Good Essay On The Haitian Revolution Began In 1791 And Toussaint Louverture, A Mulatto, Was Its Most Popular Slave Leader.

Questions: Latin America and the Caribbean in the Nineteenth Century

Chapter 27
Vincent Oge organized an uprising against colonists in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now modern-day Haiti, which served as the precursor to the Haitian Revolution in 1791. A wealthy mulatto, Oge was on a business trip to Paris at a time when the French Revolution started, henceforth giving him exposure to the ideas of the Enlightenment.
Saint-Dominque in the island of Hispaniola (Haiti) produced half of the world’s sugar at the time the French Revolution broke out.
White settlers feared slave rebellions in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) because they were aware of the inadequacy of their fortifications against the large network of angry slaves vowing to torture and kill them in the most violent means possible.

Napoleon revoked the abolition of slavery in Saint-Dominque (Haiti) as part of his unsuccessful attempt to prevent the colony from becoming independent.
The Haitian Revolution was more radical than both the American and the French Revolutions because it put to test the abolition of slavery as a revolutionary ideology.

Miguel Hidalgo, a Catholic priest, was one of the leaders of the Mexican War of Independence.

The southeastern expansion of the United States (US) was due to the growing demand for cotton.
American settlers in Texas, then a Mexican territory, came into conflict with the Mexican government because they refused to learn Spanish, denied Roman Catholicism, rejected loyalty to Mexico and brought slavery with them.
President-Caudillo Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna attacked Alamo because it served as an outpost of Texan soldiers preventing Mexico from taking over Texas. The Alamo became a shrine of Texas liberty
Napoleon decided to sell Louisiana to the US in 1803 for USD 3,750,000 in order to enable France to have enough funds to curtail the Haitian Revolution and go to war against Great Britain.
Mexico ceded lands that formed, in part or whole, the modern-day states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming to the US following the Mexican-American War. Subsequently thereafter, the US discovered gold in the lands ceded by Mexico.
The Monroe Doctrine was a foreign policy of the US under President James Monroe established in 1823 that forbade European nations to further colonize parts of North or South America, without prejudice to the existing European colonies therein.
France, under Napoleon III, invaded Mexico in 1861. Napoleon III wanted to ensure that through French invasion, Mexico would not be as belligerent as it had been under the rule of President Benito Juarez, whose refusal to render interest payments to creditors, including France, has threatened free trade involving European nations in Latin America. Mining was foremost to the interests of Napoleon III on Mexico as it is rich in silver, alongside the goal of France to contain the power of Protestants in the US through the establishment of a Roman Catholic empire.
Porfirio Diaz served as President of Mexico for seven terms, within which the nation experienced exceptional levels of economic growth, modernization and foreign investment in heavy industries, amid the widening margin between the rich and the poor at the time.
The Mexican Revolution was held against the repressive regime of Diaz, which was characterized by income inequality and a host of other sociopolitical problems that sent Mexico into political decay. Emiliano Zapata, widely regarded as one of the national heroes of Mexico, was known for his work in demanding for political and economic reforms for Mexican peasants. Pancho Villa led northern Mexico in the Mexican Revolution against Diaz, with the vast resources of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which he has controlled, having served him with great advantage.
The pardos were mixed-race (African and European) people in Venezuela whose aversion towards white rule under the First Republic led them to remain loyal to the Spanish crown, henceforth leading to a racially-motivated civil war.
Vicente Emparan, the Governor and Captain General governing Venezuela on behalf of the Spanish Empire, was deposed by the juntas organized by criollos and pardos.
Simon Bolivar is a Venezuelan criollo statesman who was responsible for leading several Latin American colonies collectively known as the Gran Colombia (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela) towards independence from the Spanish Empire. Bolivar became President of the Gran Colombia in 1819.

Jose de San Martin is a general from Argentina who led Peru towards independence in 1821.

Caudillos failed to establish development in Latin America due to the repressive nature of their dictatorial regimes that prevented the creation of institutions suitable for economic growth.

The United States completed the Panama Canal in 1914.

The Spanish Empire protected the region of Potosi due to its vast mineral deposits and the fact that it is home to the Spanish colonial mint.
Juan Manuel de Rosas was the Governor of Buenos Aires in Argentina widely regarded as one of the first dictators who ruled in post-independence Latin America. The gauchos were members of private militias maintained by wealthy landowners within Argentina. De Rosas was deposed following his defeat from the Platine War.

The caudillos dominated the politics and economics of South America after independence.

The rule of Pedro I led Brazil to liberal-oriented reforms that helped the nation in its transition from absolutism to a government characterized by representation.

The importation of slaves in Brazil ended in 1888, with slavery having been abolished in the nation during the same year.

Following independence from both the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, Latin America fell into complete political and economic disarray. Institutions conducive for economic growth failed to follow through, as a string of authoritarian regimes, ran by caudillos, swept through several Latin American nations, inevitably influenced by the ways of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires. Resources, most notably cash crops and minerals, were milked from the recesses of Latin American nations and were distributed almost exclusively to the elite, particularly the ruling and landed classes. The militarization of Latin American society was also borne out of the excesses of the authoritarian regimes whose political repression prevented economic growth to settle in through suitable institutions. Inevitably, a string of civil wars have flourished throughout Latin America as a sign of increasing dissent against the authoritarian regimes. Today, as an unwanted legacy of the post-independence struggles of Latin America, Latin American nations are having difficulties in terms of reaching political and economic development away from poverty, unequal distribution of wealth and political oppression, among many others.

Works Cited

Von Sivers, Peter, Desnoyers, Charles, and George Stow. Patterns of World History: Since 1750. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.