The Independence Movements in Latin America - Essay Example

The Independence Movements in Latin America Over the period running from 1808 through 1830, the Latin America’s modern countries were established. They gained their independence courtesy of the falling Spanish empire due to the effects of the Napoleonic invasions directed to the Peninsula of Ibes from 1808-1814. (Falola and Roberts, 2008 p177) This political independence of the region has various consequences. Among these is the freedom of the new republics to change the aspects of their economies. The Latin Americans would participate in the now free markets. (Thomas, 2003 p28) Most of the continent of Latin America was occupied by Portugal and Spain. However, their strong holds were later to be shaken. As a matter of fact the major political changes in the region occurred from 1809 to 1825. This is according to the historyworld.net website. (historyworld.net, 2009) The royal family of Portugal stayed on in Brazil and a treaty was signed between Portugal and England in 1810 and this overlapped the treaty of Methuen of the year 1703. This recognized a direct accessibility to Brazil by the traders of Britain which made faster the movement towards the political independence of Brazil. (Birmingham, 2003 p99) This study is set out to analyze the Brazilian case of independence movement and make a comparison of this case with other Latin American Spanish colonized states. To this an answer will be provided for the study question, “How was the Spanish- Latin American countries’ independence movements more violent compared to Brazil?” The Brazilian case of decolonization was not devoid of bloodshed. This is as it is written on the about.com website. Towards the end of year 1821, the Cortés were involved in a voting, with just few Brazilian delegates taking part. The voting led to the abolishment of the kingdom of Brazil as well as the royal Rio de Janeiro agencies. The voting also sought to ensure that all provinces subordinated directly to the city of Lisbon. Subsequently, Portugal drove its army troops to Brazil and also placed all the units of Brazil under the command of Portugal. In the beginning of year 1822, the Brazilians who were born in Portugal and the troops of Portugal had a lot of tension between them. This turned into a violent ordeal when Pedro made an acceptance of Brazilian towns’ petitions who wanted his refusal of the order by Cortés to go back to Lisbon. Following this, Pedro responded to the pressure as well as the fact that if he dismantled the central government and departed it would cause separatist movements, by vowing to stay on. The Portuguese troops reacted by rioting and also concentrated on Cerro Castelo. These troops would soon be surrounded by Brazilians who were armed. Pedro decided to dismiss the commanding general of Portugal and at the same time gave orders that he should remove the troops to Niteroi, from where they would be transported back to Portugal. He formed another new government altogether and it was headed by Jose Paulo. Jose Paulo was formerly a royal official as well as a science professor at Coimbra. The new leader played a big role in determining the direction of events as well as Britain nationalism. The result was a very changed atmosphere that led to Dom Pedro’s seeking of assurance as far as asylum on a ship of Britain was concerned. This is in case he did not win the forthcoming confrontation. He sent his family out of the city to a safer place. The commander of Portugal afterwards delayed the overthrow since he had hoped that reinforcements from Portugal would be sent. In spite of this, those reinforcements that got near Rio de Janeiro in March 1822 were blocked from landing and were instead supplied with essentials to go back to Portugal. At this point in time there was no bloodshed experienced. The win was peaceful. However, another round was not free of bloodshed. For instance; in the Pernambco province, there was bloodshed when the garrisons of Portugal had been forced out and they were to do so by November 1821. In February of year 1822 the Portuguese troops were revolted against by Bahians. The Bahians were pushed into the countryside from where they started guerrilla operations. This meant that the northern resistance would lead to nothing less than property and life losses. Dom Pedro had to engage some aspect of royal populism to secure Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, places where no Portuguese troops had occupied. There were independence doubts in these areas, though. The reason for Pedro’s move was that he had realized that it was only when he had Minas Gerais in his control that he would be able to spread his authority across to the other provinces in Brazil. He went to Minas Gerais in March 1822 on a horseback together with few companions. No ceremony was conducted for this. He received very warm welcomes. He had in the recent past declared himself the ‘perpetual defender of Brazil’ in the city of Rio de Janeiro. After the declaration he also called for a consistent assembly that would take place the following year. Pedro also joined the freemasons, whose aim was to push for a parliamentary type of government as well as independence. In August 1822, Pedro requested the deputies of Brazil in Lisbon to respond to the ruling that the Portuguese troops in Brazil be taken as enemies. He also issued a manifesto that was destined to “friendly nations” which read like an independence declaration. While in the process of seeking another win like that of acquiring the area of Minas Gerais, Pedro travelled to Sao Paulo in the month of august. This only turned into a fiasco when his relations with Domitila de Castro deteriorated and his government weakened further. The Cortés as well considered Pedro’s government as traitorous, from the information he got from his wife. More troops were thus sent to Brazil. This left him with two options on 7th September 1822- to go back to Portugal as a loser or to choose independence. He thus declared Brazil independent. The government of Pedro employed one of the most successful commanders of the Navy of Britain, Admiral Thomas T.A. Cochrane and went further to hire more officers of Admiral Cochrane along with a French General by the name Pierre Labatut. The task of these men was to drive or remove Portuguese from Para, Bahia and Maranhao. They would also replace the rule of Lisbon with that of Rio de Janeiro. It was not until 29th August in 1825 that Portugal and Brazil recognized the independence of Brazil through a treaty signing. Before then the citizens of Brazil were always under tension that Portugal would go back on their word and attack again. (about.com, 2000) On the other had when compared to Brazil, Argentina became independent of Spanish colonization in the year 1810, Paraguay followed suit in 1811, Mexico in year 1821 as well as Peru. Brazil on the other hand became free from Portugal in the year 1822. Two energetic leaders are the ones credited for these South American independence movements. These are; Jose de San Martin and Simon Bolivar and their greatest roles were inspired by the French revolution ideas. In the year 1819, Simon Bolivar and aristocrats of Venezuela pushed Spain out of Peru and Colombia. Later in 1824, Simon Bolivar met with José san martin who had aided Chile’s freedom. The upper part of Peru would take up the name Bolivia in honor of Simon Bolivar afterwards. These two men had fought in hardships. However, despite the securing of independence, the prevailing conditions did not improve in reality since power was still in the hands of the owners of plantations. (Chris, 2004 p326) One of the most essential ingredients of the Venezuelan history is its independence war. The origin of the war is argued to have been just subsequent to the napoleon’s pursuance of Spain. The colonies of Spain started to revolt against their masters when Francisco de Miranda was their leader. He was the first of the independence leaders during the revolution of independence. Following Miranda’s capture, the steering wheel of leadership of the revolutions was taken by Simon Bolivar when he took over Junta’s ruling. He later on lost while at La Puerta and fled the country. Simon Bolivar came back to the country in 1816, after which the Carabobo battle took place. This battle led to the deportation of Spanish settlers. Miranda’s capturing is particularly essential when explaining and analyzing the war of independence of Venezuela. Following his approval attestement on the armistice with Spain when the war was still on with the forces of royalists, Miranda was disdained by the revolutionaries of independence. After several decades, the power of the forces of royalists declined especially due to the withdrawal that came after that of the Llaneros as well as the blacks in the forces of royalists. The two withdrawing groups made an entry to the Bolivar’s forces, which got reinforcement of his revolutionary forces from Britain and the Mercenaries of Ireland. The government of Haiti, as well, was the independence of Peru. (mapsofworld.com, 2009) The independence notion in the continent of South America started off in more firm anchorage in Venezuela unlike anywhere else. The biggest of the influencing powers came from Francisco Miranda, according to the heritage-history.com website. Francisco was a rich native of Venezuela who also took part in the revolutionary war of America. He was mostly exhilarated by the approaches of American patriots like Washington in leadership. A decade later he went to the European continent where he was a great player in the revolution of France. The two major experiences of Francisco in America and Europe helped his founding of the united South American Republic. He first attempted to lead a revolution in Venezuela in the year 1806, however, it backfired. The Spanish government lost touch of controlling Venezuela and the independents got a chance to rule Venezuela and at that time they recalled Miranda to establish a government. In the year 1911, Venezuela was declared independent and at this point in time Francisco Miranda was the appointed dictator. This republic, however, caved in because of a gigantic earthquake besides the renowned military resistances of royalists. Francisco Miranda surrendered afterwards and he later passed on in prison. He left Simon Bolivar together with the other patriots devoid of leadership. Therefore, Simon Bolivar set out to rise to power at the age of 30 years. Simon Bolivar retreated for a while to new Grenada where he formed an army and went back to Venezuela. He won severally and in the year 1813 he entered Caracas. He had not been faced with high levels of resistance, but a huge threat was looming. The disaster emanated from José Boves who was an adventurer from Spain who was supporting the royalists as of then. He was in leadership of native horsemen and these men fought with abandon. The forces of Boves took part in the major atrocities than had the Spanish soldiers. By the year 1814, the war was highly bloody and massacres were conducted on both the fighting sides. But the situation was not harder than was the case when King Ferdinand the seventh became determined to regain control over the Spanish colonies. A huge ship fleet was sent from Spain under the control of Pablo Morillo. Towards the end of the year 1814, subsequent to major losses, Simon Bolivar together with his patriots fled to exile. By year 1815, the entire of Venezuela and New Granada went back to the control of royalists. Subsequently, Simon Bolivar was to spend more than a year in exile. Most of his exile life was spent in Haiti, where he was making calculations of how to get back Venezuela by way of an invasion. He got back in the year 1816 and over the following year he was he was fundamentally organizing the activities of guerrilla. It took Bolivar’s soldier tactics and diplomatic skills to mend divisions in the republican ranks which were starting to show. Bolivar went on with his work and he worked with the aid of generals like Jose Paez and Francisco Santander, with whom he made few surprise attacks upon the garrisons of Spain. He did not make big progress, though. During winter, the mountains of Andes, which are among the highest global mountains, were basically impassible. Thus, the New Granada’s royalist holds were under no threat of attack due to the natural guarding. It was because of this that Bolivar came up with an idea that he would make a surprise attack. He gathered a big number of British soldiers and other patriot’s army to cross the mountains of Andes. More than one thousand men lost their lives during this journey and others who survived were joined by republican sympathizers. The forces of Bolivar came out with victory in two essential battles; Puenta de Boyaca and Pantano de Vargas. Through this, the army of Republicans was able to take much control of New Granada and Boyata. War followed in both Venezuela and New Grenada for another number of years after the Boyaca victory. Under Simon Bolivar’s leadership, the fighting against the Royalists went on for another few years. In 1821, though, this was to stop since the Spaniards lost in the Carabobo battle. (heritage-history.com, 2009) Towards the end of the year 1821, Spanish powers had lost grip of the Gran Columbia as well as Southern regions of Chile and Argentina while tides were in favor of the liberated republicans. However, Peru was still being a colony of Spain until October 1820 when one of the vital ports of cities, Guayaquil, of Equador, made an announcement of its independence. Some other parties joined this city in recognizing the independence declaration. The republican forces of Guayaquil were involved in a class with royalists. Despite the success of the Guayaquil armies, the forces of the royalists of Peru got into action. The following several months were characterized by a series of wins by royalists. A chief General of Simon Bolivar was sent to aid the patriots with an army and this was in vain since the forces of royalists were a hard nut to crack under the leadership of Aymerich and Gonzales. The Junin patriots’ battle saw to the fall of royalists, which took place in the year 1824. The royalists from spain were headed by General Canterac while the patriots of Columbia were under the leadership of Sucre. Spaniards completely lost in this battle. Another instance where royalists got a defeat was the Ayacucho battle, which was fought in December of 1824. The patriots of South America were still under Sucre’s leadership, but Spaniards were led by Laserna. Laserna’s men got defeated and 2,100 of them were either killed or wounded, while 3,500 were made prisoners of war with the inclusion of their leader. The second battle, Ayacucho, particularly predicted the liberation of South America. Another battle also occurred in 1825 where the royalists also got defeated. The patriots were led by Bolivar, Simon while the Spaniards followed the commands of Olaneta. Olanetas were totally defeated in this battle. (heritage-history.com, 2009) It is of ample importance to note that Spain had a lot of interest in Peru so as to exploit its vast wealth of minerals. Lima was a gem to the empires of Spain overseas. However, as the 19th century set in Spain was in hot soup as it was its Bourbon dynasty was overthrown by the French Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces- The colonies of South America were now on their own. After the 1815’s Napoleonic wars, Spain attempted to restore its control over Peru, but just like the other colonies of Spain who had felt freedom, they resisted the Spanish rule. Peru’s independence was declared in the year 1821 after Spain was eventually defeated in the Ayacucho’s battle of 1824. The formal or official recognition of Peruvian independence was not recognized by Spain, though, until the year 1865. (Gauldie, 2006 pp17,18) Bibliography: About.com. Brazilian War of Independence 1821-1825. 2000. http://gosouthamerica.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&zTi=1&sdn=gosouthamerica&cd n=trave l&tm=24&f=20&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.onwar.com/aced/nation/bat/br azil/fbr azil1821b.htm (accessed October 21, 2009) Birmingham, David. 2003. A Concise History of Portugal. Cambridge University Press. Edition 2, illustrated, revised. Chris, Teresa. 2004. The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. Oxford University Press. Edition illustrated, revised. Falola,Toyin and Roberts, Kevin David. 2008. The Atlantic world, 1450-2000. Indiana University Press. Edition illustrated. Gauldie, Robin. 2006. Peru. New Holland Publishers. Edition illustrated. Historyworld.net. History of Latin America. 2009. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=850&HistoryID=aa 87>rack=pthc (accessed October 21, 2009) mapsofworld.com. Venezuelan War of Independence. 2009. http://www.mapsofworld.com/venezuela/history/war-of-independence.html (accessed October 21, 2009) heritage-history.com. South American Independence: 1813 To 1826. 2009. http://www.heritage- history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=wars&FileName=wars_saindependence.php (accessed October 21, 2009) Thomas, V. Bulmer. 2003. The Economic History of Latin America since Independence. Cambridge University Press. Edition 2, illustrated, revised. Read More