History 111

Professor Addison

Group #6

10/15/2009

Latin America

Group #6

Contributors:

Adi, Benjamin

Atayee, Nazir

Brown, Kailoni

Hernandez, Carlos

Hunter, Sydney

McCabe, Christopher

Miranda, James

Reinhard, Brett

Sigaran, Jennifer

Revolutions

By: Christopher McCabe

The Latin American Revolution was greatly influenced by the American and French revolutionary wars.

American Revolution

• With the victory of the French and Indian war, war debts became costly to the British, at the end of the war in 1763 King George III began to tax the Americans to pay off the war costs. This started with the stamp act of 1765, and the Boston tea party of 1773. The Boston tea party involved 3 ships that were carrying tea. The tea was going to be sold off to the colonies, but ended up having their cargo dumped into the waters. This was due to the anger of the people in the colonies because of the tax that was placed on them by the British.
• Once the news was brought back to King George, he quickly sent an army to enforce the tax on the colonists.
• The American Revolution was started at the battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, with over three thousand troops.  The commander in chief of the Continental army was led by George Washington. 
• The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 and sent to the British authorities. This enraged King George.
• In 1777 the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia seemed to be the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.
• In 1781 the French helped the Americans to fight off the British. The French set up a blockade around the British army. This helped stop the British from retreating.
• The war ended in 1783 and the Americans got their independence.

French Revolution

• The French were partly influenced by the American Revolution
• There was a shortage of agriculture, however France’s population continued to grow. People began to starve and the peasants were beginning to get angry about paying taxes to the government and the church. The nobility and clergy paid almost nothing while the peasants were paying more and more.
• The French revolution started in 1789.
• On July 14, 1789 insurgents seized the Bastille prison killing Marquis Bernard de Launay. Only 7 people were released from the prison, four forgers, two lunatics, and one sexual offender, but this didn’t matter to the mob as long as they saw something come out of the battle.
• During this time the assembly continued to work on developing a constitution.
• In the Year 1790 three regiments including the king’s personal regiment, began to revolt against their chiefs. But General Bouillé was able to control the situation.
• The king tried to flee in 1791 but was caught and he agreed to sign the new constitution in late 1791.
• Starting in the year 1795 General Napoleon Bonaparte was ordered to suppress the riots in the streets and any other groups that tried to revolt against the government.
• The French Revolutionary War Ended in the year 1799.

Since the end of the American Revolution many countries began to get tired of their own corrupt government and wanted the same type of results, and that was to be treated equally.  The American Revolution clearly influenced the French to change their own system of government. The Latin American countries were also influenced by both the Americans and the French, “It can also be said that there is no way the Latin American revolutions would have been possible, or maybe even they wouldn’t have needed to occur, if prior revolutions hadn’t exerted their influence over the situation” (Latin America). Countries including Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil were all influenced by the actions of the 13 colonies and the French Revolutionary wars. Without these countries revolutions each country would still have the same government and the same problems within the government.

Spanish Conquest

By Jennifer Sigaran

The Incan Empire:

Francisco Pizarro was a Spanish explorer and conqueror. He went to the country of Peru and conquered The Inca Empire and claimed most of South America. He opens an entrance for Spanish culture. Within the Incan Empire a civil war broke out between Huascar Capac and Atahualpa Capac; two brother that fought over the Inca Empire. 

Huascar Capac:

 1502-1532. He was a ruler of the Inca Empire after his father dies. He was in charge of the capital city of Cuzco. Cuzco was the center of the kingdom. This city was a large city, approximately the entire Inca Empire. 

Atahualpa Capac: 

The last of the native lords of the Inca Empire. He was blackmailed by Francisco Pizarro while abiding to the Inca Empire.

The whole story behind the civil war of the two brothers was the over newly dominated territory. As their father Huayana Capac wanted to split his empire the brothers didn’t agree with this because they wanted to rule the whole empire. Atahualpa was able to overthrow his brother Hausar and rule the Inca Empire. Francisco Pizarro with his first attempt to enter Peru he failed. The second attempt became a success he was able to dominate and recruit soldiers. The soldier he began with were just a few, he was able to recruit loyal soldiers of Huasar and created a large group of native allies. He marched to where Atahualpa was located and told him that he and his people should convert. If Atahualpa refused they would be considered an enemy of the Church and Spain. Atahualpa indeed refused and gave Pizarro a reason to begin an attack on the Inca people. The attack would be justified in the name of Christianity. Then Atahualpa was captured and sent to prison, with his brother Huasar still alive he worried that he no longer was needed. He eventually died and it would be the end of the Inca Empire.  

Disease spread throughout Central America:

As the end of the Inca Empire came about the Indians became enslave. There were differences between both the Spaniards and the Indians that the Spanish enslaved them. They became workers to dig for gold to provide the Europeans. They became infected by the newcomers with tuberculosis, measles, and smallpox. They were also forced to convert in religion they did not believe in. They were seen as uncivilized, and cannibals.

Encomienda System :

The encomienda system of land allocation puts Spanish/European landowning system in New World. This system worked as favor in return of the Spaniards. The Spaniards educated the Indians of their Christian religion and as a measure of paying for this education were unpaid labor for the Indians. This was benefiting only Spaniards because they wanted to dominate Latin America into a religious Christian religion only while the Indians didn’t believe in this religion but still were tortured and enslaved.

Incan Empire

By Brett Reinhard

Between 1200 and 1535 AD, the Inca population lived in the part of South America extending from the Equator to the Pacific coast of Chile. The beginning of the Inca rule started with the conquest of the Moche Culture in Peru. The Inca were warriors with a strong and powerful army. Because of the fierceness of their army and their hierarchical organization, they became the largest Native American society. The height of their reign in the 15th century came to a brutal end in 1535 when the Spanish conquistadors took over their territory.

Inca Road System

• Over 14,000 miles of road
• It connected mountain people with lowland population
• Even though the Inca never had access to the wheel, they built a sophisticated road system to connect the villages.
• Paved the roads with stone and created walls so that travelers would not fall of cliffs
• Greatly increased trade, communication, and transport
• Rest stops were created along the road systems

Inca Social Life

• The Incas are known for their success in taking over neighboring kingdoms.
• Some territories were taken by force, others peacefully allied with the Incas.
• The conquered kingdoms were allowed to keep their culture, though they were subject to Inca labor taxes.
• By the time of the Spanish conquest, the Incas controlled about 12 million people along the entire length of western South America.
• Inca diet consisted mostly of potatoes, grains, berries, fish, vegetable, maize, nuts
• Ate alpaca, guinea pig, and other wild animal meat
• Road system aided the success of the farming community
• The Incas had no form of writing, but developed a system of record-keeping.
• The Inca society was arranged by a strict hierarchical structure.
• There were many different levels with the Sapa, high priest or ruler, and the army commander at the top.
• Family members were councilors to the Sapa and even women had authority in the Inca hierarchy.
• The temple priests, architects and regional army commanders were next.
• The two lowest classes consisted of artisans, army captains, farmers, and herders.
• Farmers provided most of the subsistence for the rest of the population.
• They had to pay tax in the form of gold, which were distributed to the higher classes.
• Recent excavations of the Inca sites has revealed mummified bodies of the Inca royalty.
• The Incas demonstrated a high degree of engineering ability in the construction of roads, bridges, farming terraces, and cities.
• The chief crop was maize, but cotton, potatoes, an edible tuber called oca and a grain called quinoa were also cultivated.
• Coastal people grew gourds, squash, chili peppers, fruit and legumes.
• Fishing from boats, the people used hook and line as well as nets and harpoons to gather marine life.
• Inca social life was based on status which was set for life.

Revolution Leaders

By Sydney Hunter

1. Toussaint L’Ouverture

• Haiti (1804)

• Former slave
• Led slaves in a fight for freedom
• Found Independent country of Haiti

2. Miguel Hidalgo

• Mexico (1810)

• He was a Ciollo Priest
• Encouraged Mexicans to take their land back from Spain
• "Cry of Dolores” (Grito de Dolores) was the battle cry of the Mexican War of Independence

3. Agustin de Iturbide

• Mexico (1821)

• Criollo and army officer
• Helped lead the fight for independence
• Declared Mexico Indedpendent

4. Simon Bolivar

• Gran Columbia, Peru (1807-1822)

• A young and wealthy aristocrat
• Led a major military campaign in the North to free Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia
• Liberated South America from Spain
• Bolívar contacted Miranda and arranged for him to return to Caracas, where Miranda took control of the movement
• Bolívar arrives in New Granada in 1812 and fought against the royalist forces
• In 1813 he took a small army into Venezuela, broke the royalist defenses, and on August 6, 1813, entered Caracas in triumph
• Established Venezuela’s Second Republic
• In 1820 troops stationed at Cádiz rebelled and were soon joined by army units from all over Spain, demanding a return to the liberal constitution of 1812
• Ferdinand, avoiding a revolt, accepted the 1812 constitution which created a limited constitutional monarchy
• To liberate it Quito from royalist control, Bolívar chose General Antonio José de Sucre who defeated the royalists in the Battle of Pichincha

5. Francisco de Miranda

• (1806)

• Venezuelan who fought in the American and French revolutions
• Launched an invasion of Venezuela from the United States, but was defeated by the Spanish colonial regime.

6. Jose de San Martin

• Argentina, Chile, Peru (1817-1821)

• Argentine who lived in Spain and fought for the Spanish Army
• Fought for independence in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru
• Led the Liberation of the Southern region of South America

7. Don Pedro

• Brazil-1822

• Son of the King of Portugal who had been left to rule the colony
• Sided with the nationalist element and even supported the Portuguese Constitutionalist movement that led to the revolt in Porto in 1820
• Declared Brazil independent without fighting a war

Brazil & Bourban Reforms

By Benjamin Adi

Economy & Society

• 16^th century the Brazilians sugar industry begins an upswing  that leads to it being the world’s largest producers of sugar in the 17^th century

• The more the industry prospered, the more it attracted Portuguese immigration, and the more it could afford African slaves as workers.

• Cuba and Puerto Rico did not participate in the sugar boom.(self supplied by northern Europeans nations)
• Around the mid-18^th century silver production increased especially in Mexico.
• Second half of the 18^th century the Cuban economy grew rapidly on the basis of tobacco
• Cuba starts to move in the direction of large-scale sugar export after French Haiti revolt in 1791

The Bourbon Reforms

• By the late 18^th century individuals had created societies in America producing, journals and books.
• Enlightenment policies bores government
• Rational, unified, efficient and free of church influence
• It affects policy makers for the Spanish crown and activists
• 1780s major bourbon reform takes place
• Creation of large districts called intendancies
• Both headed by officials called intendant (responsible for the crown in spain)

Gold in Brazil

• In the late 17^th century the exploration of Paulistas leads to discovery of Gold in Brazil (Rio De Janeiro)

• Became known as the Minas Gerais
• The mining district flourished during the time of the boom
• Generating a network of settlements where none had been before and a local culture that included the now-renowned architectural style of its small churches

More importantly for Brazil as a whole, Rio de Janeiro began to become an important urban centre in the usual mold, and the institutional component thickened, just as it had earlier on the basis of mineral wealth in the old Spanish-American central areas.

By 1763 Rio had become the capital of Brazil, replacing Salvador in the northeast. Although the northeastern sugar industry continued to export more by value than the gold region, the latter had newer wealth and perhaps a higher profitability, and distant regions began to orient themselves to it in important ways.

Napoleon Conquest

By Carlos Hernandez

Napoleon Conquest

A) The fist signs of the declination of the Iberian rulers were during the conquest of Napoleon. Napoleon was able to conquer Spain and Portugal. This led the government in a state of disorder. Without a solid ruler powering the homeland the question of who ruled came into question. This was the perfect opportunity for the colonists of the Americas to develop a revolution.

Royal Family of Portugal

B) During the conquest of Portugal of 1807 led by Napoleon the Braganzas (the royal family of Portugal) fled to Brazil with the escort of the British navy. They brought their court and bureaucracy with them. Because of them heading towards Brazil mercantilism was dissolved in the country of Brazil. The country now had opened its ports with British trade. Manufacturing was encouraged, a higher school system was established and a new army was formed. When napoleon was defeated in the year 1815 and later Brazil was to be considered a co-equal kingdom. In the year 1821 the encouraged king Joao to return to Portugal and continue the process of mercantilism. King Joao and his son Pedro believed that there was too much change within Brazil to go back to the way it was. In September 7. 1822 Pedro created a government and announced independence or death. 3 months after we were crowned as the emperor of brazil.

Miguel de Hidalgo

C) In the year 1808 Spain was invaded by the French forces.  They where able to overthrow the king of Spain who in that time was Ferdinand VII. They replaced him with Napoleons brother Joseph Bonaparte. Some Spanish officials where not in favor of the new king. Some of them set up secret societies to support Ferdinand and some where supporting independence. Miguel de Hidalgo was a Mexican Creole priest who was an instigator of independence. He was part of one of the secret societies. On September 16, 1810 he rang the church bell of the city of Dolores. While ringing the bell he shouted and declared a revolution against the Spanish. He created a alliance that consisted of peasants, Indian, and artisans. He supported the idea of ending abuse, denouncing bad government and called for redistribution of wealth. Their alliance captured Guanajuato and other big cities west of Mexico City. The encircled Mexico City as well but did not capture it. His alliance had soften do to the uprising of the royal armies. Hidalgo was defeated in Calderon on January 17, 1811. He tried to flee north towards the United States but was captured. He was degraded from priesthood and executed.

Augustin de Iturbide

By Kailoni Brown

General Augustin de Iturbide

- Was a soldier in the Spanish Army 

- Was asked to repress Mexican independence Movement, but met with its leader,  Vicente Guerrero, and signed the Plan de Iguala. 

- The Plan de Iguala called for Mexico's independence and proposed equal rights for its citizens. (1821) 

- The Spanish viceroy recognized Mexico's independence with the Treaty of Cordoba. (August 1821) 

- Became Emperor of Mexico after being crowned Augustin I by the Mexican congress. 

- Disagreements between Iturbide and the country's representatives led to to the  dissolution of the Mexican constituent congress  

- Iturbide is forced to resign. (1823) 

- Southern republics of Mexico break away and become south American countries,  which  eventually leads to the Mexican-American war in 1846. 

The Dutch-Portuguese War over Brazil(1630-1654)

- February 1630- A fleet of Dutch vessels arrives off the coast of Pernambuco (Recife) ,  attacks the Portuguese defenses, and gain control of the Recife by March of the same  year. 

- 1636- Johan Maurits, a relative of the Dutch magistrate, is appointed governor general.   

- 1638- Maurits takes Porto Calvo and launches and unsuccessful attack on Salvador de  Bahia. 

- 1645- The Dutch are able to repel an attack against the island of Itamaraca by the  Portuguese during a revolt. 

- 1654- The Recife surrenders to Portuguese forces. Under the Capitulation of Torbada,  places such as Itamaraca, Paraipa, Rio Grande Norte and Ceara, are turned over to the  Portuguese.   

Minas Gerais

-1639- Gold is discovered at Minas Gerais, a hard to reach area of mountains separated  from Sao Paulo and Rio de janiero, by the bandeirantes. 

-Early 1700's- People from Brazilian areas flock to the mines, and the legislature in  Lisbon has to stop the Portuguese from immigrating.

1708 -1710: There are fierce combats between the bandeirantes from São Paulo,  who  claimed rights over the discovered mines, and the Portuguese and other Brazilians (that the bandeirantes referred to as emboabas), who wanted to get a  share of the gold; the episode was known as War of Emboabas. Because of the poor techniques used to mine god, a large proportion was lost and  Portugal was more concerned with taxation than with exploring gold. By 1760, the  production of gold was in rapid decline. For a short period, the production of diamonds surpassed the production of gold;  during this period, the region around the city of Diamantina flourished. However,  Portugal showed the  same lack of care they did with gold, and diamond production vanished. 

Slavery in Portugal

African slaves in Brazil resisted domination and fought for their freedom and  independence. The slaves worked on sugar plantations and coffee was a main crop  sold in Europe. Escaped slaves, or maroons, formed communities like those they were  forced to leave in Africa. These free communities were called quilombos, and the most  famous of these communities was called Palmares. The community existed from 1630- 1697 and fought off several attempts by Portuguese  and Dutch colonizers to destroy  it.

Venezuela

By James Miranda

I. Colonial Economics

A. Animal hides and other animal extracts quickly became a major export for Venezuela.

B. Other exports included tobacco, cotton, coffee & cacao.

C. After decades of economic expansion, these products made up over 30 percent of Venezuela’s exports; cacao became the most popular export and soon accounted for over 60 percent of exports alone.

D. Under Spanish control in the late 1700’s, Venezuela mainly sold their exports to Spain who usually only bought the products at cheap prices and would sell imports at expensive prices.

E. The conflict of interest between the creoles (Spaniards born in America) and the Spanish increased political antagonisms among them and forced producers in Venezuela to use the metropolis or smuggle goods via contraband.

II. Problems

A. Creoles lacked the ability to gain power in legal institutions though they had opportunities in education and the church.

B. The creoles grew frustrated and began to feel threatened by the socio-racial policy of the metropolis and the influence it had in the courts.

C. In 1789, the Spanish government issued a slave law trying to improve conditions in slave compounds but creoles rejected the law and tried fighting it until it was procured in 1794.

III. Rebellion Begins

A. In 1795, Negros and pardo revolt in the city of Coro, the center of the sugar-cane industry. Three hundred slaves also rebelled and proclaimed “The Law of the French”, the republic, freedom of slaves, suppression of sales and other taxes.

B. The Rebellion consisted of killing land owners and taking over haciendas, but it was easily put to an end and started the movement of Negro communes away from white authority.

C. The creoles finally accepted Spanish rule as the best form of government around 1795 until 1797 when their loyalty to the Spanish began to fade.

D. As Spain grew increasingly unstable at home as well as everywhere else, in 1810, the creoles decided to try and gain complete power instead of just sharing it like they had been.

E. The French arrived at Caracas and the Creoles immediately requested to establish an independent junta to decide the political position of Venezuela, unfortunately for them, the authorities either imprisoned or exiled its officers and spread propaganda among the pardos.

F. The creoles survived attempts to depose the Spanish Captain-General Vicente Emparan but couldn’t control the events happening in Spain.

IV. New Government

A. In February 1810, a junta (committee) dissolved in Spain. Once Venezuela heard about this they decided to take action in April 1810. The Captain-General still refused to take part in the creation of the Venezuelan committee, so revolutionaries took matters into their own hands.

B. The Junta Conservadora de los Derechos de Fernando VII, was formed from the committee of revolutionaries and became the new government of Venezuela.

C. Early actions of the committed abolished export duties and sales taxes on essential consumer goods, decreed freedom of trade, and proscribed the slave trade. Elections in all the towns under its control were also held as part of the new government.

V. Simon Bolivar (1783-1830)

A. Born of a very wealthy Venezuelan family and educated in the Enlightenment movement.

B. He was an Atheist that believed religion was only necessary for government.

C. Bolivar claimed loyalty to Fernando VII in 1810.

D. He proclaimed national independence on July 4, 1811; the next day the first Venezuelan republic was established though it only lasted one year.

E. At age 29, Bolivar made his first major statement, “The Cartegena Manifesto” which analyzed the failings of the first republic in 1811.

F. Bolivar led a small army of seven hundred to invade Caracas in 1813 and was successful in freeing 4 other revolutionary leaders.

G. In December 1815, Bolivar went to Jamaica and tried to interest Britain in the quest for independence.

H. Bolivar realized he wouldn’t achieve independence in Jamaica so he moved to Hiati in hopes that the president would aid him in freeing the Haitian slaves in Venezuela.

I. In 1816, Bolivar returns to Venezuela with military aid from the pardos, and the slaves against the King.

J. In February of 1819 Bolivar presented an outline of a constitution to his national congress. The constitution was adopted in August 1819 after Bolivar was elected president of the republic.

K. While trying to liberate the surrounding countries from Spain’s rule as he had done with Venezuela, he becomes president of Colombia and helps liberate Ecuador, Grand Columbia, New Granada, Quito, Panama, and Peru.

L. Bolivia was named after Simon Bolivar, the Commander in Chief of the Liberation Army.

Social Struggle After Political Revolution

By Nazir Atayee

Social Struggle

- Social struggle was among Indians, Mestizos, slaves, and whites

- Fortunes of planters and merchants were threatened by militartized populace

- Andean Indians fled the mines and occupied the great estates

- Province fought their neighbors

- Armies that defeated Spain in the 1820’s were now engaging in civil wars

- The rift was mostly over postcolonial order in South America

- In the 1840’s and 50’s old viceroyalties had broken up

New States & Ideals

- New states, common myths of sacrifice, and collective identitites of nationhood emereged

- Social elite’s were created due to narrow political communities.

- In these political communities many myths were contradictory

- Simon Bolivar urged followers to become American

- This was all in part of a larger, pan-creole ideal

- He tried to influence the liberated countries to unite into a Latin American confederation.

- In particular urging Peru and Bolivia to join Venezuela, Ecuador, and Columbia in the “Gran Colombia”

- This never came to fruition because local identities continued to take precedence over Spanish-American unity.

- National Republics took over Bolivar’s dream of a United States of South America

- Bolivar met his end surrounded and hounded by his enemies

- San Martin die in exile

Spanish America Legacy

- The real heirs to independence were not slaves, Indians, or even republican national leaders

- Local military chieftains called Caudillos

- They often forges alliances with landowners

- The legacy of the revolutions of Spanish America was contradictory

- It was the triumpth of wealthy and powerful elites under a banner of liberty

- Unfortunately this was almost always at the expense of poorer, ethnic, and mixed populations

Works Cited

Tignor, Robert, Jeremy Adelman, Stephen Aron, Stephen Kotkin, Suzanne Marchand, Gyan Prakash, and Michael Tsin. Worlds Together Worlds Apart. Second ed. Vol. 2. New York, NY: Norton. Print.

"Latin America." Trinity College. Web. 14 Oct. 2009.

         <http://www.trincoll.edu/classes/hist300/group3/latin.htm>.  

"History of Latin America ." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 13 Oct. 2009.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/331694/Latin-America/60877/The-independence-of-Latin-America#>.