Unintended consequences - French Revolution, Napoleon

What is a "nation?"

difference for peoples living in France, England; from those living in the Empires - Holy Roman Empire, Habsburg Empire, Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire, etc.
Spanish and Portuguese Empires in the Americas

Enlightenment ideals - promoted by American and French revs - fredom, equality, popular sovereignty

appealed to peoples throughout Europe and the Americas

in the Caribbean and South America - inspired revolutionary movts: slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue rose against their overlords, estab independent republic of Haiti

Euro-American leaders mounted independence movts in Central America and South America

and the ideals of the Am and Fr revs also encouraged social reformers to organize broader programs of liberation

whereas Am and Fr revs guaranteed political and legal rights to white men; social reofrmers sought to extend these rights to women and slaves of African ancestry

in 19th c, all European and Euro-American states abolished slavery - but former slvaes and their descendants remained an underprivileged and often oppressed class in most of the Atlantic world

the quest for women's rights also proceeded very slowly in 19th c.

Haitian Revolution

only successful slave revolt - Caribbean island of Hispaniola - in aftermath of the French rev.
by 18th c, Hispaniola a major center of sugar production - hundreds of prosperous plantations
the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo occupied the eastern part of the island [modern Dominican Republic] and the French colony of Saint-Domingue occuped the western part [modern Haiti]

Saint-Domingue one of richest of all European colonies - sugar, coffee, cotton produced there - almost 1/3 of France's total foreign trade.

ub 1790 - population of Saint-Domingue:  40,000 white French settlers; 30,000 gens de couleur [free people of color, including mulattoes and freed slaves]; and about 500,000 black slaves, most of whom were born in Africa.

by late 18th c - many communities of maroons - escaped slaves
maintained their own societies; attacked plantations;
as planters lost laborers, imported new slaves from Africa -

the Am and Fr revs paved way for a violent political and social revolution in Saint-Domingue
because French suported North American colonists vs British rule; colonial governors in Saint-Domingue sent about 800 gens de couleur to fight in the american war of independence

there they became familiar with ideas of freedom and equality; returned to Saint-Domingue with intent to reform society

when Fr rev broke out in 1789 - white settlers sought right to govern themselves; but opposed proposals to grant political and legal equality to the gens de couleur;

by 1791, civil war broke out

the conflict expanded dramatically when a charismatic Vodou priest named Boukman organized a slave revolt;  some 12,000 slaves began killing white settlers, burning homes, destorying plantations

within a few weeks, rebels attracted 100,000 slaves into their ranks

Saint-Domingue descended into chaos as white, gens de couleur, and slaves fought each other

slave leaders found recruits in the maroon communities; foreign armies soon complicated the situation

French troops arrived in 1792 to restore order; and British and Spanish forces intervened in 1793 in hopes of benefitting from France's dificulties

Boukman died while fighting; but the slave forces eventually overcame white settlers, gens de couleur, and foreign armies

leadership of Francois-Dominigue Toussaint - who added the name Louverture - from the French l'ouverture - meaning "the opening"

son of slaves, learned to read and write from a Catholic priest - had worked as a domestic servant because of his education

when the slave revolt broke out in 1791 - he helped his masters escape; then left and joined the rebels.

a skilled organizer - by 1793 - built a strong army - played French, british and Spanish forces vs each other;

by 1797 he led an army of 20,000 that controlled most of Saint-Domingue

in 1801 he issued a constitution that granted eqaulity and citizenship to all residents - stopped short of declaring independence from France - didnot want to provoke napoleon into attacking the island

but in 1802 - Napoleon sent 20,000 troops to restore order - Toussaint tried to negotiate a peaceful settlement; but the French commander arrested him, sent him to France, died in jail in 1803.

by the time he died, however, yellow fever ravaged the French army - black generals defeated the remaining troops and drove them out; in late 1803 - they declared independence; and on 1 January 1804 - proclaimed the establishment of Haiti

named after a mountain - became the second independent republic in the western hemisphere
 

Wars of Independence in Latin America

revolutionary ideals traveled to most of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas - governed by peninsulares [colonial officials]; these colonies had a large, wealthy, and powerful class of Euro-American criollos [creoles] - people born in the Americas of Spanish or Portuguese ancestry

by about 1800, were about 30,000 peninsulares and 3.5 million creoles.

the Iberian colonies had a large population - 10 million - of less privileged classes

Black slaves were a majority in Brazil; but elsewhere, indigenous peoples and mixed most numerous

Creoles benefited in 18th c - estab planations, ranches--took part in trade with Spain and Portugal

but had grievances - did not like admin control and economic regulations imposed by the Iberian powers - like in British North America.

drew inspiration from Enlightenment political thought - some tax revolts and popular uprisings

tried to displace the peninsulares - but kep their own privileged position.

political independence, on model of the United States - struck them as a good alternative to colonial status

betw 1810 and 1825 - creoles led movts that brought independence to most Iberian colonies in the Americas - and estab the Euro-American elites as the dominant powers in their societies.

their struggle for independence began in wake of Napoleon's invasion of Spain and Portugal in 1807 - weakened royal authority in the colonies

by 1810 - revolts vs Spanish rule in Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico.  the most serious, a peasant rebellion in Mexico led by Miguel de Hidalgo--put down by the creoles - executed.

colonial rule came there to an end in 1821 - when a creole general seized the capital, named himself emperor of Mexico; eclared independence from Spain - he was soon thereafter overthrown by the creoles who established a republic.

then in 1824 - southern regions of the MExican empire declared their own independence = formed a central american federation; and then in 1838 - split into the independent states of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicarague, and Costa Rica.

in South America - creoles like Simon Bolivar - a republican steeped in Enlightenment ideas about popular sovereignty

inspired by example of George Washington - took up arms vs Spanish rule in 1811 - in 1819 defeated the Spanish in Colombia;  his goal - to weld the former Spanish colonies of South America into a confederation like the United States -

in the 1820s, Venezuela, COlombia and Ecuador formed a republic called Gran Colombia--he tried to bring Peru and Bolivia into the confederation []the latter named after him]

but strong regional differences - confederation disintegrated into a number of states - he then said that South America was "ungovernable"

Brazil gained independence at same time - when Napoleon invaded Portugal in 1807 - the royal court fled, estab a court in exile in Rio de Janeiro - returned to Portugal in 1821 - but left a regent - in 1822 - creoles demanded independence and the regent agreed.  appointed the regent as Emperor Pedro I

everywhere slavery was kept - the creoles were the main beneficiaries.