The Legacies Of Colonialism In Latin America

Colonialism in Latin America took place over a span of 300 years and came to an end starting in 1821 due to unrest in Latin America. Independence for the former Spanish and Portuguese colonies brought both short term and long term consequences but many of the leaders in the early stages of the independence movements were optimistic about the future of their countries. At the start there was a lot of violence, lack of capital investment, and constant power grabs by the wealthy elite. Those troubles were due to the three main legacies of colonialism which were the lack of efficient economic growth platforms, unorganized government structures, and the racial divide within the population.
Before 1808 the colonial economies of Latin America were
The Bourbon reforms led to a surplus of new government agencies and bureaucratic jobs for the upper class peninsular and creole populations. Spain sought to centralize authority and offered many sales of offices to peninsular Spaniards in order to get loyal administration, which caused tensions with the creoles. Meanwhile women, Spanish Africans, and indigenous males held few to none government positions during this era. The Bourbon Crown also set up the Intendancy system to replace the corregidores and create a stronger presence of the Bourbon state. Within the Bourbon state poor communication and transport systems as well as many administration divisions arose due to the centralization of the government. The Bourbon and Pombal reforms led to insurgencies from 1770-1790. The Great Rebellion starting in 1780 was aimed at getting rid of certain government offices and creating a separate governorship for Cuzco that would be ruled by indigenous peoples. (Lecture notes 3/14/2016) The insurgencies were made up of a large amount of creole and indigenous peoples who wanted more equality and representation in the government. Within the disorganized government system there was a lack of rights for Africans due to their split status of being either freed or a slave. Women also had a lack of legal rights as they were under the legal control of their husband or father unless they were widowed. (Lecture 3/23/2016) This meant that they could not vote, own land, manage their own money, or obtain positions in government. Pre 1808 witnessed growing tensions between Creoles and Peninsulares, lack of rights for Africans and Women, and poor representation for the indigenous peoples which added to the growing want for independence with the main focus being on equality and