Latin American Independence
Overview
Latin American Independence Movements
By the late 18th century, the Spanish and Portuguese empires began to have many issues. The Napoleonic Wars in Europe had a direct impact on the Latin American Independence movements, because the removal of the Spanish and Portuguese kings demonstrated to the colonies that they could rule themselves. The three regions of Latin American independence were: Mexico, Spanish South America, and Brazil.
Learning Objectives
- Evaluate the cause of the independence movements in Latin America.
- Evaluate the impact of Napoleonic Wars on the Latin American experience.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
- Libertadores: Refers to the principal leaders of the Latin American wars of independence from Spain and Portugal. They are named in contrast with the Conquistadors, who were so far the only Spanish/Portuguese peoples recorded in the South American history. They were largely bourgeois criollos (local-born people of European, mostly of Spanish or Portuguese, ancestry) influenced by liberalism and in most cases with military training in the metropole (mother country).
- Napoleonic wars: A series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European powers formed into various coalitions, primarily led and financed by the United Kingdom. The wars resulted from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, which raged for years before concluding with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. The resumption of hostilities the following year paved the way for more than a decade of constant warfare. These wars had profound consequences for global and European history, leading to the spread of nationalism and liberalism, the rise of the British Empire as the world’s premier power, the independence movements in Latin America and the collapse of the Spanish Empire, the fundamental reorganization of German and Italian territories into larger states, and the establishment of radically new methods in warfare.
- Peninsular War: A military conflict between Napoleon’s empire and the allied powers of Spain, Britain, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war started when French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807, and escalated in 1808 when France turned on Spain, its previous ally. The war on the peninsula lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814, and is regarded as one of the first wars of national liberation, significant for the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare.
- Creole: A social class in the hierarchy of the overseas colonies established by Spain in the 16th century, especially in Hispanic America, comprising the locally born people of confirmed European (primarily Spanish) ancestry. Although they were legally Spaniards, in practice, they ranked below the Iberian-born Peninsulares. Nevertheless, they had preeminence over all the other populations: Amerindians, enslaved Africans, and people of mixed descent.
- caudillismo: A cultural and political phenomenon first appearing during the early 19th century in revolutionary Spanish America, characterized by a military land owners who possessed political power, charismatic personalities, and populist politics and created authoritarian regimes in Latin American nations.
Napoleonic War’s Impact on Latin America
The Latin American Wars of Independence were the revolutions that took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries in Latin America. These revolutions followed the American and French Revolutions, which had profound effects on the Spanish, Portuguese, and French colonies in the Americas. Haiti, a French slave colony, was the first to follow the United States to independence during the Haitian Revolution, which lasted from 1791 to 1804. From this Napoleon Bonaparte emerged as French ruler, whose armies set out to conquer Europe, including Spain and Portugal, in 1808.
The Peninsular War, which resulted from the Napoleonic occupation of Spain, caused Spanish Creoles in Spanish America to question their allegiance to Spain, stoking independence movements that culminated in the wars of independence, lasting almost two decades. The crisis of political legitimacy in Spain with the Napoleonic invasion sparked reaction in Spain’s overseas empire. The outcome in Spanish America was that most of the region achieved political independence and instigated the creation of sovereign nations. The areas that were most recently formed as viceroyalties were the first to achieve independence, while the old centers of Spanish power in Mexico and Peru with strong and entrenched institutions and the elites were the last to achieve independence. The two exceptions were the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, which along with the Philippines remained Spanish colonies until the 1898 Spanish-America War. At the same time, the Portuguese monarchy relocated to Brazil during Portugal’s French occupation. After the royal court returned to Lisbon, the prince regent, Pedro, remained in Brazil and in 1822 successfully declared himself emperor of a newly independent Brazil.
During the Peninsula War, Napoleon installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish Throne and captured King Fernando VII. Both Spain and Portugual were in Napoleon’s control. This meant that many who were loyal to the Spanish king felt that they could not trust Napoleon’s brother. The result was local governments having more political power and stability. Several assemblies were established after 1810 by the Criollos to recover the sovereignty and self-government based in Seven-Part Code and restore the laws of Castilian succession to rule the lands in the name of Ferdinand VII of Spain.
This experience of self-government, along with the influence of Liberalism and the ideas of the French and American Revolutions, brought about a struggle for independence led by the Libertadores. The territories freed themselves, often with help from foreign mercenaries and privateers. United States, Europe and the British Empire were neutral, aiming to achieve political influence and trade without the Spanish monopoly.
Effect on Spanish America
This impasse was resolved through negotiations between the juntas and the Council of Castile, which led to the creation of a “Supreme Central and Governmental Junta of Spain and the Indies” on September 25, 1808. It was agreed that the traditional kingdoms of the peninsula would send two representatives to this Central Junta, and that the overseas kingdoms would send one representative each. These “kingdoms” were defined as “the viceroyalties of New Spain [Mexico], Peru, New Granada, and Buenos Aires, and the independent captaincies general of the island of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Chile, Province of Venezuela, and the Philippines.”
This scheme was criticized for providing unequal representation to the overseas territories. The dissolution of the Supreme Junta on January 29, 1810, because of the reverses suffered after the Battle of Ocaña by the Spanish forces paid with Spanish American money set off another wave of juntas in the Americas. French forces had taken over southern Spain and forced the Supreme Junta to seek refuge in the island-city of Cadiz. The Junta replaced itself with a smaller, five-man council, the Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies. Most Spanish Americans saw no reason to recognize a rump government that was under the threat of capture by the French at any moment, and began to work for the creation of local juntas to preserve the region’s independence from the French. Junta movements were successful in New Granada (Colombia), Venezuela, Chile, and Río de la Plata (Argentina).
The creation of juntas in Spanish America, such as the Junta Suprema de Caracas on April 19, 1810, set the stage for the fighting that would afflict the region for the next decade and a half. Political fault lines appeared and often caused military conflict. Although the juntas claimed to carry out their actions in the name of the deposed king, Ferdinand VII, their creation provided an opportunity for people who favored outright independence to publicly and safely promote their agenda. The proponents of independence called themselves patriots, a term which eventually was generally applied to them.
The Spanish Constitution of 1812 adopted by the Cortes de Cadiz served as the basis for independence in New Spain (Mexico) and Central America, since in both regions it was a coalition of conservative and liberal royalist leaders who led the establishment of new states. The restoration of the Spanish Constitution and representative government was enthusiastically welcomed in New Spain and Central America. Elections were held, local governments formed, and deputies sent to the Cortes. Among liberals, however, there was fear that the new regime would not last, and conservatives and the Church worried that the new liberal government would expand its reforms and anti-clerical legislation. This climate of instability created the conditions for the two sides to forge an alliance. This coalesced towards the end of 1820 behind Agustín de Iturbide, a colonel in the royal army, who at the time was assigned to destroy the guerrilla forces led by Vicente Guerrero.
In January 1821, Iturbide began peace negotiations with Guerrero, suggesting they unite to establish an independent New Spain. The simple terms that Iturbide proposed became the basis of the Plan of Iguala: the independence of New Spain (now called the Mexican Empire) with Ferdinand VII or another Bourbon as emperor; the retention of the Catholic Church as the official state religion and the protection of its existing privileges; and the equality of all New Spaniards, whether immigrants or native-born. The resulting Treaty of Córdoba, signed on August 24, kept all existing laws, including the 1812 Constitution, in force until a new constitution for Mexico was written. O’Donojú became part of the provisional governing junta until his death on October 8. [d]Both the Spanish Cortes and Ferdinand VII rejected the Treaty of Córdoba, and the final break with the mother country came on May 19, 1822, when the Mexican Congress conferred the throne on Itrubide.
New Spain
As a colony, Mexico was part of the much larger Viceroyalty of New Spain, which included Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central America as far south as Costa Rica, the southwestern United States as well as Florida, and the Philippines. Although New Spain was a dependency of Spain, it was a kingdom not a colony, subject to the presiding monarch on the Iberian Peninsula. The monarch had sweeping power in the overseas territories. According to historian Clarence Haring: “The king possessed not only the sovereign right but the property rights; he was the absolute proprietor, the sole political head of his American dominions. Every privilege and position, economic political, or religious came from him. It was on this basis that the conquest, occupation, and government of the [Spanish] New World was achieved.”
Racial Divides
The population of New Spain was divided into four main groups or classes. The group a person belonged to was determined by racial background and birthplace. Created by Hispanic elites, this hierarchical system of race classification (sistema de castas), was based on the principle that people varied due to their birth, color, race and origin of ethnic types. The system of castas was more than socio-racial classification. It had an effect on every aspect of life, including economics and taxation. Both the Spanish colonial state and the Church required more tax and tribute payments from those of lower socio-racial categories. Related to Spanish ideas about purity of blood (which historically also related to its reconquest of Spain from the Moors), the colonists established a caste system in Latin America by which a person’s socio-economic status generally correlated with race or racial mix in the known family background, or simply on phenotype (physical appearance) if the family background was unknown. The casta records were kept by the Catholic Church and would remain one of the major divisions with in Latin American culture throughout the colonial and independence eras.
The syncretism between indigenous and Spanish cultures gave rise to many of nowadays Mexican staple and world-famous cultural traits like tequila (since the 16th century), mariachi (18th), jarabe (17th), churros (17th) and the highly prized Mexican cuisine, fruit of the mixture of European and indigenous ingredients and techniques.
The Creoles, Mestizos, and Indians often disagreed, but all resented the small minority of Spaniards who had all the political power. By the early 1800s, many native-born Mexicans believed that Mexico should become independent of Spain, following the example of the United States. The man who finally touched off the revolt against Spain was the Catholic priest Father Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla. He is remembered today as the Father of Mexican Independence.
Attributions
Attributions
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: Congreso de Cúcuta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_American_wars_of_independence#/media/File:Congreso_de_C%C3%BAcuta.jpg
Boundless World History
https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-worldhistory/the-south-american-revolutions/