UNIDAD EDUCATIVA PARTICULAR “SAN JOSÉ DE CALASANZ”

Name:…………………………………………Date: ……….…………………
Grade: 2do bachillerato Subject: History and Social Sciences

PART V: REBELLION AGAINST SPAIN IN LATIN AMERICA

Going into the 1800s, more than a few people in Spain's colonies were influenced
by the Enlightenment and the
American and French
revolutions, and among these
people was a growing dislike
of Spain's restrictions over
economic matters. There were
restrictions on trading with
foreigners, restrictions against
growing crops that would
compete with crops grown in
Spain, and restrictions on making goods that would compete with goods made in
Spain. Taxes imposed by Spanish authorities were also annoying. People of
Spanish heritage born in Latin America were not participating in government the
way that people of British heritage had been in Britain's colonies. Criólles (those
born in America claiming pure Spanish blood) were living under the authoritarian
tradition of the Spaniards. The Church and its Inquisition in Spanish America were
dominated by Spaniards. The families of Spain's officials enjoyed their authority
and higher status. They were haughty toward the Criólles as well as toward
Indians, and the Criólles resented it and the soldiers from Spain. Many of them
had a non-white in their family sometime in the 200 years since the Europeans
had arrived in the New World, while people born in Spain prided themselves on
their racial purity.
Spain and Rebellion in South America
Simón Bolivar
Simón Bolivar was a Crióllo with a few drops of Indian and African blood and
proud of it. He was born in Caracas into Venezuela's plantation society and into
wealth, and in his late teens he enjoyed
leisure in Europe. He was influenced by
liberalism and the Enlightenment and
acquired an admiration for Napoleon. In the
year 1810, with Spain's KIng Ferdinand being
held by Napoleon in luxurious captivity,
Bolivar was back in Venezuela supporting
Venezuela's pro-independence junta and at 27
having outgrown his youthful
frivolity. The juntasent Bolivar back to Europe
as the head of a delegation aiming at
international support for independence. He
returned in 1811 unsuccessful but with
Venezuela's leading dissident, a vain
revolutionary, Francisco de Miranda, who had
been in exile in England.
In behalf of the junta in Caracas, Miranda declared Venezuela and New Grenada,
in what today is Columbia, to be republics. The junta removed the trading
restrictions that Spain had imposed. It exempted taxes from the sale of food,
ended the paying of tribute to the government by Venezuela's Indians and
prohibited slavery.
Battles were fought between Miranda's forces and a Spanish army that had been
stationed in Venezuela, the Spanish forces winning considerable support among
Venezuela's illiterate masses. In March 1812, an earthquake devastated Caracas.
The Spanish clergy in Caracas claimed that the earthquake was God's anger
against the sins of the rebel government. In July, Miranda's forces were defeated
and the Spaniards regained control over Caracas.
Outside Caracas small bands of rebels led by military chieftains continued their
defiance of Spanish authority. Simon Bolivar built a force of 2,000 men and fought
his way back to the city, entering in triumph on August 7, 1813. In 1814, following
Ferdinand's freedom from Napoleon's captivity and more troops arriving from
Spain, Bolivar was driven westward to New Granada.
Rebel forces could no longer claim power in the name of King Ferdinand, and
Spanish forces were advancing against the rebels elsewhere in Spanish America.
Bernardo O'Higgins, the leader of a liberal regime In Chile, was forced to flee with
his army across the Andes Mountains into Western Argentina, where he was
welcomed by José de San Martín, the liberal-monarchist governor in the province
of Cuyo. In Venezuela, the Spaniards put Miranda in a dungeon – where he died in
1816. The Spanish drove Bolivar from New Grenada, Bolivar fleeing to Jamaica
and Haiti. He was depressed and without any of his former wealth, but his hopes
of creating a new order in South America soon revived.
In 1817, San Martín and O'Higgins went with their armies back across the Andes
Mountains to Chile. There they defeated the Spanish and took power in the city
of Santiago. They laid plans to sail north to Lima in Peru, the center of Spain's
authority in Latin America, the wealthiest and economically successful of Spain's
Latin American cities. It was a city filled with conservative Criólleswho, with an
abundance of slaves, had never had to dirty their hands with any kind of work.
In 1817 Bolivar and a small force returned to Venezuela and established a base
inland in the rain forest along the Orinoco River. There he gathered new recruits,
new supplies and added to his reputation. The drive of Spain's forces into
Venezuela's interior aroused people there into a more active rebellion. There,
Bolivar allied himself with the rebellious cattle herdsmen, Indians and semi-
nomadic hunters. He found that liberating slaves gave him added support and
strength, and where he
and his army went he
gave slaves their
freedom.
In 1818, Spain invaded
Chile again and defeated
O'Higgins at
CanchaRayada, but San
Martín defeated the
Spanish at the Battle of
Maipu. Bolivar
arrived Bogotá in August
1819, and Spain lost that area (New Grenada) to Bolivar. Bolivar organized what
became Gran Colombia, a political unity that included what today is Ecuador,
Colombia and Panama, and became its president on December 17, 1819.
In 1821, Bolivar's armistice with the Spanish ended. On June 21 he won the Battle
of Carabobo (about ninety miles southwest of Caracas). A few days later Caracas
fell to Bolivar and Venezuela was free of Spanish rule.
By now San Martín had landed in Peru, with the help of a British sea captain,
Thomas Cochran. The invasion force was welcomed by rebellious inhabitants of
coastal towns and they were joined by Peru's Indians. Lima's conservative forces
fled inland. Spain's viceroy in Lima preferred negotiations to fighting and invited
San Martín and his force into Lima, San Martín entering the city on July 12 amid
celebrations in the streets. San Martín had not come to rule. All he wanted was
Peru's independence. And he had Bolivar's help. In May, 1822, Bolivar defeated
Spain's supporters at Quito. In July, Bolivar met with San Martín, who was still
combating Spain's supporters in the interior, and San Martín turned Peru over to
Bolivar and returned to Chile.
In 1823, Europe's Holy Alliance delegated the French to put Ferdinand back onto
his throne. Louis XVIII of France sent an army of 100,000 into Spain, and a
bloodbath in Spain followed Ferdinand's restoration – killing on a scale said to
have sickened his conservative "rescuers." Some managed to escape into exile,
and Ferdinand, to reign ten more years. He restored archaic university programs
and had to put down occasional revolts in various regions.
Britain meanwhile was enjoying trade with Latin America that had been denied by
Spain, and Britain warned against any attempt to reestablish Spanish rule in Latin
America. The United States was also enjoying its new freedom to trade with Latin
America, and in December that year President James Monroe proclaimed what
became known as the Monroe Doctrine, which was aimed at Russian designs on
Alaska and also against Spain attempting to regain its lost colonies.
In August, 1824, Bolivar launched an important battle at Junin, in what was soon
to be called Bolivia in honor of Bolivar. Next, in December, fighting alongside a
Peruvian force, Bolivar won the Battle of Ayacucho, 200 miles southeast of Lima.
Spain was no longer a colonial power in South America.
 UNIDAD EDUCATIVA PARTICULAR “SAN JOSÉ DE CALASANZ”
Name:…………………………………………………… Date: ……….…………………………….
Grade: 2do bachillerato Subject: History and Social Sciences

PART V: REBELLION AGAINST SPAIN IN LATIN AMERICA WORKSHEET #6

1. Who was Simon Bolivar?
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2. What happened in 1813 with Simon Bolivar and is army?
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3. How was San Martin involved in the independence?
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4. How did other countries take the independence?
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5. What happened in 1824 and was it important to the region?
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