Revolution in Latin America

Day 2

Life is a highway…

• In the movie Cars, Lightening McQueen falls in love with another culture and eventually helps change things for the better.

• Similarly, the Enlightenment was about bringing about CHANGE.

• The Creoles were sent to Europe for education (a key ingredient to the Enlightenment) just in time to learn from Enlightenment philosophers. They returned to Latin America to realize that things needed to CHANGE!

Oh the places you’ll go….

• When the Creoles returned home, they led the majority of the independence movements against the Spanish governments.

The brave and the bold

• But the Creoles weren’t alone in seeing the injustice of the social pyramid.

• The Mulattos and Mestizos chose to join in the quest for independence.

Nothing to fear…..

Napoleon’s attempts to unite the world under French power further scared the Creoles. They wanted freedom from Napoleon, just like the European powers did.

We learn history so…..

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This led to an increase in nationalism in Latin America.

This is similar to the effect Napoleon had on Europe that we discussed last week. What’s that about history repeating itself?

Something borrowed….

The revolutionary ideas that were spreading in Europe inspired creoles and the other lower classes to begin fighting for the rights and equality not allowed by their class systems.

Fighting for Freedom….

The Creoles and other lower classes used Enlightenment ideals like Locke’s belief in a social contract and combined it with nationalism to start a fight for freedom from Spain!