✅ La INDEPENDENCIA de LATINOAMÉRICA en 15 minutos | ¿Cómo se independizó LATAM?

Today we are going to talk about a lot of revolutions that gave rise to the independence of a large part of America. A series of events in which great personalities, known as the liberators, made possible the separation of the countries of Latin America from their respective crowns. Today in Memories of Fish we will tell you the story of the independences of Latin America.

To understand what the map of Latin America was like at that time, we have to go back a few centuries, going back to that moment when the Europeans arrived on the American continent. Specifically, in 1494, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, in which the territories of the southern continent were divided without having a remote idea of ​​its existence. Thus, all the countries that exist today began to form part of great viceroyalty after the times of the conquest.

In the case of Portugal, it was the Viceroyalty of Brazil, while in Spain there were different Viceroyalty, such as the one of New Spain, the one of Peru or the one of the River of the Silver in Argentina. For its part, other countries such as France and England also colonized different territories and islands of the southern continent.

In these viceroyalts the social pyramid was a real drama, many of its inhabitants ended up being slaves brought from Africa, who had no voice or vote in any of the decisions that were made there. On the other hand, there were the Native Americans, who although they did not reach the point of black slaves, their living conditions were also quite unfortunate. Then they were guided in the pyramid of the mestizos, who were children of Europeans and Americans.

These had better living conditions, but not as good as the Creole ones. The Creoles were people born in America, but whose parents were Europeans. Despite being much less numerous, most of the power was concentrated in the Creoles.

that were only surpassed in the pyramid by those born in Europe. These in the case of Spain were known as the "peninsular" In the latter, which were less than the Creoles, resided political and economic power. As you can see, the inequality between American societies was something quite, quite exaggerated. But the 18th century arrived, and on the other side of the Atlantic, and in the United States, a series of key events were happening to understand everything that would happen later.

In 1776 the Declaration of Independence of the United States was approved, after the American Revolution and the War of Independence. In this declaration it was spoken of the inalienable rights of man, life, freedom and the search for happiness.

Well, everything they didn't have in the lowest strata of Latin American societies. On the other hand, in France, in 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was approved during the French Revolution, where it was also talked about equality and the fundamental rights of the human being. All this package of new progressive and revolutionary ideas managed to cross to the other side of the fence.

and by the Isthmus of Panama to the south of the American continent, sinking deeply in several regions. In this way, in the second half of the 18th century, different revolts and rebellions began to arise in numerous places. In Quito, the famous Revolution of the Stankos broke out against the monopoly of Aguardientes, which ended in a triumph for the Creoles.

In Mexico, numerous indigenous revolts were also held. And in Chile, where the Spaniards and Mapuches had been giving themselves up for centuries, another new rebellion occurred in the area of Araucanía, in the Andes. However, the most important revolt for the contagion of the independence ideas was in the French colony of Santo Domingo.

In 1789 in Santo Domingo coffee was produced and exported to Punta Pala. And also Santo Domingo was the origin of practically half of the world's sugar. But there all of God was tremendously exploited. African slaves who worked in the plantations overcame free people in more than 10 to 1. And it is that being a French colony the ideas of the revolution could enter more easily than anywhere else.

For the slaves this meant freedom, while the colonists, who saw in the end of slavery a loss of profitability for their businesses, did not like that revolution. So after several weeks of secret organization, on August 22, 1791, begins what would be the first revolution of independence of Latin America, and even more, the first insurrection of African slaves.

As you can imagine, the thing was quite bloody and the slaves began to murder the masters at night, starting a civil war on the island. Two months later, the northern territory of the island was in the hands of the revolutionaries and revolutionary France approved the abolition of slavery in all French colonies. On the other hand, during the beginnings of the Haitian revolution, two factions emerged:

The slave rebels in the north of Saint-Domingue led by Toussaint Louverture and the free people of color led by André Rigaud. With the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, the revolutionaries of Haiti fought side by side with the French to face Spain and Great Britain. However, in 1795

Spain ends up giving France its colony located in the eastern part of the island, called the Spanish, and the British leave the place three years later hit by the epidemics of the region. Thus, the whole island is free of foreigners and the two factions begin a war between themselves known as the War of the Knives, in which the rebellious slaves win.

The Napoleonic forces would try to take control of the island again, but they were defeated. Thus, on January 1, 1804, the independence of Haiti was declared. The first war of independence had triumphed on the continent.

This event would serve as an example for all subsequent revolutions. And what the revolution proposed, Napoleon would end it unintentionally. The invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by the Napoleonic troops and the suppression of the Bourbons led to the organization in America of the well-known government unions whose objective was to establish a legality that would not be interrupted by the things that were happening in the Iberian Peninsula.

For their part, the colonies, after Napoleon did what he really wanted with the Spanish crown, began to see a weakening of the Bourbons and suspect that another model of government was possible. And by the way, they also got rid of paying the unorbited taxes.

Something that was not bad either. Because yes, friends of Memories of the Fish, who really boosted the revolutions in Latin America were the Creoles, that is, the high-native class of Spanish fathers, who all they wanted was to stop depending on their metropolis. This would also add to the extreme criticism of the Jesuits, who had been expelled in 1767 from Spain and who were quite angry, generating a climate of opposition to the Spanish domain among the Creoles.

So, with all this cultivation broth, the first phase of the independence process would begin, a more peaceful phase dominated by the mentioned unions.

The first of the meetings was the one in Mexico, in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, where the beginning of the Independentist movement had a more revolutionary character and began after the cry of pain where the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla pronounced his famous speech, encouraging people to unite and fight against the Spanish colonial government. However, the retaliations were very hard and after a bloody response by the Viceroy Félix María Calleja, the royal power was restored in 1815.

Despite being the epicenter of the movement, the independence of Mexico would be one of the ones that would take the longest time to arrive. On the other hand, in the Viceroyalty of the River of the silver the first meeting was created in 1808 in Montevideo. This would be the only meeting that would maintain the sovereignty of the Viceroy, although two years later, after several attempts of revolution, the beginning of the War of the Argentine Independence would begin, whose starting pistol was the May Revolution. In New Granada, things were going to be very different.

In what is now Colombia, the Junta de Santa Fe of Bogota, ordered the "Cuerno al Virrey" in 1810 and later the independence of the Republic of the United Provinces of New Granada would be proclaimed. After these events, the two political blocs would form: the Federalists and the Unionists.

that would be confronted for a long time and whose rivalry would be a huge problem for Colombia in the years after. However, if there was anyone to highlight in this period was Simón Bolívar, the great liberator who dominated the independence process of Venezuela and achieved the declaration of a federal republic, in addition to lighting the fires that took place in the United Provinces of New Granada.

As for the General Captaincy of Chile, the first meeting was created in 1810 and after a rift between the moderate and the radical side, the military "Carrera Verdugo" gave a coup and established a personal dictatorship, as well as the independence of Chile in a way, let's say, uncovered. After the establishment of the meetings throughout Latin America and of a self-sufficient political structure, the emancipated territories were already prepared for the war against the metropolis.

Between 1814 and 1833, a second phase was initiated marked by the war conflicts and with the great presence of the liberators.

The beginning of the armed conflict was right. The Spanish independence war was over and from the peninsula they were afraid of not being able to reverse the situation and lose the colonies forever. As it finally was, on the other hand. In this way, the Spanish troops, who began to know them as realists, were ordered to march quickly and very forcefully over the conquered territories and the revolutionary armies, to catch the unprepared.

Thus, at the end of 1814, after an offensive by Bolívar, he had to leave for the Caribbean, where he wrote the famous "Cart of Jamaica", in which he designed a map that illustrated the future independent republics of America Meanwhile, the general realist Pablo Murillo would enter in May of the following year the city of Caracas, to initiate a hard repression that would never be forgotten in the region

On the other hand, in Argentina the Tukuman Congress was taking place, where in 1816 the independence of the United Provinces of the River of the Silver was proclaimed. But at first the revolution only triumphed in the southern zone. Previously in Chile, after a power struggle between Generals Carrera and O'Higgins, the realists took the lead and won the victory in Rancagua in 1814.

The same thing happened in Peru, where a year before the royalist general Joaquín de la Pezuela achieved two important victories in Vilcapugio and Ayohuma Both Chile and Peru would have to wait a little longer to achieve independence So little by little the war spread throughout the regions and the liberating generals were gaining more prestige battle after battle After the Angostura congress in 1819, Simón Bolívar was appointed president of Venezuela

And taking advantage of the victory in the middle-class in command of José Antonio Páez, Bolívar marched on the Andes. After the occupation of Tunja and the victories of the Vargas and Boyaca swamps, Bolívar manages to enter Santa Fe in August 1819. In December of that same year, the great Republic of Colombia is constituted, of which Bolívar was named president.

and which gathered New Granada and Venezuela in one nation. And... What happened to Ecuador? First of all, Antonio José de Sucre scored a victory in Pichincha, which allowed him to free Quito and allow Simón Bolívar to enter the city. Later, the Bolívar army marched decidedly to the south to free Guayaquil.

In the southern zone, the liberator was José de San Martín. After the independence of Argentina, San Martín created an army in Mendoza that led him to cross the Andes towards Chile. With the help of General O'Higgins, who awaited him in the Andean region, they managed to obtain the victory in the Battle of Chacabuco in 1816.

After a loose draw in which the realists managed to regain their courage and win new battles, the latter were about to recover Santiago de Chile. However, this did not happen. The Rioplatense troops under San Martín's command surpassed the Chilean Royal Army of the Spanish Empire, commanded by Mariano Osorio.

And that's how in 1818 the Act of Independence of Chile was signed. On the other hand, with the support of the fleet of the British admiral Thomas Cochrane, San Martín started the campaign of Peru. He managed to occupy Lima in July 1821 and proclaimed the independence of the country a year later, after the formation of a constituent congress. However, the republic did not work out correctly and the country was submerged in chaos.

The guy was named protector of Peru and do you know where he went? Well, to Guayaquil, where as we have told you was Simón Bolívar. Finally they were going to unite. Thus the two great liberators of Latin America joined in July 1822 and in this interview they talked about how to end the war of independence, as well as what was the correct way to preserve power in the liberated regions.

Both agreed that the place where the independence of South America would finally have to be defined had to be Peru. And so, while San Martín was forced to withdraw from Peru after a somewhat disappointing interview, Bolívar headed south with the liberating current of the north. In February 1824, Bolívar himself assumed the dictatorship of the country and the following year he achieved the independence of Bolivia.

After a series of battles, in 1826 the war was finally ended and the independence of the Spanish-American colonies in Latin America was assured. As for Brazil, between 1821 and 1824, a process had been gradually given in which a peaceful independence was triumphed and directed by the royal family itself.

On the other hand, Agustín de Iturbide came to Mexico to balance the balance and help the rebel troops of Vicente Guerrero. Iturbide launched a manifesto called the Plan de Iguala, in which he asked for three things: the independence of Mexico, the maintenance of the Catholic religion and equality for Spanish and Mexicans. And so, after more than ten years of war, the Treaty of Córdoba was signed, by which the independence of Mexico was proclaimed.

That is, the first Mexican empire had been created, which would later annex other regions of Central America to become the United Provinces of Central America.

Thus we reach the end of the war of the independence of the Latin American states. After it, there were new states that were formed with new ideals and from these, the future, would form other new ones, such as Venezuela or Uruguay. From here, the countries flew on their own and soon they would become new pieces of the international political landscape.

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