Bolivar Essay

The Mexican Revolution involved many bloody conflicts, which covered two decades, and the loss of 900,000 lives. The Revolution began on November 20, 1910, to overthrow the current ruler and dictator Porfirio Díaz Mori. Díaz was one determined president and wanted to develop Mexico into an industrial and modernized country. While he worked on implementing a capitalist society building factories, roads, dams which had many rural and peasant’s workers suffered greatly.

As a mix of diverse people gave rise to a new social structure and introduced a cultural blending in the Spanish empire, located in Latin America, eventually a growing population of lower-classed non-white people became angered at the privileges of the whites. Being denied the status, wealth and power that were given to whites, the mestizos and the mulattoes resented the Spanish. Masses of enslaved Africans and the many populations that were looked down upon suffered economic misery and longed for freedom, eventually leading revolutions across Latin America. Those revolted were motivated by love for one’s race and freedom, like what Father Miguel Hidalgo says in Document A of the Latin American DBQ, “we are not Europeans; we are not Indians;

     There was a huge revolution in the country of Mexico that started in the year 1910, led by Porfirio Diaz, the president of Mexico in 1910. In the 1860’s Diaz was important to Mexican politics and then was elected president in 1877. Diaz said that he would only be president for one year and then would resign, but after four years he was re-elected as the President of Mexico. Porfirio Diaz and the Mexican revolution had a huge impact on the country of Mexico that is still felt in some places today.

The Mexican Revolution began as a movement of the middle class protesting against the long-standing dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. Diaz was an army officer who had came to power after a coup against former president Benito Juárez. Unlike Juárez, Diaz established a stable political system, in which the Constitution of 1857 was bypassed, local political bosses (caciques) controlled elections, political opposition, and public order, while a handful of powerful families and their clients monopolized economic and political power in the provinces.

The Independence of Latin America was a process caused by years of injustices, discriminations, and abuse, from the Spanish Crown upon the inhabitants of Latin America. Since the beginning the Spanish Crown used the Americas as a way to gain riches and become greater in power internationally. Three of the distinct causes leading Latin America to seek independence from Spain, were that Spain was restricting Latin America from financial growth, (this included restrictions from the Spain on international trade, tax burden, and laws which only allowed the Americas to buy from Spain), The different social groups within Latin America, felt the pressure of the reforms being implicated on them

Comprised of landowners, lawyers, judges, priests, military officers and public officials, the creole and mazomba leaders of Latin American society found insatiable inspiration from the American and French Revolutions of the eighteenth century, and flooded Latin America with a liberal movement for independent nations. Conservatives, in contrast, sought to preserve the traditions of the colonial period, and the Orthodox rule of both the church and foreign-born royal authorities. Yet Old World flavor soured bitterly in a New World teeming with liberal thinkers and daring rebels. Desiring to surpass Old World peninsular and reinós rulers, creole and mazomba won control over local resources and economic development.

Simón Bolívar was said to be a revolutionary during the period of the early nineteenth century because he wanted to change Latin America. His goal was to promote change and gain independence for the Latin American states from Spanish rule, and

During the 18th and 19th century, from 1776 to 1804, two nations were fighting for their independence. Latin America and America wanted to free themselves from their mother colonies that were dominating them. They had independence movements in which they fought for their freedom. The American Revolution and the Latin American Revolution were similar because they had similar motivations for the causes of their movements. Both of the nations were inspired by ideas of the Enlightenment such as natural rights. Both nations were also experiencing mercantilism by their mother colonies, Spain and Great Britain, and wanted to free themselves and control their own economies. Although they had similar goals, the consequences of these events were different. Americans were more united and had a representative form of government, which granted more equality to their citizens than Latin Americans, who had less unity because of the various ethnic groups, resulting in rigid differences in social class.

Mexico was building up to its revolution long before activists like Francisco Madero and Emiliano Zapata. From 1840 to 1910; Mexico went from a war-torn and newly freed nation to a nation on the brink of civil war. How did it get there? Through a series of wars, leaders, and policies, which proved causation politically, socially, and economically to the Mexican Revolution.

With other Latin American uprisings occurring Simon Bolivar led the South American independence. Bolivar was a wealthy Creole born in Venezuela but educated in Spain. Influenced by Enlightenment ideas, Bolivar called for independence for all South Americans. He gained firm control of his native Venezuela in 1819. His armies then turned toward Columbia and Ecuador. In the south Jose de San Martin rallied Argentinean forces against Spain. Bolivar and San Martin met in Peru, which became independent along with Upper Peru (Bolivia) in 1824. Although Bolivar was unsuccessful in uniting South Americans into a single nation, he is known as the continent's "liberator."

Simon Bolivar, who had a reputation of being a liberator, took center stage. The common folk began to trust his words, as he talked about fighting for the resources that were theirs, ideals taken directly from the American Revolution itself. Also with the power struggle created by the Napoleonic wars, uprisings began. The most prominent of this movement was the uprising in Chuquisaca in 1809, which led to the formation of the Government Juntas. This group focused on taking the power from the Spanish and giving it to the people. Seeing the movement in Bolivia take shape, Latin Nations such as Peru began to provide military support to Bolivian liberators. Surprisingly, America didn’t live up to its reputation, having no negative impact on this revolution. Normally, America had been notorious for backing up the dictators or colonial powers and suppressing the Latin liberators. All in all, the combination of a power struggle brought upon by foreign wars, introduction of revolutionary independence ideals, proper leadership, and foreign aid, the Bolivian revolution was successful in liberating the nation from Spanish Colonial power after 16 years of conflict.

After the victory there was a split between the two revolution leaders due to differences in direction for Mexico. The Constitutionalist

The Latin American revolution did not fulfill the goals of the revolution. Although they gained independence from Spain, the social construct did not change. This is the opposite of the Haitian Revolution. In Haiti, the slaves fought against slavery in many violent protest including burning of plantations. Ultimately, the whole social construct reversed from French officials and les grands blancs on top and the slaves on the bottom to les grands blancs not being a part of society and the slaves on top. In the long run, the large plantations supported the whole economy of Haiti and once slavery was abolished, the small farms did not come close to the same profit. In this way, the economical impact of the revolution was not successful, but the

Prior to its independence Latin America had been controlled by external forces for hundreds of years. To be freed of control from these outside interests did not in any way guarantee Latin America a return to the status quo. In fact, the inhabitants of Latin America had done very well in assimilating their in house controllers. They adopted European language, religion, color, and just about everything else that the European culture had to offer them. Although they were free to do as they please and run their own affairs in the global neighborhood as we know it, they struggled to create an entity for themselves. They embody too much of what is not native to their region, yet the people that used to represent their land 500 years earlier

Throughout its history Mexico has had many revolutions. The most famous perhaps is the Mexican Revolution from 1910-1920. The people of Mexico were getting tired of the dictator rule of President Porfino Diaz. People of all classes were fighting in the revolution. The middle and upper classes were dissatisfied with the President’s ways. The lower and working class people had many factors such as poor working conditions, inflation, inferior housing, low wages, and deficient social services. Within the classes everyone was fighting; men, women, and children all contributed to the fight for freedom from Diaz (Baxman 2). This revolution proved to be the rise and fall of many leaders.