Outline Lecture Five—Revolutions in the Western Hemisphere
Key Questions:
1) How did the models of the American and French revolutions impact Latin America and
the Caribbean?
2) How were the socio-economic contexts different in these regions?
I) From Emancipation to Independence
a) Haitian Revolution 1801
i) Unprecedented and shocking phenomenon
(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPyyXQN8cG0&NR=1
ii) Colonial past of Hispaniola
(1) Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)
(2) French colony of Saint-Dominique (Haiti)
iii) Demographic breakdown of population in Saint-Dominique
(1) Whites, gens de couleur, and African slaves
iv) Catalysts to revolution
(1) Impact of the American Revolution
(2) Impact of the French Revolution
v) Slave Revolts 1791
(1) The iniquity of the “Code Noir”
(2) Toussaint Louverture in the 1790s
(3) Napoleon Bonaparte’s military response
vi) Haitian Declaration of Independence (1804)
(1) “Our land,” “our avenging climate,” “our coast”
II) The Struggle for “American” Independence
a) The “New” Identity of Latin America
i) Simón Bolívar (1783-1830)
(1) “Political hybrids”
(2) Incompatibility of North American and French models
ii) Diverse demographic constitution of Iberian colonies in Latin America
(1) Peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizos, Mulattos, Slaves
iii) Laws against miscegenation to maintain racial purity
(1) 1776 Spanish Crown’s “Real Pragmatica”
(2) 1790s granting of “pardos” by Spanish viceroyalties
iv) “Nativist,” subaltern identification of this Creole elite
b) Catalysts for Secession from Spain
i) Tupac Amaru Revolt 1780-83
ii) Napoleon’s usurpation of the Spanish Throne
(1) Abduction of Spanish monarch Charles IV and his successor Ferdinand VII
(2) Birth of “nationalist” consciousness of the American colonies
iii) The “Cortes” of Cadiz of 1810
(1) Assembly of delegates from the American colonies
(2) 1814 Ferdinand VII reinstalled on the throne
iv) Rise of juntas in struggle for independence
c) New Model of Sovereignty in the Americas
i) Monarchy or Republic?
ii) Bolivar’s vision for a Confederation of American states
(1) States independent but united as a confederation
(2) Brief experiment of a “Gran Columbia”