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Nationalism Sweeps the West
3
Nationalist Revolutions
Sweep the West
Latin American Peoples Win Independence
After the success of the American and French Revolutions, the Enlightenment had changed ideas about who should control government. Ideas of liberty, equality, and democratic rule found their way across the seas to European colonies in the New World.
In Latin America, colonial society was dictated by class. In the Spanish colonies, this was consistent. At the top of the social hierarchy, were peninsulares, people who had been born in Spain. They only formed a tiny part of the population, but held the most power and influence. Creoles, Spaniards born in Latin America, were below peninsulares in rank. After them, came mestizos, people who are of mixed European and Native American ancestry. Next, the mulattos, persons of mixed European and African ancestry, and enslaved Africans.
As you can recall from the videos we watched last Thursday, the first country to seek independence from their colonial power was Haiti. (Formerly the French colony of Saint Domingue). Toussaint L'Overture led enslaved Africans in a revolt against the French that ended slavery and resulted in the new nation of Haiti.
In other Latin American countries, Creoles were leading the independence movements. They were the least oppressed and the most educated of those native to Latin America. They had the opportunity to travel to Europe for their education where they learned about the ideas of the Enlightenment and were inspired to bring ideas of revolution back to Latin America with them.
In Latin America
Simon Bolivar
Bolivar
Called "Libertador" (Liberator), Bolivar was a brilliant general, a visionary, a writer, and a fighter. He is native to Venezuela and declared its independence from Spain in 1811. It took 10 years of gruesome fighting, and 2 exiles of Bolivar, but eventually in 1821, he won Venezuela's independence. After this, he marched south to Ecuador where he met another great liberator, Jose de San Martin.
Jose de San Martin
San Martin
Together with Bolivar, they would decide the future of the Latin American revolutionary movement.
Though born in Argentina, he spent much of his youth in Spain as a career military officer. He found with Spanish forces against Napoleon. He returned to Latin America to be a part of its liberation from Spain. Fighting for 10 years, he became the liberator of Argentina, Chile, and Peru.
In 1821, San Martin and Bolivar joined forces and with the unified revolutionary forces, their army went on to defeat the Spanish at the Battle of Ayacucho (Peru) on December 9, 1824. In this last major battle of the war for independence, Spanish colonies in Latin America won their freedom.
Mexico and Brazil
In Mexico, ethnic and racial groups mixed more freely, in comparison to other Latin American nations, so Native Americans and mestizos played the leading role. In 1810, a priest, Miguel Hidalgo, from a small village was actually the first person to declare independence from Spain in Mexico. He gained a following but was defeated by the Spanish in 1811. Other strong leaders followed and continued the fighting against Spain. They finally won their independence in 1821.
Before the Mexican Revolution, Central America was part of the vice-royalty of New Spain. In 1821, the rest of Central America claimed their independence from Spain and Mexico, but Mexico was ruled by a dictator in their post-independent era and it wasn't until he was overthrown in 1823 that Mexico and the rest of Central America truly gained their freedom.
Brazil's Royal Liberator
Brazil's quest for independence was unique in this period, because it occurred without violend upheavals or widespread bloodshed. In fact, a member of the Portuguese royal family actually played a key role in freeing Brazil from Portugal. Due to the invasion of Spain and Portugal by Napoleon in 1807, the royal court moved to their largest colony: Brazil. Rio de Janiero became the capital of the Portuguese Empire. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, the King returned, and his son, Dom Pedro, stayed behind in Brazil. The plan was to make Brazil a colony again, but Brazillians signed a petition asking Dom Pedro to rule, he agreed in 1822 granting Brazil independnce from Portugal being ruled by Dom Pedro independently.
Mexico and Brazil
Europe Faces Revolution
In Europe
Revolutions erupted across Europe between 1815 and 1848. In the first half of the 1800's, three schools of political thought struggled for supremacy in European societies. Each believed that its style of governent would best serve the people.
Conservative: usually wealthy property owners and nobility. They argued for protecting the traditional monarchies in Europe.
Liberal: mostly middle-class business leaders and merchants. They wanted to give more power to elected parliaments, but only the educated and the landowners would vote.
Radical: favored drastic change to extend democracy to all people. They believed that governments should practice the ideas of the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and brotherhood
Nationalism Develops
Nationalism
As conservatives, liberals, and radicals debated issues of government, a new movement called nationalism emerged. Nationalism is the belief that people's greatest loyalty should not be to a king or an empire, but to a nation of people who share a common culture and history.
When a nation had its own independent government, it became a nation-state. A nation-state defends the nation's territory and way of life, and it represents the nation to the rest of the world. In 1815, Europe only had France, England and Spain could be called nation-states. Soon, that would change.
Challenges to Conservative Powers
Challenges
The first people to win self-rule during this time were the Greeks. Greece had belonged to the Ottoman Empire for centuries, but they had always kept their ancient culture and history alive. Educated Europeans and Americans loved ancient Greek culture and sided with the Greeks in their search for independence. Russians also sympathized with Greeks and the Greek Orthodox culture (as they were Christian and being held under Ottoman (muslim) rule). Britain, Russia and France helped Greece win their indepdence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. Many other nations tried to claim their independence like the Belgians from the Dutch, and in Italy, they wanted to unite the Italian states. Most of these movements failed and liberal gains were lost to conservatives within a year.
France and Russia
Change
France continued to see radical uprisings against rulers who sought to re-establish absolute monarch control in France. By 1848, France elected their president, Louis-Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. Four years later, he became emperor and the voters accpeted this action. He made many improvements to France.
Serfdom continued in Russia until the 1820's, when many Russians wanted serfdom to end. It wasn't util the late 1850's when Russia started to see real modernization through social change. However, this was limited as Alezander II started the modernizations, ending serfdom in 1861; but the serf's debt continued to tie them to the land. A major drive toward industrial expansion came from Nationalism and the desire to have their country be viewed as advanced.