Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America

The effects of the Napoleonic Wars on Europe and the rest of the world should not be underestimated. Some historians argue that the Napoleonic Wars were really the first global conflict, rather than World War I, which was known as the Great War until the Second World War because the two wars were intertwined. The conflicts between Napoleonic France and the other European powers extended beyond the boundaries of just Europe, as Britain and France engaged one another in colonial settings as well, especially at sea. As Chasteen points out, the reverberations of Napoleon’s invasion of Iberia sent shockwaves out into the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. There was increasing resentment felt between the elite in the Americas and those in Spain and Portugal. The Creole (white people born in the colonies as opposed to Peninsulars, those born in Spain) gradually felt that they were the ones who should be governing and controlling most of what took place in their areas. They did not necessarily feel that they wanted to be separate from the Crown, as most were still loyal thereto, but they resented governors or other government appointees sent from Spain. It was these sentiments that were a driving force for early independence movements in the Americas after the Spanish crown was toppled and Napoleon placed his brother, Joseph, on the Spanish thrown. Joseph, while no better or worse a ruler than any other monarch, was not at all accepted by the Spanish peoples, inside or outside of Spain. The insurgency in Spain was one of the most violent (eclipsed only by the Russian campaign) experienced during the Napoleonic Wars, and the refutation of Joseph as legitimate ruler in Spain was contested in the colonies as well as Spain.

The Portuguese crown, on the other hand, withdrew to Brazil with the aid of the British, with whom they were close allies. The contrast to revolutionary events in Brazil and Spanish America is startling and displays the strength and legitimacy of the monarchies in both countries. In Brazil, devotion and loyalty to the Crown only increased to the point that Brazilians would become a quasi-separate empire with close ties to Portugal. The Brazilian emperor, Pedro I, was the son of the Portuguese King, João VI.

It wasn’t only the Creole, however, who felt the effects of the Napoleonic Wars and the French Revolution. It was the French Revolution that gave Napoleon the opportunity to eventually become the French Emperor. The central ideas of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité from the French Revolution influenced others, not only in Europe but in the Americas as well, to seek liberty and equality, especially in Latin America, where the caste system kept so many bound and limited in any type of personal or social advancement. One of the earliest and greatest examples of this is personified in Father Miguel Hidalgo of Mexico. Hidalgo was a talented rhetorician who was able to convince many of the poorer in Mexico to unite under the motto of “Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe, and death to the Spaniards” (103). The Virgin of Guadalupe had become a powerful symbol of Mexican identity. The revolt failed and Hidalgo was executed, but there would be others like Father José María Morelos, who would continue the struggle he began.

The pace and direction independence took in areas marked as “fringes of civilization” further illustrates the power and legitimacy the Spanish Crown held in its colonies. Naturally, the Spanish focused their powers of influence in the areas that brought them the most profit, areas like Mexico and Peru. Other areas, such as Argentina and Venezuela, on the other hand, experienced much more autonomy during the colonial era than the richer areas. Therefore, as revolutionary and independent movements fomented, these areas garnered independence quicker. In Argentina, for example, Spanish control was quickly sloughed on the 22nd of May 1810, and a junta was formed to rule the country. However, the transition from colony to independent nation was fraught with difficulties as Buenos Aires was the only real urban center in the area while the rest was very rural. Thus, political turmoil ensued, and the country didn’t really coalesce until 1820.

Other than transculturation and hegemony, the simple fact of extreme ethnic diversity helped keep the colonial powers in control for so long. When the Creole wanted to garner support for any revolutionary activities, they quickly discovered that the commoner had little reason to support them—whether their lives were controlled by a rich person from Mexico City or Madrid mattered little to them. Thus, as people like Hidalgo and Morales quickly discovered, they needed to find a unifying topic to ignite revolutionary sentiments throughout the population. This was extremely difficult in a land with so much diversity. A rich Creole, a poor mestizo farmer, an Indigenous person trying to maintain a traditional way-of-life, and an African enslaved person shared little in common. However, the notion of transculturation had, by the 19th century, created something uniquely Latin American. It was this nativist identity and a hope in bringing a greater sense of equality into a new social system that was able to rouse the hearts and minds of so many diverse people to fight for a common cause. The notions of the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution that preached liberty and equality were ideas greatly desired by the lower classes. Unfortunately, those ideals would require centuries to obtain, and even today the ideal of true equality and liberty is still being sought and fought for.