3. Division of Latin American society:
Peninsulares – men who were born in Spain. They were
the only ones who could hold high office positions in the
government.
Creoles – Spanish people who were born in Latin
America. They could rise as officers in the Spanish
colonial armies.
Mestizos – people of mixed European and Indian
ancestry.
Mulattos – people of mixed European and African
ancestry.
Africans – enslaved and free
Indians – natives to the land, they had little economic
value and were severely oppressed.
4. Hierarchy of Latin American Society
Peninsulares
Creoles
Mestizos
Mulattos
Africans
Indians
5. Divisions of Spanish Colonial Society
7%
8%
23%
56%
6%
1789
Mestizos
Mulattos
Peninsulares and Creoles
Indians
Africans
6. Hispaniola
An island in the
Caribbean which was
made up of the French
land of Saint Dominigue
(now Haiti) and the
Spanish land Santo
Domingo (now the
Dominican Republic.)
The majority of the
population was enslaved
Africans who worked the
plantations.
7. The majority of the population
was enslaved Africans who
worked the plantations.
August 14th, 1791, an African
voodoo priest named Dutty
Boukman performed a
sacrificial ceremony and
called for revolution. On
August 22nd, 1791 ,more than
100,000 slaves rose up in
Saint Dominigue killing all
whites they met and setting
plantations on fire.
The French, however, quickly captured Boukman, and beheaded
him, bringing the rebellion under control. Boukman had inspired
the slaves with the belief that he was invincible, so the French
displayed his head on a spike to convince them he was really dead.
8. The French negotiated a peace with him in May
of 1802 but later accused him of planning
another uprising and arrested him. He was sent
to a prison in the French Alps where he died
within 10 months in April, 1803.
Toussaint
L'Ouverture was the
son of an educated
slave who witnessed
the ineptitude of the
rebel leaders of
Boukman’s revolt.
Collecting an army
of his own,
L'Ouverture trained
his followers in
guerrilla warfare. He
took the lead in the
revolution and by
1801, moved his
troops into Spanish
Santo Domingo and
freed the slaves.
9. Haitian Emperor
Born around 1758, in
Africa, Jean-Jacques
Dessalines was enslaved in
the French colony of Saint-
Domingue. He served as a
lieutenant under Toussaint
L'Ouverture after the 1791
slave revolt and later
helped eliminated French
rule. On January 1, 1804,
he declared the colony an
independent country,
named it Haiti and
declared himself emperor.
Despised for his brutality, yet honored as
one of Haiti’s founding fathers, he was
killed in a revolt on October 17, 1806, in
Pont Rouge, near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
11. Bolivar was president of Gran
Colombia (1819–30)
and dictator of Peru (1823–26).
The Liberator -
Simón Bolívar was a
wealthy Venezuelan
creole born July 24,
1783 in Caracas, New
Granada. He was a
soldier and statesman
who led revolutions
against Spanish rule.
He declared Venezuela
free from Spain in
1811. He fought for 10
more years against the
Spanish to free
Venezuela and win
independence in 1821.
12. South American Libertadores
Jose de San Martin was a liberator who was
born in Argentina but spent much of his time
in Spain as a military officer. 1817, San
Martin led his Argentine army across the
Andes into Chile and joined the forces of
Bernardo O’Higgins (son of the former
viceroy of Peru) and freed Chile. 1821, San
Martin took his troops by sea to Lima, Peru
and was outnumbered by the Spanish troops
found there. He waited almost a year until
the Spanish fled the city to the mountains
and San Martin entered Lima. He declared
Peru’s independence on July 28, 1821 and
assumed title of protector. Fighting against
the Spanish would continue for Peru. San
Martin privately met with Bolivar in Ecuador
in 1822 which resulted in San Martin giving
up his protectorship of Peru. Bolivar took
over the job of fully liberating Peru with the
combined forces and went on to defeat the
Spanish at the Battle of Ayacucho (Peru) on
December 9, 1824.
Bernardo O’Higgins
13. Mexico Ends Spanish Rule
Miguel Hidalgo was a Mexican Catholic priest in Dolores,
Mexico. On September 16, 1810, Father Hidalgo rang the
church bell to announce revolution against the Spanish.
Indians and mestizos marched with Hidalgo and
captured major cities but were halted at the gates of the
capital. Hidalgo fled north but was caught and shot in
1811. The anniversary of his call is celebrated as Mexico's
Independence Day.
14. Although Hidalgo was
defeated in 1811, another
strong leader rose, Padre
Jose Maria Morelos. He led
the revolution for another
four years until he was
defeated by a royalist creole
officer named Agustin de
Iturbide in 1815. He was
captured, tried by the
Inquisition, defrocked and
executed for treason by a
firing squad on December
22, 1815.
15. By 1820, the Mexican independence
movement then performed a curious
about-face. In reaction to a liberal coup
d’état in Spain, the conservatives in
Mexico (formerly staunch royalists)
advocated immediate independence.
However, he lost control of the areas in
Central America when they declared
independence from Spain and
consequently Mexico in 1821. Iturbide
assumed command of the rebel army
eventually winning independence from
Spain on August 24, 1821. On May 19,
1822, Iturbide placed the crown upon
his own head and became Agustín I,
emperor of Mexico. Iturbide declared
himself emperor but his rule was short
lived and was overthrown in 1823.
An arbitrary and extravagant
ruler, all parties soon turned
against him. He was executed
when he returned from exile to
Mexico on July 19, 1824.
16. 1807- Napoleon’s
troops invaded the
Iberian Peninsula and
the Prince Regent
John VI (Regent for
Queen Maria I of
Portugal) and his
family along with his
court and royal
treasury boarded
ships and escaped to
Brazil. They lived
there in exile for 14
years.
The royal family preparing to move to Brazil
by Henry L'Evêque.
Brazil’s Royalty
17. Bloodless Revolution
After Napoleon’s defeat and
prompted by economic and
political problems, the
Portuguese royals returned
home in 1821 and expected
Brazil to resume being a
colony. However, the creoles
demanded Brazilian
independence in 1822.
8,000 Brazilians signed a
petition asking Dom Pedro,
King John’s son, to become the
ruler and he agreed.
September 7, 1822, Brazil
achieved independence
through a bloodless revolution.
Emperor Pedro I of Brazil in 1834, aged 35.