was a nation of equal citizens with natural rights governed by popular sovereignty.

13. Haitian Revolution Julien Raimond , a slave-owning gen de couleur , argued before the French National Assembly for the repeal of racially discriminatory colonial laws and extension of voting rights to free men of color. “Mortals are equal, it's not birth it's only virtue that makes the difference.”

14. Haitian Revolution March 1790: The French National Assembly granted colonies the right to form local governments. Vincent Oge , a wealthy free man of color, fought for the political inclusion of free gens de couleur in the new government of Saint-Domingue. When his demands were unmet, he organized a failed revolt. His execution convinced gens de couleur that newly won rights would be limited to whites only, and racial tensions rose. Oge was brutally executed in the public square of the colonial capital through use of a breaking wheel like this 16 th century German criminal.

15. Haitian Revolution August 1791: Slaves met in a secret Vodou religious ceremony at Bois Caïman led by Dutty Boukman to launch a revolt. Within weeks, 100,000 slaves had burned over 1,000 plantations and killed thousands of whites. Though Boukman was captured and executed, the self-emancipated slaves controlled 1/3 of the colony by 1792. Ceremonie du Bois- Caiman  by Andre Normil  (1990)

16. Haitian Revolution Toussaint L’Ouverture emerged as the most prominent leader of the slave rebellion. By 1801, he controlled the entire island. In 1802, he agreed to an armistice if France would end slavery. However, the French accused L’Ouverture planning another uprising, arrested him, and tortured him to death in a French prison.

17. Haitian Revolution 1803: L’Ouverture ’s forces, now led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines , resumed the fight and defeated the French at the battle of Vertieres .

18. Haitian Revolution The defeat prompted Napoleon’s sale of the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803.

19. Haitian Revolution 1804: Dessaline s was named emperor of newly-independent Haiti following the most successful slave-revolt in history. The island’s remaining 3,000 whites were murdered.

20. Peninsular War 1808: Napoleon invaded the Iberian peninsula and installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte , as king of Spain. Latin American subjects felt no loyalty the new regime.

21. Mexican War of Independence 1810: Inspired by the French Revolution, Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla urged native peoples and mestizos to free themselves from Spain.

22. Mexican War of Independence September 16, 1810: Hidalgo led 80,000 natives and mestizos in an unsuccessful attack on Spanish forces. After Hidalgo’s execution, his student, Jose Morelos , led the fight for Mexican Independence until his own capture and execution in 1814. Execution of Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende

23. Mexican War of Independence Creoles and peninsulares feared the native and mestizo revolt. They fought to first defeat the popular uprising, and then overthrew the Spanish. Creole general Agustin de Iturbide led an alliance of conservatives and liberals who captured Mexico City from Spain in 1821.

24. First Mexican Empire Iturbide proclaimed himself emperor of the independent First Mexican Empire , but he was soon deposed in 1823. Coat of arms of the First Mexican Empire

25. First Mexican Empire Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica won independence from Mexico in 1823 and formed the United Provinces of Central America , a democratic republic.

26. First Mexican Republic After Iturbide was overthrown, the United Mexican States , the first Mexican federal republic, was established in 1824.

27. First Mexican Republic Following independence, Latin American politics were driven by a conflict over how to concentrate political power. Centralists , conservative Mexican landowners and former monarchists, favored Catholicism and a strong central government. Federalists , liberal republicans, favored secularism and weak government power divided among the federated states. They wanted economic policies set by local governments.

28. Centralist Republic of Mexico In 1835, the conservative caudillo strongman Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power and proclaimed a new Centralist Republic of Mexico . In 1841, the United Provinces of Central America likewise dissolved due to conflict between centralists and federalists.

29. South American Wars of Independence 1811: Venezuela declared independence from Spain, but a revolutionary army led by Simón Bolívar, the Liberator suffered numerous defeats. He twice went into exile.

30. South American Wars of Independence 1816-1817: Argentina declared independence. José de San Martín led an army across the Andes where he joined with forces led by Bernardo O’Higgins to liberate Chile. San Martín O’Higgins

31. South American Wars of Independence 1819: Bolívar led a force through the Andes and took the Spanish army in Bogotá completely by surprise and won a decisive victory at the Battle of Boyacá .

32. South American Wars of Independence Bolívar became president of the independent state of Gran Colombia .

33. South American Wars of Independence 1822: After winning Venezuela’s independence, Bolívar marched south and met San Martín at the Guayaquil Conference in Ecuador.

34. South American Wars of Independence 1824: Their united revolutionary forces defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Ayacucho in Peru, the last major battle of the war for independence. Batalla de Ayacucho by Martín Tovar y Tovar

35. South American Wars of Independence 1830: Gran Colombia dissolved over disputes between federalism and centralism into Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. Panama won independence from Colombia in 1903.

36. Empire of Brazil 1807–1820: Portuguese king João VI fled to Brazil during the Napoleonic Peninsular War and ruled the Portuguese Empire from Rio de Janeiro. João VI

37. Empire of Brazil 1822: João VI returned to Europe. His son, Pedro I , was declared constitutional emperor of Brazil. Pedro I