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Hi, I’m John Green,
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this is Crash Course World History
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and today things are going to get a little bit confusing,
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because we’re going to talk about revolution and independence
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in Latin America.
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It’s a bit confusing because
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1. Latin America is big,
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2. It’s very diverse,
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3. Napoleon makes everything complicated
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and 4. As we’ve seen in the past, sometimes
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revolutions turn out not to be
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not that revolutionary. [why a solid marketing dept. is key]
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Witness, for instance, the New England Revolution,
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who instead of, like, trying to form new and better governments
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are always just kicking balls around like all the other soccer [futbol] teams.
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[Intro music]
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[intro music]
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Right,
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so before independence,
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Latin American society was characterized by three institutions
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that exercised control over the population.
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The first was the Spanish Crown,
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or if you are Brazilian,
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the Portuguese crown.
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So, as far as Spain was concerned,
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the job of the colonies was to produce revenue
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in the form of a 20% tax on everything that was called “the royal fifth.”
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So government administration was pervasive and relatively efficient—
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because it had to be in order to collect its royal fifth.
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I mean, the church even controlled time
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– the church bells tolled out the hours
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and they mandated a seven day work week so that people
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could go to church on Sunday.
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[so HobbyLobby store hours aren't super inconvenient, they're just old skool?]
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And finally, there was patriarchy. [yeuup, there's a shocker]
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In Latin America, like much of the world,
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husbands had complete control over their wives and any
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extra-or-pre-marital skoodilypooping was severely punished.
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I mean,
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when it was the women doing the illicit skoodilypooping.
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Men could basically get up to whatever. [RIP Helen Gurley Brown. much love]
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This was mainly about property rights
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because illegitimate children could inherit their father’s property,
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but it was constructed to be about, you know, purity.
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To get a sense of how patriarchy shaped Latin American lives,
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take a gander at Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz,
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whose name I’m actually abbreviating.
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A child prodigy who spoke five languages by the age of 16,
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de la Cruz wanted to disguise herself as a boy so she could attend University,
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[plot of 80's flick Just One of the Guys]
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but she was forbidden to do so.
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Still, she wrote plays and poetry,
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she studied math and natural science, [Girls do Get Curves, Danica McKellar!]
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and for being one of the leading minds of the 17th century,
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she was widely attacked,
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and eventually forced to abandon her work
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and sell all 4,000 of her books.
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That’s a shame because she had a great mind,
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once writing that
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“Aristotle would have written more if he had done any cooking.”
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[oooh, snap!]
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Couple other things:
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First,
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Latin America led the world in transculturation or Cultural Blending.
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A new and distinct Latin American culture emerged mixing
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1. Whites from Spain called Peninsulares,
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2. Whites born in the Americas called creoles,
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3. Native Americans,
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and 4. African slaves.
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This blending of cultures may be most obvious
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when looking at Native American and African influences upon Christianity.
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The Virgin of Guadalupe, for instance, was still called Tonantzin,
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the indigenous earth goddess, by Indians,
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and the profusion of blood in Mexican iconography
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recalls the Aztec use of blood in ritual.
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But transculturation pervaded Latin American life,
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from food to secular music to fashion.
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Somewhat related: Latin America had a great deal of racial diversity and
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a rigid social hierarchy to match.
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There were four basic racial categories:
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white, black, mestizo –a mix of white and American Indian2:57
and mulatto, a mix of white and black.
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We try not to use that word anymore because it’s offensive,
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but that’s the word they used.
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And from the 16th century on,
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Latin America had a huge diversity of mixed race people,
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and there were constant attempts to classify them
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and divide them into castes.
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You can see some of these in so called casta paintings,
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which attempted to establish in a very weird and Enlightenment-y way
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all the possible racial combinations.
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But of course that’s not how race works, as evidenced by the fact that
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successful people of lower racial castes could become “legally white”
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by being granted gracias al sacar. [pretty jacked up, white? right, I mean..]
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So by 1800,
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on the eve of Latin America’s independence movements,
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roughly a quarter of the population were mixed race.
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So Brazil…
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he said as thousands of Argentinians booed him—
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is obviously different because it was ruled, not by Spain,
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but by Portugal.
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But like a lot of revolutions in Latin America,
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it was fairly conservative.
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The creoles wanted to maintain their privilege
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while also achieving independence from the Peninsulares.
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And also like a lot of Latin American revolutions,
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it featured Napoleon. [forever makes me think of Bill &Ted]
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Freaking Napoleon.
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You’re everywhere. [except in line for certain roller coasters]
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He’s behind me, isn’t he?
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Gah.
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So when Napoleon took over Portugal in 1807,
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the entire Portuguese royal family and their royal court decamped to Brazil.
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And it turned out, they loved Brazil.
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King Joao loved Brazil so much.
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Off topic,
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but do you think that J-Woww named herself after King Joao?
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I mean, does she have that kind of historical sensibility?
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I think she does. [that whole bit really just happened, btw]
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So King Joao’s life in Rio was so good
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that even after Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo,
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he just kind of stayed in Brazil.
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And then, by 1820, the Portuguese in Portugal were like,
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“Hey, maybe you should come back and, like, you know,
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govern us, King of Portugal.”
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So in 1821,
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he reluctantly returned to Lisbon, leaving his son Prince Pedro behind.
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Meanwhile,
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Brazilian creoles were organizing themselves around the idea
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that they were culturally different from Portugal,
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and they eventually f ormed a Brazilian Party—
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no, Stan
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not that kind of party, come on—
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yes. That kind.
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A Brazilian party to lobby for independence.
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Then in 1822,
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they convinced Prince Pedro of boring, old Portugal that
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he should just become King Pedro of sexy, big Brazil.
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So Pedro declared Brazil an independent constitutional monarchy
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with himself as king. [as one does, naturally]
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As a result,
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Brazil achieved independence without much bloodshed
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and managed to hold on to that social hierarchy
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with the plantation owners on top.
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And that
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explains why Brazil was the last new world country to abolish slavery,
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not fully abandoning it until 1888.
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Right, so even when Napoleon wasn’t forcing Portuguese royals
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into an awesome exile, he was still messing with Latin America.
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Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
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So Latin America’s independence movements began
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not with Brazil, but in Mexico when Napoleon put his brother
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on the Spanish throne in 1808. [nepotism; always a classy move]
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Napoleon wanted to institute the liberal principles of the French Revolution,
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which angered the ruling elite of the Peninsulares
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in what was then called New Spain.
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They were aristocrats and they just wanted to go back to some good old-fashioned divine
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right monarchy with a strong church.
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So the Mexican Creoles,
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seeking to expand their own power at the expense of the Peninsular elite
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saw an opportunity here.
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They affirmed their loyalty to the new king,
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who was French even though he was the king of Spain.
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I told you this was complicated.
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Then,
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a massive peasant uprising began, led by a renegade priest Padre Hidalgo,
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and supported by the Creoles because it was aimed at the Peninsulares,
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even though they weren’t actually the ones who supported Spain.
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This was further complicated by the fact that
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to the mestizo peasants led by Hidalgo,
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Creoles and Peninsulares looked and acted basically identical—
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they were both white and imperious— [preferable to avada kedavrious?]
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so the peasants often attacked the Creoles, who were,
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technically on their side in trying to overthrow the ruling peninsulares.
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Even though it had tens of thousands of supporters,
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this first peasant uprising petered out.
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But,
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a second peasant revolt, led by another priest, Father Morelos,
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was much more revolutionary.
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In 1813,
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he declared independence and the revolt lasted until his death in 1815.
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But since he was a mestizo, he didn’t gain much Creole support,
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so revolutionary fervor in Mexico began to fade until …
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1820, when Spain, which was
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now under the rule of a Spanish, rather than a French king,
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had a REAL liberal revolution
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with a new constitution that limited the power of the church.
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Thanks, Thought Bubble.
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So, in the wake of Spain’s liberalizing movements,
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the Mexican elites, who had previously supported Spain,
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switched sides and made common cause with the creoles
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in the hopes that they could somehow hold onto their privileges.
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And pushing for independence together,
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things went very well. [stay together to stay alive, just like L4D!]
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The Creole general Iturbide and the rebel mestizo commander
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Guerrero
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joined forces and won independence
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with most of the Peninsulares returning to Spain.
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Iturbide
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–the whiter of the two generals –
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became king of Mexico in 1822
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(remember, this was a revolution essentially AGAINST
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representative government).
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But that didn’t work out
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and within a year he was overthrown by the military and a republic was declared.
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Popular sovereignty was sort of victorious,
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but without much benefit to the peasants
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who actually made independence possible.
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This alliance between conservative landowning elites and the army 7:47
especially in the face of calls for land reform or economic justice—
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would happen over and over again in Latin America
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for the next century and a half.
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But before we come to any conclusions,
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let’s discuss one last revolution.
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But,
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the interior of Venezuela was home to mixed-race cowboys called llaneros
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who supported the king.
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They kept the Caracas revolutionaries from extending their power inland.
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And that, is where Simon Bolivar,
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“el Libertador,” [young portrait w foppish 'stache is fave]
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enters the picture.
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Bolivar realized that the only way to overcome the various class divisions
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(like the one between the Caracas creoles and llaneros)
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was to appeal to a common sense of South American-ness.
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I mean, after all,
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the one thing that almost all South Americans had in common:
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they were born in South America,
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NOT SPAIN.
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So then,
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partly through shows of toughness that included, like,
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crossing flooded plains and going without sleep,
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Bolivar convinced the llaneros to give up fighting for Spain
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and start fighting against them.
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He quickly captured the viceregal capital at Bogota
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and by 1822 his forces had taken Caracas and Quito.
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Hold on, hold on.
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Lest I be attacked by Argentinians [to get back the plutonium you stole?]
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who are already upset about what I said about their really good soccer team,
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I want to make one thing clear.
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Argentina’s general Jose de San Martin
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was also vital to the defeat of the Spanish.
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He led an expeditions against the Spanish in Chile
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and also a really important one in Lima.
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[helping McKinley advance to Nationals over dreaded rivals, Vocal Adrenaline]
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And then,
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in December of 1824, at the battle of Ayacucho,
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the last Spanish viceroy was finally captured and
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all of Latin America was free from Spain.
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Oh, it’s time for the open letter?
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That’s A chair, Stan,
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but it’s not
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THE chair. [damp spirit kicks internal pebble]
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[rolls with broken heart to unimpressive leather-not-puce-velvet club chair sub]
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An Open Letter to Simon Bolivar.
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[part-time purple pieman impersonator]
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But first,
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let’s see what’s in the secret compartment today.
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Oh, llanero.
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I wonder if his hips swivel when I wind him up.
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[sorry, Meatwad, night-vision goggles& action bills not included.]
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Context is everything.
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They do!
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Hey there, cowboy.
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Dear Simon Bolivar,
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First,
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you had fantastic [legit] muttonchops.
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It’s as if you’re some kind of handsome Martin Van Buren.
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[surely an original sentence there]
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You were a man of immense accomplishments,
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but those accomplishments have been richly rewarded.
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I mean,
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you have a country named after you.
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Not to mention, two different currencies. [Canadian loonie pwns, regardless]
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But for my purposes,
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the most important thing you ever did
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was die.
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You may not know this,
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Simon Bolivar,
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but when I'm not a world history teacher sitting next to a fake fireplace,
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I am a novelist. [young adult + Dawson's Creek FanFic]
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[tell you his pen names for a price]
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And your last words,
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“Damn it, how will I ever get out of this labyrinth,”
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feature prominently in my first novel,
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Looking for Alaska.
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[ sup, Nerdfighteria? xoxo, dj ]
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Except it turns out,
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those weren’t your last words. [d'oh?]
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Your last words were probably,
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“Jose, bring the luggage.”
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[alt: "Hey, watch this!"]
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But I decided to use your fancy, romantic, inaccurate last words.
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It’s called artistic license. Put that in your luggage.
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[my, Johnny Bookwriter is saucy today]
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Anyway, fantastic life.
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I just wish you’d nailed it a little
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bit better with your last words.
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Best wishes, John Green
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So by 1825,
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almost the entire western hemisphere – with a few exceptions in the Caribbean
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—was free from European rule.
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Oh, right. And Canada. [Oh, Canada!]
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I’m just kidding, Canadians.
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It’s so easy to make fun of you because you’re so nice.
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So I tease you and then you’re like,
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“Aw, thanks for noticing that we exist.”
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My pleasure.
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Anyway, this is pretty remarkable,
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especially when you consider that most of this territory had been under
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Spanish or Portuguese control for almost 300 years.
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The most revolutionary thing about these independence movements
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were that they enshrined the idea of so called popular sovereignty
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in the New World.
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Never again would Latin America be under the permanent control
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of a European power,
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and the relatively quick division of Latin America into individual states,
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despite Bolivar’s pan South American dream,
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showed how quickly the people in these regions developed
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a sense of themselves as nations distinct from Europe,
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and from each other.
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This division into nation states
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prefigures what would happen to Europe in the mid-19th century,
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and in that sense,
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Latin America is the leader of 19th century world history.
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And Latin American history presages another key theme in modern life—
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multiculturalism.
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And all of that makes Latin America sound very modern,
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but in a number of ways,
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Latin American independence wasn’t terribly revolutionary.
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First,
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while the Peninsulares were gone,
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the rigid social hierarchy, with the wealthy creoles at the top, remained.
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Second, whereas revolutions in both France and America
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weakened the power of the established church,
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in Latin America,
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the Catholic Church remained very powerful in people’s everyday lives.
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And then, there is the patriarchy.
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Although there were many women
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who took up arms in the struggle for independence,
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including Juana Azurduy
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who led a cavalry charge against Spanish forces in Bolivia,
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patriarchy remained strong in Latin America.
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Feminist ideas like those of Mary Wollstonecraft would have to wait.
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Women weren’t allowed to vote in national elections in Mexico until 1953.
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And Peru didn’t extend voting rights to women until 1955.
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Also,
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Latin America’s revolutionary wars were long and bloody:
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425,000 people died in Mexico’s war for independence.
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And they didn’t always lead to stability:
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Venezuela, for instance,
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experienced war for much of the 19th century,
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leading to as many as a million deaths.
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And it’s important to note that
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fighting for freedom doesn’t always lead to freedom,
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the past two centuries in Latin America have seen many military dictatorships
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that protect private property at the expense of egalitarian governance.
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“Freedom,”
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“independence,”
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and “autonomy”
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are complicated terms that mean
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different things to different people at different times.
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So too with the word
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“revolutionary.”
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Thanks for watching.
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I’ll see you next week.
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Location change because I forgot to record the credits,
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and my shirt matches the wall.
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Probably should have thought about that one a little bit harder.
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[DFT record the credits, next time then?]
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Crash Course is
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produced and directed by Stan Muller.
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Our script supervisor is Danica Johnson, [!]
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the show is ably interned by Agent Meredith Danko, TVCS
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and it’s written by
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my high school history teacher Raoul Meyer and myself.
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Our graphics team is Thought Bubble.
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Last week’s phrase of the week was
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"giant squid of anger."
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If you want to suggest a future phrase of the week or guess at this week’s,
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you can do so in comments, where you can also ask questions
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that will be answered by our team of historians.
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Look at the beautiful Crash Course poster! [nice job, ThoughtBubblers!]
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Available now at DFTBA.com link in the video description.
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Thanks for watching,
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and as we say in my home town,
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Don’t Forget they can’t get your goat if they don’t know where you keep it.