Latin America in the Modern Era

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Latin America in the Modern Era
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This painting called Liberators by Alfredo
Zalce shows four important leaders of Latin
American independence. The two priests of the
left are Father Miguel Hidalgo and Jose de
Morelos, two leaders of Mexican independence who
were killed in the war against Spain. On their
right South American "Liberator" Simon Bolivar
shakes hands with Argentinean general Jose de San
Martin. The two were responsible for leading
South Americans in Spanish colonies to
independence.
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Part I On the Eve of Independence
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On the eve of independence . . .
Demographically, Latin America was a multi-racial
society (different from Europe). The Peninsulares
and Creoles compromised only 2 of the
population and owned nearly all the mines,
ranches, plantations, and (the very few)
manufacturing establishments.
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Demographics, contd

• The rest of the peoples in the region supplied
  the forced labor, which was the foundation of the
  economy native American peons (peasants in
  semi-slave status on a hacienda similar to
  serfs), mestizos, mulattoes, and black slaves.

• Only in Brazil did black slaves form the majority
  of the population.
• Elsewhere in Latin America indigenous peoples and
  people of mixed ancestry (mulattoes and mestizos)
  were the most numerous.
• This multi-racial atmosphere brought a somewhat
  more relaxed attitude about race in Latin America
  than in Europe or in British North America.

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An example of sociedad de las castas, that
classified people by their ancestry.
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A representation of Zambos in "Pintura de Castas"
during the Latin American colonial period. (a
zambo is a a person of mixed African Amerindian
ancestry). Note the discarded shackles in the
background near the timbers, it represents the
Zambo's freedom from slavery thanks to his
Amerindian ancestry.
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On the eve of independence . . .
Economically, Spain followed mercantilist
doctrine and closely regulated its American
colonies until well into the 18th c however,
smuggling was rampant as the demand for lower
cost manufactured goods persisted. Spain rivaled
Great Britain (who had the more powerful navy) as
a major European colonial power. On the other
hand, the Portuguese were not as rigid
mercantilists as the Spanish and allowed foreign
merchant ships to Brazilian ports.
Note that mercantilism does not equal
laissez-faire!
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On the eve of independence . . .
Religion
The Roman Catholic Church established its most
important responsibility as the conversion of
Amerindians. The church controlled all education
and reserved it for upper and middle classes who
considered it unnecessary and dangerous to
educate the masses. Likewise, 90 of the
population remained illiterate including upper
class women who were taught exclusively domestic
and social skills.
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On the eve of independence . . .

• Viceroys represented the king in New Spain
  (Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America) and
  Peru (all of Spanish South America) and held
  great power over local appointments,
  administration, finances.
• Most of these important government positions went
  to Peninsulares, which really agitated the
  Creoles.

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On the eve of independence . . .

• Like the British North American colonists, the
  Creoles resented the mercantilist regulations
  imposed by the Iberian powers and, drawing from
  Enlightenment political thought, occasionally
  took part in tax revolts and popular uprisings.
• By the early 18th c, some Creoles began thinking
  of themselves as Spanish-Americans, rather than
  as Spaniards (ahem . . . nationalism) and also
  resented the Peninsulares political power and
  aristocratic privilege.
• The Creoles also held contempt for the mestizo
  middle class (artisans, shopkeepers, merchants,
  etc) and sought to maintain their power and
  position.

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Part II Latin American Independence . . . a 19th
century affair
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TRIGGER The aftershocks of the French
Revolution and the era of Napoleon were felt
strongly in Latin America
Influenced by the republican political principles
in the U.S and by the reforms of the French
Revolution and Napoleon, some Creoles hoped to
create comparable liberal institutions in Latin
America at least for the upper classes.
Sketch by Jacques-Louis David of the National
Assembly making the Tennis Court Oath
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Creoles Revolution

• The Creoles sought to displace the Peninsulares
  but retain their privileged position in society
  political independence without a real revolution.
  
• Some of the more radical leaders of independence
  movements wanted to disestablish the Roman
  Catholic Church and tax or confiscate its
  property.
• Few Creoles gave much thought to the needs of the
  masses of workers and peasants

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Saint Dominique (a quick review)

• Ironically, black slaves and mulatto freemen
  launched the revolutionary era, not the Creoles.
• Saint Dominique revolted against French authority
  and drove out white authority. Toussaint
  LOuverture led a disciplined rebel army that
  fended off attacks by other European nations
  (France, Spain, and Britain).
• The success of black slaves in Haiti scared
  conservative nations especially slaveholding
  nations.

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At the end of the bloody uprising of the slaves
of the island of St. Domingue against their
French masters, on January 1, 1804 General
Dessalines, leader of the uprising after the
arrest of Toussaint LOuverture, read the
following Act of Independence on the Place
d'Armes of Gonaïves. The actual author of the
text was Dessalines secretary, Boisrond Tonerre.
Dessalines was soon to have himself crowned
emperor and was assassinated in 1806.
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LIBERTY OR DEATH
Gonaïves, January 1, 1804 Year I of
Independence Today, January 1, 1804, the General
in Chief of the Indigenous Army, accompanied by
generals and army chiefs convoked in order to
take measures tending to the happiness of the
country After having made known to the assembled
generals his true intention of forever ensuring
to the natives of Haiti a stable government the
object of his greatest solicitude, which he did
in a speech that made known to foreign powers the
resolution to render the country independent, and
to enjoy the liberty consecrated by the blood of
the people of this island and, after having
gathered their opinions, asked each of the
assembled generals to pronounce a vow to forever
renounce France to die rather than to live under
its domination and to fight for independence
with their last breath. The generals, imbued with
these sacred principles, after having with one
voice given their adherence to the well
manifested project of independence, have all
sworn before eternity and before the entire
universe to forever renounce France and to die
rather than live under its domination. Signed Des
salinesGeneral-in-Chief Christophe, Pétion,
Clerveaux, Vernet, GabartMajor
Generals P.Romain, G. Gérin, L. Capois,
Jean-Louis Francois, Férou, Cangé, G. Bazelais,
Magloire Ambroise, J.J. Herne, Toussaint Brave,
YayouBrigadier generals Bonet, F. Paplier,
Morelly, Chevalier, MarionAdjutants-general Magny
, RouxBrigade Chiefs Chaperon, B. Goret,
Macajoux, Dupuy, Carbonne, Diaquoiainé, Raphael,
Malet, DerenoncourtArmy officers Boisrond
TonnerreSecretary  

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New Spain and Peru Sparked by European war

• When Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal in 1807
  and deposed the monarchs, royal authority in the
  Iberian colonies weakened.
• Argentina proclaimed independence in 1816.
• Rebels in Venezuela pronounced their independence
  in 1811.
• Often referred to as the father of South
  America, the Venezuelan Creole Simon Bolivar led
  multiple Latin American independence movements in
  the northern part of South America and in Central
  America.
• Meanwhile, Jose de San Martin crossed the Andes
  from Argentina into Chile and drove out the
  Spanish in the southern part of the continent.

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• While these Creole-led independence movements
  advocated popular sovereignty, they desired
  neither social reform like those promoted by
  Robespierre nor the egalitarian society like in
  Haiti.

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• Other European nations considered sending troops
  to stop these movements and supplant their rule
  over the region.
• However, Great Britain opposed European
  intervention and hoped for new trade and
  investment opportunities, and with the
  possibility of British naval interference, other
  nations werent willing to risk a British naval
  war.

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After its mild victory in the War of 1812 against
Great Britain, the United States issued the
Monroe Doctrine in 1823 in an attempt to
strengthen its own influence and to voice
opposition to European interference in the
Western Hemisphere.
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Mexico Revolutions Origins

• Whereas the South American independence movements
  were struggles by the upper class, Mexicos
  independence included class revolution and race
  warfare.
• Creoles and Peninsulares made disorganized
  attempts for independence from 1808 to 1810.
• But the revolution starts when

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Mexico, Phase 1

• Father Miguel Hidalgo led a rebellion of
  Amerindian and mestizo peasants against the upper
  classes.
• Father Hidalgo demanded civil rights for
  peasants, a redistribution of wealth, equality
  for peasants, and the return of land to
  indigenous peoples.

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Mexico, Phase 2

• Both liberal and conservative elites joined to
  crush Hidalgos peasant rebellion they captured
  executed the priest in 1811. The movement then
  dissolved into guerrilla warfare.
• However, in 1820 conservative Mexican Creoles
  rebelled led by Agustin de Iturbide, this
  movement called for independence and promised
  benefits to all the upper class groups in Mexico
  without social and economic change.
• The Spanish were forced to concede Mexican
  independence in 1821 and Iturbide declared
  himself emperor.

Agustin de Iturbide
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Mexico, Phase 3

• When support for Iturbide waned because of his
  incompetent administrative abilities, the Creoles
  deposed Iturbide and established a republic.
• The southern portion of Mexico declared
  independence and ultimately formed the separate
  states of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras,
  Nicaragua, and Costa Rica

The current flag was adopted in 1968, but the
overall design has been used since 1821 when the
First National Flag was created .
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Brazil

• Compared to the wars and revolutions in Spanish
  America, Brazil won independence relatively
  easily.
• Trigger Napoleons conquest forced the
  Portuguese royal family into exile and the royals
  ruled the Portuguese empire from Brazil. During
  their Brazilian exile, Portugals royal family
  encouraged Brazilian immigration, industrial
  production, and formally joined Brazil with
  Portugal as a joint kingdom with equal status.
• The king returned to Portugal in 1820 and
  repealed the reforms and ended Brazils raised
  status!
• However, the kings ruling son in Portugal was
  successfully persuaded by Brazilian elites to
  declare independence, which Portugal conceded in
  1825.

Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil Pedro IV of Portugal
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Part III

• Results??
• Changes? Continuities?

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Thesis In the End, elites win everyone else
loses . . .

• By the 1830s, only the Caribbean islands (except
  Haiti) and a few enclaves on the coasts of
  Central and South America remained European
  colonies.
• 19 new states emerged, and they maintained many
  similarities yielded from their common colonial
  heritage.
• Moreover, these new nations reflected their
  previous colonial status through their economic,
  political, and social structures.

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• Economically, the new Latin American states were
  dependent on the export and sale of agricultural
  and mineral raw materials.
• The industrial output was low and old production
  techniques (still dependent on cheap manual
  labor) resembled those of central and eastern
  Europe.
• The nations imported manufactured goods from
  European nations and became indebted to them for
  investment capital governments offered tax
  breaks and other investment incentives, and
  Europeans came to invest heavily in the 19th c.
• So, European businessmen combined labor-saving
  technology with cheap labor to create profitable
  plantations and mines, and later factories,
  roads, railroad, telegraph networks, and
  petroleum refineries.

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• Rich property holders and the Catholic Church
  continued to wield economic and political power
  and were now joined by the national military
  establishments.
• Independence brought few economic improvements
  for the masses, who continued to work for the
  elite.
• Like the eastern European peasantry, the common
  people received little pay and lacked decent
  housing, adequate food, proper sanitation, and
  basic education.

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In the new states

• On paper, the constitutions were influenced by
  revolutionary France US they set up elected
  officials, civil liberties, equality before the
  law, and varying degrees of religious toleration.
  
• In reality, however, the tiny elite continued to
  impose rule over the impoverished and uneducated
  masses. Civil rights were not extended to the
  masses, and political involvement was limited to
  a small portion of the population.

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Caudillos
Fraud and corruption permeated politics, and
elections were frequently overturned by armed
forces led by caudillos. Caudillos first
appeared during the early 19th c. in South
America, as a type of militia leader with a
charismatic personality and enough of a populist
program of generic future reforms to gain broad
sympathy, at least at the outset, among the
common people.
Juan Vicente Gómez (1837-1935) overthrew the
elected president, and ruled Venezuela by his
personal authority until his death
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Political Factions

• Two groups typically emerged conservatives and
  liberals
• Conservatives wanted to preserve the powers and
  privileges of the upper class and church.
• Liberals wanted to break down these privileges so
  that the small, mostly mestizo, middle class
  could share economic and political power.

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Slavery

• The new states also gradually abolished slavery.
• In 1888, Brazil was the last state to abolish
  slavery.