Latin-American Studies

Majority of the South American countries were colonized by the Spanish except Brazil which was a Portuguese colony. At the beginning of the 19th century, most of these countries achieved their independence from the colonialists through wars and revolutions. The colonial period had lasted for over three centuries before it came to an abrupt end at the beginning of the 19th century. The wars of independence were waged from 1808 to 1826 after which the whole of Latin America had achieved independence except Cuba and Puerto Rico. The Spanish rulers had instituted some reforms in the 18th century that provoked deterioration in relations between the colonies and the rulers. The creoles were especially unhappy with the reforms since that gave more power to the peninsulars at the expense of the creoles. Some people were influenced by the Enlightenment and the American and French revolutions which led to increased resentment of the colonial system. The strict economic restrictions and taxation policies imposed by Spain made matters worse as they were not allowed to grow crops that could compete with those grown in Spain.
  
The developments in Europe leading to the invasion of Spain and Portugal by Napoleon were the turning point for Latin Americans quest for independence. Between 1808 and 1814, the Spanish king, Ferdinand VII was held captive by Napoleon and this caused divisions in Latin America between the Spanish authorities and the Creoles. The Spanish authorities were considered to be agents of the French and hence the creoles formed committees or Juntas and declared their loyalty to the king of Spain. The committees claimed that they wanted to rule on behalf of the king as he was the divinely chosen authority. The Juntas declared independence in different colonies including Argentina and Chile in 1810, Paraguay and Venezuela in 1811, and then Bolivia and Colombia also followed suit. As a result war, broke out between the Spanish authorities in Latin America and the members of the Juntas.

The loyalist troops soon defeated the Creole dominated Juntas and in some areas like Mexico and Montevideo, fighting was still going on. By 1810, the juntas in some regions were moving towards setting up their own independent governments. The initiative needed a lot of sacrifice and the following decade witnessed increased warfare as the Spanish Americans were determined to achieve independence. The movements that liberated Latin America emerged from different parts of the continent with one group from the north led by Simon Bolivar and the other from the south led by Jose De San Martin. After succeeding in their home regions, they spread the cause of the liberation into other regions. The struggle in New Spain (Mexico) and Central America was led by Miguel Hidalgo, a sixty year old priest and Jose Maria Morales.
   
The creoles in the north were deeply worried about the end of Spanish rule for fear of a revolution similar to what had occurred in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. In 1791, a huge slave revolt had led to a general rebellion against the economic system and colonial authority in the island. The resistance developed into a civil war setting the blacks and those of mixed parentage against the whites. While the whites were supported by the whites, the rebels were supported by the Spanish. The rebellion was mainly influenced by the French revolution which was instituted on premise of equality for all men. After several years of war, the rebels had transformed the former colony into an independent country of Haiti.

The events in Haiti had served as a warning to the elites in Latin American colonies where there were high populations of the slaves. By 1826, most regions in Latin America had achieved independence and were split into several countries on the basis of the colonial administrative units. The region failed to achieve political unification like what had happened in the north but they were able to establish republican governments. One notable feature of the independence movements in Latin America is that they were modeled on the French revolution. This indicates the significance of the French revolution in shaping the history of the world in the last two centuries.