1. Latin American Revolutions

2. Latin American Independence Movements
In the late 1700s, Enlightenment and revolutionary ideas spread from Europe and the United States to Latin America
The success of the American Revolution and the French Revolution showed Latin Americans that foreign and oppressive rule could be overthrown
Beginning in the 1790s, they struggled to gain independence as well as other rights and freedoms

3. Social Structure Social classes based on privilege in Latin America
Peninsulares – colonial leaders born in Spain or Portugal
Held all important military and political positions
Creoles - American born Spanish aristocrats, they owned most of the land but were treated like second-class citizens, and were denied political rights
Mestizos – Latin American of mixed Native American and European ancestry
Faced social, political, and economic racism
Worked as servants, unskilled laborers

4. Haiti French planters owned large sugar farms called plantations
Nearly half a million enslaved Africans worked and lived in terrible conditions
Free mulattos were granted limited rights

5. Toussaint L’Ouverture
Dissatisfied creoles led conflict against social system
Well-educated and wealthy
1791 revolt led by self-educated former slave named Toussaint L’Ouverture
Haitian slaves won their freedom in 1798
Clashed with Napoleon and won independence from France in 1804

6. Simón Bolívar
An educated creole, Bolívar led resistance movements against the Spanish
Called ‘the Liberator,’ he vowed to fight Spanish rule in South America and became one of the greatest Latin American nationalist leaders of the period

7. Simón Bolívar
In 1810, Simón Bolívar started his 12 year struggle with the Spanish
He led campaigns that won independence in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia (named after him!)
He later joined forces with Jose de San Martin
Martin had defeated the Spanish in Argentina and Chile previously

8. Simón Bolívar Had dreams of creating a unified South America
Spain’s former empire became divided into separate independent states
Nations faced long struggle to gain stability, achieve social equality, and eliminate poverty

9. Independence Movements
South America, 1790
South America, 1828