After Spanish colonization throughout Latin America, Latinx people fought for their independence and self-government. Movements for independence spread across the continent in the early 1800s, and continued to burn until the end of the century – and beyond with revolutions. Another example of the intersecting histories between Black and Latinx people, the slave revolt of 1791 in Haiti was the spark in Central America, which would light the flame across the continent. In 1804 Haiti was the first nation to declare independence from France, the first nation in the Caribbean or Latin America to regain their freedom from their European colonizer.13 “Between 1810 and 1826, all Spanish colonies in Latin America, except Cuba and Puerto Rico, secured their independence from Spain.”14 This spirit of independence was fierce, sometimes regional, with juntas fighting across nation states for their freedom, at other times distinct, boundaried by borders that would come to define their countries. Some wars for independence lasted over a decade, while others declared and won their independence more quickly. “For Panama, which had been part of Colombia since this nation’s independence in 1819, sovereignty would not come until 1903. Cuba, one of Spain’s first colonies in the New World, was finally able to break its colonial ties in 1898. Finally, Puerto Rico was freed from Spanish control during the Spanish-American War of 1898, but was immediately annexed by the United States, and remains a U.S. territory to date.” By the early 1900s Latin America was free of European colonization, yet was quickly subject to U.S. imperialism.
In some cases, the independence movements and victories stopped at freedom from colonizers, while freedom for indigenous, poor people, and women were not realized. Despite women’s roles in independence movements, they were rarely given credit for their contributions. Women like Juana Azurduy, Manuela Saenz, Micaela Bastidas, Maria Ignacia Rodriguez, and Gertrudis Bocanegra all played important roles in independence across the continent. “Despite their contributions and sacrifices, Latin American women did not fare well in postindependence years. Scholars have noted that as the region moved from absolutism to republicanism, the new countries’ constitutions systematically denied rights to women in particular—whereas before, during Spanish monarchical rule, political rights were denied to most men and women alike.”15 This incomplete liberation, not only for women, but for working class and poor people, led to later revolutions in countries like Mexico, where a monarchy continued to reign even after independence, and in Cuba, where communism and massive land reform marked a new era for the country that had been under U.S. rule until the early 20th century.
Below is a list of Latin American independence movements and revolutions, and their years of victory, which students will choose from for their research project for this unit. It is essential to note, as evidenced by the same years of independence across many countries, that these movements for independence were oftentimes not bound by the borders of nation-states, but rather were regional. Leaders like Jose Marti, as can be read in his speeches and letters, held a view of liberation that went far beyond national boundaries. The hope is that students can discover this through both their research and through discussions of similarities and differences that are essential to the activity below:
- Paraguay, 1811
- Argentina, 1810 and 1816
- Chile, 1818
- Colombia, 1819
- Venezuela, 1821
- Costa Rica, 1821 (1838, independence from Federal Republic of Central America)
- Guatemala, 1821 (1838, independence from Federal Republic of Central America)
- Nicaragua, 1821 (1838, independence from Federal Republic of Central America)
- Honduras, 1821 (1838, independence from Federal Republic of Central America)
- El Salvador, 1821 (1838, independence from Federal Republic of Central America)
- Mexico, 1821
- Dominican Republic, 1821 and 1844
- Panama, 1821
- Ecuador, 1822
- Peru, 1824
- Bolivia, 1828
- Uruguay, 1828
- Cuba, 1898 (from Spain), 1903 (from U.S.)
- Mexican Revolution, 1910-1921
- Cuban Revolution, 1953-1959
