Latin American independence started to occur in the late 18th century and involved what we now call today Mexico, Central America and South America. The wars for Latin American independence were fought between 1810-1830 by people who were colonized by Spain and Portugal. These wars were fought by juntas ( armies) that were made up by Mestizos (part Indian part White), Criollos ( people who claimed to have pure Spanish blood but were born in America) and others groups. The cry for independence started when bitterness and anger spread because of limitations imposed by the Spanish government. Many of these restrictions concerned the economy: people were banned from growing crops and making goods that might compete with those grown or made in Spain, they could not trade with foreigners and the taxes were unreasonable. People wanted their rights and were willing to fight for them!
Numerous people were associated with the movement for independence in Latin America, but there were two that played significant roles. Miguel Hidalgo sought liberty for Mexico while Simón Bolívar helped lead the fight for Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia.
Miguel Hidalgo was the main leader in Mexico’s wars of independence. He was a criollo and a priest. Unlike many others around him Hidalgo did not agree with or believe discriminating thoughts related to race. He advocated for the welfare of Indians and Mestizos which included trying to return the land that had been stolen from the Indians. His work culminated in creating a plot for an uprising on December 8, 1810. In September, Hidalgo was warned that Spanish authorities had heard about his plans and were sending a force against him. When he heard this news he rang his church bell calling the Indians and Mestizos to action.
Hildalgo and his followers took farm tools as weapons and set off to the town of San Miguel, 30 miles away. When they arrived the militia of San Miguel joined his forces. Within a week they reached Guanajuato with an army which had grown to around 50,000 people. There they met resistance and 2,000 of Hidalgo’s men were killed. Alarmed, the rest of the army tried killing all opponents even if they surrendered. After many days of this warfare in various other towns, the soldiers became tired and were losing their weapons. Hidalgo led his force to Guadalajara, to rest. While the majority of his army took a break, he sent another priest, José María Morelos with 25 men to capture Acapulco. After a few more battles, Hidalgo and his army fled to the Sierra Maestra mountains. The enemy continued capturing town after town and then came for Hidalgo. He was captured, tried by the Inquisition, defrocked ( no longer allowed to be a priest), and executed by a firing squad on July 31,1811.
Simón Bolívar was born in Venezuela. He too, like Hidalgo was a criollo but also had Indian and African blood. At 27 Bolívar was supporting the pro-independence junta. The junta sent him to Europe for international support; he returned in 1811 unsuccessful but with a man named Franscisco de Miranda. Miranda declared Venezuela and New Grenada (Columbia) to be republics and helped lift the restrictions on trading and taxes. He and the junta also challenged the practice of slavery. Bolívar joined a group of patriots, captured Caracas ( Venezuela) and set up an independent government. The Spaniards then forced him to leave and he went from Columbia to Jamaica to Haiti. In 1816 Bolívar returned to Venezuela and defeated the Spaniards after many battles. He led the congress that organized the Republic of Gran Columbia and Venezuela in1816. A few years later Panama, Ecuador, and Peru joined the republic. In 1827 he accepted the invitation from congress in Bogotá ( a city in Columbia) to become president of the Republic of Columbia. Gran Columbia split into three different states in 1830, the same year Simón Bolívar died.
The independence of Latin America was accomplished by ordinary farmers, priests and townspeople. Through their drive, determination and the support of strong leaders they were able to rock the colonizers.
My Resources:
http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h39-la.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_American_of_Independence
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
HEY RAVENNA;;;; I LIKE UR PAGE [:
WELL NE WAY.... OUR TOPICS HAVE A LOT IN COMMON!!!
My topic is Mexican Independence and your topic takes place Lating America. I stated that Mexico and Spain went to war and so did you.
My topics geographic location is Mexico and yours is Latin America. Independence/ independent is the keyword in both of our topic names. In both Between Latin America and Mexico Spain is the enem. Even though the Mexican people had nothing to do with the people from the countries of Haiti, Panama, Columbia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, they were all connected to Mexico in the same belief for independence -- fighting to do what they believed in for themselves and be whom they wanted to be. They never gave up and now we look at them today to see these countries on there own-independent!
--ronnisha
hey ravenna! i am doing nationalism whoooo i know wat a bore but there are some relationships between ours. your topic has to deal with being indipendent and latin america trying to find themselves as individuals. they are trying to be apart of the people not to be ruled by a king. well my whole topic is basically the making of nations and how different countries were trying to make it so that each nation was more about the people and not ruled by a king empire or the ruling family. that would be how our topics relate. well see ya tommarow. bye bye.
here is my url:
http://splishsplash7.blogspot.com/2007/01/nationalism-basic-questions.html
After reading your blog. I was inspired by the plethora of ordinary people who took up the cause to fight for an independent Latin America. When the Latin American communities came together, it gave them greater strength, both by internally unifying them and by creating a greater physical force to fight the Spanish and Portuguese. I wondered, would this same unity have occurred, or even been possible, without the weaponry advancements of the Early Modern Period? I suspect not. Before the firearms that were invented during the Early Modern Period, you had to be an experienced warrior with years of training under your belt in order to fight. Then came the gun. It was the first powerful and effective weapon that could be operated by one person. It was easy to operate because all you had to do was insert a bullet and pull the trigger. This allowed common people like you and me to handle it with ease. Latin America at the time you studied is a perfect example of how the gun served its purpose as a weapon of the people by allowing great numbers of common folk to fight.
Though Hidalgo’s men were able to use the firearms they had to win many a battle, they were defeated by Spain and Portugal in the end. This is because Spain and Portugal had more weapons and more powerful weapons. This is because of their geographic location - - Europe. After gunpowder was discovered in China, it next traveled to Europe. Gunpowder did not spread past Europe for a very long time, so the Europeans had many years to invent different types of weapons. Therefore, when the Spanish and Portuguese colonized Latin America, they were at an obvious advantage.
Without advanced weaponry, there may have been no colonized Latin America.
it isn't a question of how our topics are connected, its more along the lines of how are they NOT connected.
Sometimes the Latin and south American revolutions are referred to as the same thing! though that is inaccurate, they are very similar.
the Spanish hold quite a bit of power, and are prominent throughout the history of both of our topics. you talked about Simon Bolivar, well my topic is SIMON BOLIVAR and South America Independence. funny how similar those sound.
adding on to how i said i was confused about what i was doing in class, well scratch that because we basically did the same thing (aside from wars against slightly different opponents in some cases)....
:]
happy learning
my extremely awesome topic that i think i forgot to say:
south american independence
Hey our topics totally relate. Both of our topics are about how minorities got their rights. Your's being the Latin American's and mine being women all over the world fighting for equality.
Linnea
Post a Comment