Latin American Independence

During 1800 Latin America struggled for independence and all of a sudden it happened. During that time nobody was aware of what was happening in Europe. Independence movement was happening all over the world, as oppressed people fought to be free. The European control collapsed and slaves took over in Haiti, but that was not the case in Latin America. In Spanish America and Brazil, the white people were still at the top while indigenous and blacks stayed at the bottom. The fight for independence in Latin America made many men of color become heroes and brought honor to many men of mixed race, but that was not enough for them. Many mestizos wanted to rule their country and not depend so much on the monarch of Spain. The war between England
lasted at least a decade. After all these the Spanish Navy decided to attack and that’s where we see Napoleon Bonaparte, Simon Bolivar and Miguel Hidalgo took over. These three liberators helped Latin America become independent even though it took a while to get these countries to be independent.
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military, and was the emperor of French for over a decade. He dominated global and European affairs that led him to have a coalition of Napoleon Wars. Spanish independence began in 1808, when Napoleon took the king of Spain as an imprisoned, but Napoleon was not only trying to have Latin America be independent he also was trying to have Brazil be independent from Portugal as well. Napoleon and the French revolutionaries “ had challenged the idea of monarchy based on divine, right, even executing the king of French and queen, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette” (Chasteen, John Charles). Napoleon wanted people to be free, he proclaimed equality and liberty for everyone, he also believed that by leading people to be free they can choose who would rule them. Napoleon began to liberate other countries Portugal and Spain were one of these countries that went into French control. Napoleon invaded Portugal and in Spain he declared his brother Joseph king of Spain. Many Spanish people were not happy about it. Independence was declared here and there in parts of Europe, but in Latin
America everything was so peaceful because nobody was aware of what was happening in Spain and Portugal. The Spanish government still kept sending a national committee to the central juntas “The central junta expected Spanish American support, but Spanish Americans had other ideas. The Central Junta had been chosen entirely in Spain. It therefore represented the Spanish people, but not the Spanish American people, and they rejected its dictates” (Chasteen, John Charles). While Napoleon took over Spain, Most Spanish American were loyal to their king Fernando VII they didn’t agree that Peru and México were colonies. Spanish American began to form their own juntas. The Spanish liberals wanted to elect representatives from both places Spain and Spanish American “patriot rebels had already raised the cry of anti-Spanish rebellion in México, Venezuela, and Argentina” (Chasteen, John Charles). This is where we see that most Spanish people in Latin America had already an idea of what was happening in Europe and decided to fight for independence. The native-born whites called Creoles, were the ones that initiated an independence form in Latin America. Creoles distinguish themselves from the Spanish born in the Iberian Peninsula. The people born in the Iberian Peninsula were now called Peninsulars. These rivalry only occurred in the higher Spanish American society. It took a while to have Latin America as independent country, that’s when Simon Bolivar came in and helped Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia, Peru and so my other countries to become free. Bolivar was a military and political leader in Venezuela, he was also a Creole and like everyone else he was tired of being rules by Europeans. His goal was to free the Spanish countries. “Simon Bolivar, 'The Liberator, began his string of triumphs in 1817. Bolivar had participated in the Venezuelan independence struggle from the start” (Chasteen, John Charles). After two years or making Venezuela independent Bolivar made two more countries independent in 1824. One of those countries was Bolivia it even took his name. He became successful at liberating these countries nut never had the change to unite them as one country. Another Creole that helped with a different independent was Miguel Hidalgo, Hidalgo was a Creole priest and like Bolivar was tired of all oppress and mistreats Mexicans had for generations, he wanted to stop all that and wanted Mexicans to get their land back. Eleven years later Hidalgo helped Mexico get independent with the help indigenous and mestizos. It took a while for all these countries to become independent, but after they did the aftermath of independence was a difficult time for most of the countries.
“Spanish America possessed few resources and faced tremendous obstacles” (Chasteen, John Charles). Liberals came to power and ruled these newly created states, but it was difficult for liberals to governate. They didn’t have the resources or the knowledge on how to run a country, all these time they had a long violent war and never an economic law. Liberalism didn’t have more social and economic and transformation that was seen more in England than in Spain and Portugal. Slavery was banished in all Latin America and slave citizens granted equal rights except in Brazil, Cuba and Puerto Rico. During this societies were very traditional and struggle for power between the Liberals and Conservatives. “Liberals sought 'government of the people, but in Latin America, liberal leaders, who were typically white and upper class, had mixed feelings about “the people.” They considered indigenous people and their lands a national problem, never a national assets.” (Chasteen, John Charles.) Even though it struggled during independent liberalism still remained one of the best exotic plant in Latin America soil. Conservatives had a different opinion about all that. Their leaders soon challenged to change the liberal agenda. Conservatives were different from liberals, “They proclaimed that the common people should know their place and
leave governing to their betters. Conservatives protected and appeal to many common people. The church was a great example of these because liberals called freedom and separation of church and conservatives wanted Catholicism to remain the official religion for the republics, also liberals believed in public school while the conservatives believed that church should take care on the role in education. The creation of political and conservatives parties in Latin America was created. Another thing that Latin America struggled on was the produce of silver, the produce “ran short of capital after independence” (Chasteen, John Charles). Nobody had experience in commercial business so they decided to invest in land instead of trade. Another major problem that occurred during that time was transportation, people couldn’t transport agricultural products or anything else. There was no money to build roads and bridges, “Without capital to build them, Latin America had to wait half a century to realize its trade potential” (Chasteen, John Charles). Latin America countries suffered from this and the economy experience a major declined in countries like Mexico and Peru. The legacies of the post-independence period in Latin America brought many discontents on people. Presidents were only in office for a few months “many conservatives and liberals, saw politics mostly as a path to office and personal enrichment-the traditional colonial approach” (Chasteen, John Charles). Their goal was to get the power of the government and distribute private benefits to legal supporters and friends for their loyalty called patronage. Patronage were know for their corruption, some of them replaced party platforms for personal relationships. The relationship that are created with patronage are political and citizens, these two are called patron and client. Clients supported their patronage regardless if they were right or wrong, if there was an election the client had to vote for their patronage the way they wished and if they went to war they ha t be ready and follow him. We also see the highest patron of all a Caudillo. Caudillos are wealthy. Land owners that were very successful during war. They would call themselves “men of people. They could use their personal resources to maintain private armies. Caudillos are also consider the second powerful man in the country. They could be liberals or conservatives, but they fit more with conservatives. After decades of independency in Latin America today we still see these patterns of politicians being corrupted, illegal trade, we see and hear about discrimination on some indigenous people, also the discrimination lower class people get, and we still see the division of social classes. This legacy still continues to be part of Latin America and its the struggle of every men and women who survive the poverty and the corruption of their country, but despite all of those problems people in Latin America have learned to have a positive attitude about their situation and live happy.