The Independence process in South America

Résumé du document

The South American continent removed its European bonds at the beginning of the 19th century. The Portuguese and Spanish American Empires gradually collapsed after the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by Napoleon in 1808 and the Mexican Revolution in 1810. The main figures of this resistance to the Europeans were Simon Bolivar and San Martin who led the struggle for the independence. This movement towards autonomy from the colonial authorities brought large hopes for social, economic and political reforms. Indeed, many Americans did not accept the Spanish and Portuguese rule, which established restrictions on free trade, supported the power and influence of the big haciendas or raised excessive taxes. The Argentine major revolutionary, Manuel Belgrano (1770-1821), explained how frustrating the domination of the colonial elites was during that period. For instance, his several initiatives to promote education by creating a school for pilots or a drawing school in Buenos Aires failed because of the hostility of the authorities. Such political and institutional obstacles, among other disappointing experiences, progressively turned him into a supporter of the self-determination principle for the South American peoples. He wrote: "I began to understand that the colonies could expect nothing from men who placed their private interests above those of the community." Many supporters of the independence thought that self-determination would enable strong structural changes within the Latin American society.
However, it seems that in many countries, the expected reforms did not really improve the social situation of many Americans. The power of political-military leaders called the "caudillos" dominated the post-colonial period; many social reforms run at that time sometimes strengthened the influence of the powerful landowners, instead of helping the poor and promoting the development of dynamic internal markets. This evolution may explain why Benjamin Keen stated: "independence was not accompanied by economic and social changes that could shatter the colonial mold." However, even though it seems that the rule of the caudillos showed continuity between the colonial and the early independent period, considering that nothing had changed would be quite exaggerated.

Extraits

[...] Domingo Faustino Sarmiento gave some examples of rituals by describing the Federalist celebrations that occurred all year long in Argentina under the rule of Juan Manuel de Rosas.[4] He also explained how the authorities forced the citizens to wear ribbons that symbolized support to the government, its ideology and its policies. The sanctions for those who forgot to wear them were quite severe and immediate. For instance, they could be accused of supporting the opposition and considered as traitors. The caudillo also represented the patriarchal authority. He acted as a paternalistic monarch, whose main virtues were honor and generosity. [...]

[...] The education issue was quite important since controlling it represented the main way to influence the citizens' minds. After the independence, the monarchy was abolished in every Latin American country except in Brazil where Dom Pedro, the King of Portugal's son, remained and became Emperor. However, the Americans progressively learnt how a parliamentary system and a constitutional regime could work, in spite of the lack of political stability and the several constitutions each government experienced. The universal suffrage appeared quite hard to implement. [...]

[...] All the South American countries had not the same evolution. Some countries actually set important social reforms earlier than others. For example, Paraguay voted the abolition of slavery in 1842 under the rule of Carlos Antonio Lopez, whereas Brazil only passed a similar law in 1888, more than forty years later. Essential progressive reforms were run in many countries during the 19th centuries in Latin America. For instance, during the Mexican “Restored Republic” (1868-1876), Benito Juarez used the scarce government resources in order to expand the public education system. [...]

[...] Some economic reforms, instead of strengthening the Latin American independence, sometimes reinforced the dependence on imperial powers. For instance, the French tried to take advantage of the financial difficulties faced by Mexico in the middle of the 19th century in order to establish an Empire under the rule of Maximilian of Habsburg. Nevertheless, even though the social transformations were not complete and some reforms had caused a certain reinforcement of the landowning elite, some strong changes occurred after the colonial period. [...]

[...] John Charles Chasteen, James A. Wood, Problems in Modern Latin American History, Sources and Interpretation, Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, Delaware. Ariel de la Fuente, Children of Facundo: Caudillo and Gaucho Insurgency during the Argentine State-Formation Process, La Rioja, 1853-1870, Durham, Duke University Press in ed. John Charles Chasteen, James A. Wood, Problems in Modern Latin American History, Sources and Interpretation, Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, Delaware. [...]