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Latin America’s independence kicked of with the independence of Haiti. Before the the independence movement that overtook Latin America, Haiti had gained independence twenty years before the movement. The Spanish Empire had been in decline for a period of time after the rise of the English empire and many failed battles on the Spanish (class notes). The French Revolution and the American Revolution had inspired many of the Latin American countries to fight for independence (Chapter 3). They were inspired by the Enlightenment that washed over Europe. Of the inspired, one man stood out and took the movement by heart. Simón Bolívar had become an iconic leader for the independence of countries throughout South America. He made his way throughout …show more content…
From the beginning, the Catholic church had imposed catholicism unto the natives, they were either killed or converted. Today, catholicism persists as the region’s main religious source, but evangelicals are cropping up in areas and is steadily growing in the region. The church had forced their religion on the people of the Americas and had no respect for the religions practiced by the people there. Mayans, Aztecs, and the Incas had different religions and practiced borrowed traditions from each other. The Spanish had completely disregarded their faith and literally tore down their religion and placed their own upon their ruins. After the decline of the Catholic church in Europe, the Spanish were eager to set up other territories and force them to follow their ways and expand the church across hemispheres (Class Notes). Modern Catholicism has taken a stance on social justice and has recently been geared towards helping those in need. This practice is known as Liberation Theology; it has been condemned by many Latin American governments and the church. Currently, Pope Francis, favors liberation theology, but the two Popes before him have adamantly opposed this way of thinking. He made it clear that social justice should take center stage, but with previous oppositions, the idea will likely not take off (Chapter …show more content…
Protestantism and Pentecostalism has risen to 15% of the population. Their members are mostly poor or part of the working class. Their ministers are from the same social class as its members, unlike catholicism where most priests come from the elites of the neighborhood. The rise of evangelicals has surprised the region and has grown exponentially. African-Inspired religions have also prevailed when they were forced to come to the Americas. Voodoo and Santería are some of the main religions practiced in Latin America.Voodoo is commonly practiced in Haiti and Santería is practiced throughout Cuba and Puerto Rico. Santería times their rituals to those of the Catholic church, such as Easter and Christmas. Judaism is practiced by about 500,000 Jews in the region. Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil host large communities and are faced with large amounts of anti-semitism leftover from Spanish hatred. The Jewish and Muslims were forced out of Spain, even those who had converted to catholicism, by the Spanish Inquisition. This systemic hatred had taken root in Latin America (Class
This paper will be exploring the book The Vanguard of the Atlantic World by James Sanders. This book focuses upon the early 1800 to the 1900 and explores the development of South American political system as well expresses some issues that some Latino counties had with Europe and North America. Thus, Sanders focus is on how Latin America political system changes throughout this certain time and how does the surrounding countries have an effect as well on Latin political system. Therefore, the previous statement leads into some insight on what the thesis of the book is. Sanders thesis is, “Latin American’s believed they represented the future because they had adopted Republicanism and democracy while Europe was in the past dealing with monarchs
The leadership in South America compared to the leadership in Mexico was quite different. But in some areas, where they were compared were very similar. In both places, a Revolution had begun. Starting with how they are both similar, Mexico and South America both wanted independence. They wanted to be free from the old fashioned ways of life, to start fresh and bring in new ideas to their people. In South America, their head leadership consisted of so very popular men named Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin. These men were both wealthy, Simon was a Venezuela Creole, which is a Spaniard born in Latin America, and Jose was a great liberator, or a person who sets people free from imprisonment. In some ways these two men worked together to gain their independence but then again not at all. In 1811, Simon had gained its independence from Spain. A major struggle, that was only the beginning. Simon suffered from many defeats and was exiled twice. But he never gave up hope. In a turning point, Simon led over 20,000 soldiers into Columbia and took a victory from the Spanish Bogota. By 1821 he had won Venezuelan independence. From here he marched into South Ecuador where he met Jose. Simon’s ways of gaining independence was only the beginning of South Americas revolution.
“Latin America includes the entire continent of South America, as well as Mexico. Central America, and the Caribbean Islands. Physical geography has played an important role in the economic development of Latin America.” (Doc A and Doc G) Latin America has many unique cultural characteristics, industrial products, agricultural products, and human activity.
The caudillo often came from the creole aristocracy, which was supported by the military and the Roman Catholic Church. Occasionally, a mestizo or mulatto took power who quickly adopted the characteristics of the upper class. The main problem with having a creole in power was that his const...
A question that every high school student is faced with is: “What extracurricular activities so you participate in?” Some can answer confidently while others are slapped with a moment of sudden realization. These people are just floating along with the crowd, with no driving force or motivation. What I believe differentiates me from my peers and gives me a sense of uniqueness, is what I do outside of my academia. Out of the deluge of activities that are available, Latinos In Action is the one that I feel the most passionate about and shapes my persona the most.
The increase and changing demography in the United State today, with the disparities in the health status of people from different cultural backgrounds has been a challenge for health care professionals to consider cultural diversity as a priority. It is impossible for nurses and other healthcare professionals to learn and understand theses diversity in culture, but using other approaches like an interpreter is very helpful for both nurses and patients. In this paper of a culturally appropriate care planning, I will be discussing on the Hispanic American culture because, I had come across a lot of them in my career as a nurse. The Hispanic are very diverse in terms of communication and communities and include countries like Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South and Central America, and some of them speak and write English very well, some speaks but can’t write while some can’t communicate in English at all but Spanish.
Latin American Independence was the drive for independence from Spain and France by the Latin American people. There were many contributing factors that ultimately led to the uprising of Latin American colonies. Europe's strong hold on the economic and political life of Latin America, was creating friction between the Latin Colonies and the European nations. Eventually, this would become enough for the Latin American people and the drive for independence from France and Spain would begin.
After gaining independence from Spain and Portugal in the 1820s, Latin American colonies had a lot ahead of them. They had to establish their own governments and economies in the midst of recovering from wars. Founding these was going to be difficult as they had been under colonial rule for a long time and there was a lot of unrest in the colonies. Although it would have been difficult there was great potential for a strong economy and democracy. This potential stemmed from a few things. A strong economy would have been possible because Latin America is rich with minerals, gold, and silver. Democracy also seemed attainable, in part from the ideas that started independence movements, including enlightenment ideas and the successful revolution in the United States. A democracy appeared to be very possible but there were also concerns that the newly freed colonies would struggle to establish a strong government, these concerns were addressed by Simon Bolivar in The Jamaica Letter.
The Yoruba people, who were brought over from Nigeria as slaves, came to the Caribbean in the 1500’s with their own religion, which was seen as unfit by the white slave owners. Most plantation owners in the Caribbean were members of the Roman Catholic Church, so they forced their slaves to disregard their native religions and become Catholic. Soon, the slaves realized that they could still practice their West African religion as long as it was disguised as Catholicism, and Santería was born. Now it’s practiced in the United States, Cuba, the Caribbean, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Great Britain, Canada, Venezuela, and Panama.
It was in the mid eighteenth century when the idea of independence began in Ecuador. Ideas of Enlightenment began to spread throughout Europe and slowly leaked into parts of Ecuador. The Enlightenment embodied ideas of nationalism, individuality, equality and most importantly freedom. During this time the Spanish economy was also falling apart. With all this going on it seemed like the perfect time to fight for independence. However, no action was made until the Criollos expressed their displeasure with the current regime. The Criollos were people of pure spanish descent, but were born in the “new world”. They began to hate all the people who came directly from Spain because of all the privilege they received, so in 1809 they began to fight for independence.
Most of the current population (68%) is mestizo, while the Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Germans are about 21% of the population. Africans are around 8-10% of the population, while Native Americans take up 2%.
Scholars have debated not only the nature of Iberian colonialism, but also the impact that independence had on the people of Latin America. Historian Jaime E. Rodriguez said that, “The emancipation of [Latin America] did not merely consist of separation from the mother country, as in the case of the United States. It also destroyed a vast and responsive social, political, and economic system that functioned well despite many imperfections.” I believe that when independence emerged in Latin America, it was a positive force. However, as time progressed, it indeed does cause conflict.
At the end of the 18th century, there were many revolts in the Spanish Americas, but these insurgencies didn’t have the intention to bring independence, in fact they fought corrupt officials and the implementation of the Bourbon reforms, in the name of the king. These revolts didn’t evolve into movements of independence because of the remoteness of the cities that they occurred in and the magnitude of the Spanish Americas, the Bourbon reforms weren’t set in place at the same time in all places, so people weren’t discontent simultaneously, there were deep social divisions at the time, and the political theory and ideas that these movements had weren’t those of independence. Although this was true, a few decades later in the early 19th century,
Powers N. R., 1992, The Transition to Democracy in Paraguay: Problems and Prospectus, University of Notre Dame
Burns, Bradford E. Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2002.