Latin American Independence: The Fight For Independence In Latin America

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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.
Independence movements in Latin America were inspired the successful revolution in the United States and the ideas of the enlightenment reaching them. People in the colonies wanted free trade and press as …show more content…

These ideas from the enlightenment should have helped the new countries to establish a strong democracy. The Enlightenment also fueled the desire for equality before the law, free trade, and free press. The American Revolution should have helped to create a democracy, because it should have showed that a recently freed country could be successful with a new government and not simply fall to pieces. The Latin American colonies also had Although Simon Bolivar was considered to be the George Washington of Latin America, he did suggest that the people could struggle to form a republic because

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