NAME: ____________________________ PERIOD: ___ DATE: ____________ MRS. BRANFORD GLOBAL HISTORY 10

~ CAUSES OF THE LATIN AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS ~

CAUSE: Prior Events

1. **HOW are the previous events (Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, American Revolution, and French Revolution) a CAUSE of the Latin American Revolutions?**____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Revolution in Haiti

The French colony called Saint Dominque was the first Latin American territory to free itself from European rule. The colony, now known as Haiti, occupied the western third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. The nearly 500,000 African slaves worked on French plantations dramatically outnumbered their masters. The French Revolution provided the slaves and Mulattoes (people of mixed white European and black African ancestry) with an opportunity and inspiration to revolt against their white European masters. In August 1791, 100,000 African slaves rose in revolt.

Toussaint L’Ouverture was born into slavery in approximately 1743. He belonged to a small and privileged class of slaves employed by masters as personal servants. Toussaint’s owner actively encouraged him to learn to read and write and he was later freed from slavery at around the age of 33. In August 1791, Toussaint was one of the main organizers of the slave revolt that would eventually be known as the Haitian Revolution. By 1801, Toussaint had taken control of the entire island and freed all the enslaved Africans.

Toussaint was seized by French troops in May 1802 and sent to prison in the French Alps, where he died in April 1803. Toussaint’s lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, took up the fight for freedom. On January 1, 1804, General Dessalines declared the colony an independent country. It was the first black colony to free itself from European control. Dessalines called the country Haiti.

2. **HOW did the French Revolution impact the Haitian revolution?

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3. Who was Toussaint L’Ouverture and why is he significant?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Why is the Haitian Revolution considered a turning point in world history?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Haiti’s Impact on Latin American Colonies C. L. R James has stated that the success of the Haitian Revolution was almost entirely the result of the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture . . . The work of Toussaint, Dessalines, Christophe, and Petion endures in Haiti, but what they did went far, far beyond the boundaries of the island. The Haitian revolution has had a profound influence on the history of the nineteenth century. . . .. . . Haiti gave the impulse to and subsidized [supported] the first national revolutions in Spanish America. When the Spanish American colonies saw that such a small and weak community could win and keep its freedom, they took courage to fight for their own emancipation from European imperialism. In dark days, Bolivar the Liberator, ill and in distress, was welcomed by Petion [President of Haiti], nursed to health and given courage to lead the struggling nationalities against Spain. He failed and returned to Haiti. He was once again befriended. Petion supplied him with arms, munitions, men, money, and printing material, and thus fortified he left Haiti to begin the campaign which ended in the emancipation of the Five States. Petion asked nothing in return but the freedom of the slaves…

Source: C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins, The Dial Press

5. Based on the document, HOW did Haiti impact other Latin American independence movements?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CAUSE: Napoleonic WarsIn 1808, in an attempt to force Portugal to accept the Continental System (banned trade with Great

Britain), Napoleon sent an invasion force through Spain. When Spain protested, he removed the Spanish king and put his own brother, Joseph, on the throne. This led to the Peninsular War between Spain and France.

Napoleon’s conquest of Spain triggered revolts in the Spanish colonies in Latin America. The people of Latin America might have continued to support a Spanish king, however, they felt no loyalty to a king imposed by the French. Recalling Locke’s idea of the consent of the governed, the people of the Latin American colonies argued that when the real king was removed, power shifted to the people.

Napoleon’s Impact on Spain’s Latin American Colonies…The plans and ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte, however, did inspire the Latin Americans, although hardly in a way Napoleon expected. The French dictator invaded Spain in 1808, forced the king to abdicate [give up the throne], and presented the Spanish crown to his brother Joseph. At a stroke, Spanish America became part of the Bonaparte family empire. (A few months earlier, Napoleon had invaded Portugal, and the Portuguese royal family had fled to its colony of Brazil.) Spanish Americans reacted sharply against this French usurper. They refused to accept Joseph Bonaparte as their king, affirmed [declared] their loyalty to the Spanish House of Bourbon, and seized control of their local governments. But almost from the beginning, the rebellion against Napoleon turned into a revolution for complete independence. There could be no turning back to the old system…

Source: Robert J. Alexander, Latin America, Scholastic Book Services

6. According to this document, how did the Spanish colonies in Latin America react to Napoleon taking over Spain?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. **HOW are the Napoleonic Wars (Napoleon’s 1808 invasion of Spain) a CAUSE of the Latin American Revolutions?**____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CAUSE: Spanish Mercantilism in Latin AmericaMercantilism – and economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by

obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought

Latin America is an area of land that includes Central America and South America. Spain conquered most of Latin America in the 1500s, and then Latin America was divided up into several colonies that Spain controlled. The system of trade between Spain (mother country) and Latin America (colonies) was known as mercantilism. This diagram shows how mercantilism worked:

The mother country sent its people to the colony. Then, they forced the Native Americans to be slaves and get raw materials, such as digging up metals, cutting down trees, and growing cash crops. As Native Americans began to die off from various diseases and hard work, the Spanish started bringing African slaves to replace the Native populations and be the new source of labor.

The mother country, Spain, forced their colonies in Latin America to sell raw materials to the mother country for very low prices. Next, the mother country turned those raw materials into finished manufactured goods like furniture, tools, machines, ships, clothing, weapons, and jewelry. The mother country made money by selling the manufactured goods at high prices back to the people in the colonies and elsewhere in the world. The Latin American colonist would then buy the mother country’s finished products, because these items were not available to them otherwise (meaning the colonies didn’t make such manufactured goods on their own). If the colonists could not afford the high prices of the manufactured goods, they had to borrow money from banks in the mother country, so now the colony was in debt to their mother country.

8. Who is benefitting from mercantilism? How are they benefitting?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. Who is disadvantaged by mercantilism? How are they disadvantaged?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This document was written by a merchant living in a Spanish colony in Latin America.When the author says, “America,” he means Spanish America, not the USA.Spanish restrictions on travel and commerce sealed America off from the rest of the world [limiting] our basic personal and property rights…We in America are perhaps the first to be forced by our own government [Spain] to sell our products at artificially [fake] low prices and buy what we need at artificially high prices. This is the result of the Spanish commercial monopoly system [mercantilism], combined with taxes and official fees.  And because the official monopoly [control] on transatlantic trade would naturally lead us to produce more in America, the government has been careful to place limitations on what we can legally produce… [for example, tequila was banned, so colonists had to buy wine and beer from Spain]…

Source: Juan Pablo Viscardo, An Open Letter to America, written in 1791 and published in Latin America in 1801

10. Based on the document, what are some of Juan Pablo Viscardo’s complaints about mercantilism?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11. **HOW is mercantilism a CAUSE of the Latin American Revolutions?**____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CAUSE: Inequalities in the Rigid Social StructureSpanish Latin American Social Structure

When the Spanish needed a legal way to treat Natives and Africans in their colonies worse than whites, they created the Castas, a social class system based on ancestry. This social class structure was rigid. Social mobility (moving up in class) was impossible, because class was based on race and birth. The most powerful people were the Peninsulares, people born in Spain (on a peninsula), who the Spanish sent to control the colony in Latin America. The next most powerful group was the Creoles, who were of Spanish ancestry but born in the colony. Creoles were light skinned like their ancestors and the Peninsulares. These Creoles made up about 23% of the population and they owned haciendas (farms) and businesses in the colonies. In the 1700s, many Creoles were sent to Europe to study, and began reading the work of Enlightenment thinkers and became inspired by the ideals of a revolution and national sovereignty (the authority of a state to govern itself).

Peninsulares0.1% of population

Born in Spain

Creoles22.8 % of populationOf Spanish ancestry,

but born in Latin America

Mestizos7.3% of population

People of mixed European & Indian ancestry

Native Americans55.8% of population

Native people of Latin America prior to colonization

Only group that could hold high office in Spanish colonial governmentSpain was able to keep loyalty of these colonial leadersControlled wealth & most of the power in Spanish colonies

SPANISHLATIN AMERICAN

SOCIAL STRUCTURECould NOT hold high-level political officeCould be officers in the colonial armiesEducated in SpainControlled some wealth & some power in Spanish colonies

Mulattos7.6% of population

People of mixed European & African ancestry

Enslaved Africans6.4% of population

African born people used as slaves in Latin America

Served an economic value in society (labor)

Were of little economic value to the SpanishMost severely oppressed group

12. What are some other rigid social structures you have studied that are similar to the Castas?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13. Based on the chart of the Spanish Latin American Social Structure, why do Native Americans have a lower social rank than the Enslaved Africans?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. What groups do you predict may want to rebel, and what would be their reason for rebelling against the mother country, Spain?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

15. What are the risks for Creoles, if the Creoles rebelled against the Peninsulares and the mother country?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. If Creoles started a revolution, how could they convince the other groups (Mestizos, Mulattos, Enslaved Africans, and Native Americans) to unite and fight against Spain with the Creoles?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

17. **HOW is the Spanish Latin American Social Structure a CAUSE of the Latin American Revolutions?**______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________CAUSE: NationalismNationalism – the belief that people should be loyal mainly to their nation—that is, to the people with whom

they share a culture and history—rather than to a king or empire– a desire by a large group of people (such as people who share the same culture, history,

language, etc.) to form a separate and independent nation of their own

The Latin American wars of independence rested on the achievements of two brilliant Creole generals—Simón Bolívar, a wealthy Venezuelan, and José de San Martín, an Argentinian.

Simón BolívarWhen Napoleon named Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain and its colonies, which included Venezuela,

[Simón] Bolívar joined the resistance movement. The resistance group based in Caracas gained independence in 1810, and Bolívar traveled to Britain on a diplomatic mission….

…Bolívar returned to Venezuela and began a campaign to wrest control of that country from the Spanish. He and his followers invaded Venezuela on May 14, 1813; this marked the beginning of his "Compana Admirable" (Admirable Campaign), which resulted in the formation of the Venezuelan Second Republic later that year. Bolívar was hailed as El Libertador (The Liberator), though civil war soon erupted in the republic, forcing him to flee to Jamaica and seek foreign aid….

Gaining support from Haiti, Bolívar returned to his home continent and became involved in a number of military battles, eventually able to claim several territories. 1821 saw the creation of the Gran Colombia, under Bolívar's leadership. This federation included much of what is now Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador. Further maneuvers saw him named Dictator of Peru in 1824, followed by the creation of Bolivia in 1825.

Bolívar had succeeded in uniting much of South America in a federation free from Spanish control, but the government was fragile. Despite his desire to create a union of states similar to that which created the United States of America, Bolívar faced opposition from internal factions throughout the huge Gran Colombia, with there being a push to form single nations.…Bolívar declared himself dictator in 1828, though in September of the same year he escaped an assassination attempt…On December 17, 1830, however, Simón Bolívar died in Santa Marta, Colombia, after a battle with what may have been tuberculosis.

Source: "Simón Bolívar." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 12 Jan. 2015

18. Based on the biography of Simón Bolívar, how does he show nationalism?___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

19. **HOW is nationalism a CAUSE of the Latin American Revolutions?**_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________