The Revolutions

Blanca IzaguirreLopez
World Civilizations II: HIS 104
Juli Gatling Book
July 25, 2011












The Americas, France, and Latin America began to dissolve by a colonial ruler from
Great Britain, Spain and Portugal. From the start they all wanted to break away from oppression
and gain their independence. The common idea of revolution in the Americas, France, and Latin
America was to gain their own independence and abolish slavery and the oppression of womens
rights. North America asserted their independence from Great Britain and founded a new nation,
France put away the French monarchy and reorganized French society, and Latin America
sought independence from Spanish, Portuguese colonial rule- and in Saint Domingue, revolution
also led to the end of slavery and independence from Spanish rule.
America finally found independence on 4 July 1776, with the Continental Congress
adopting the Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America. It stated that all men are
created equal, and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights also that
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. France had many issues to solve
which led to the French revolution. In 1780, half of the population from the French royal
government was used to pay off war debts. The French supported the war of American
independence, and the other quarter was armed forces. Latin America, Mexico, Argentina, and
Venezuela peasants were led by a priest by the name of Miguel De Hidalgo (1753-1811), who
was dependent on indigenous people and mestizos against colonial rule.
The French National Assembly endowed with the power of speech the principles under
the influence of the American Revolution with The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen. It was known as the proclamation of mans equality, also declared The Sovereignty,
and it resided in the people, and asserted individual rights to liberty, property, and security. In
1780-1791, the National Assembly took the Liberty, equality and fraternity as its goal, putting
an end to the old social order. It forced and obligated the church in French society by seizing
church lands and ending the first estate.
The Central American Federation was formed in 1836 when the independent states of
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica split from the Mexican Empire.
The most noticeable figure in South America revolution was Simon Bolivar (1783-1830). He
was determined to bring the Spanish colonies of South America into the confederacy like the
Americans. In the 1820s, the independent states of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and
Bolivia formed the republic: Gran Colombia. However, the confederation broke up into parts and
a bitter Bolivar deemed that South America was ungovernable.
Brazil was able to achieve independence as a monarchy rather than a republic, even
though the creole elites ran Brazilian society. They were granted militant to strongman, or
cuadillos, and allowed the constitution of slavery along with the wealth and authority to the
Roman Catholic Church instead of the repressed lower orders.
The Womens and slaves rights were another reason for the break out of the revolution.
A man named Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) was a free slave and was joined by a well-known
English philanthropist, William Wilberforce who both rallied to abolish slavery in the Americas.
The British pressure banned the commerce of slavery with other nations ultimately following
suit. The United States followed in 1808, France in 1814, The Netherlands in 1817, and Spain in
1845. Slave trade died slowly yet illegal trade of African slaves continued. The last
documentation of carrying slaves on ships across the Atlantic Ocean into Cuba was in 1864.
Stopping slavery was a bigger issue than ending the slave trade. Slave owners had
property rights to their slaves. The planters and merchants resisted the efforts to alter the system
that provided them the overflow of supplies and inexpensive labor. The end of the slave trade
doomed the institution of slavery in the Americas. In Haiti, it came with a revolution. In most of
South America, slavery ended with the freedom from Spanish rule. In Mexico in 1829, slavery
ended mainly to abolish residents of the United States from coming into Mexico with their slaves
to plant cotton. In 1833, the British Empire offered 20 million pounds of sterling as a gift to
slave owners to abolish slaverysoon France followed in 1848, the United States in 1865, Cuba
in 1886, and Brazil in 1888.
Putting an end to African/African-American slavery brought legal freedom but it did not
bring political freedom. In most lands except Haiti, African-American people had little influence
in society. Property requirements, literacy test, poll taxes, and campaigns of intimidation all
successfully prevented African-Americans from voting. Emancipation also did not bring social
and economic improvements to former slaves and their blood relatives. Creole elites also owned
most of the property in the Americas and kept blacks in subordination by forcing them to accept
low-paying work. A few African-Americans owned small plots of land; they still couldnt
challenge the economic and political power of creole elites.
Womens rights also brought revolution to the Americas and France. Women found
that they suffered the same legal disabilities as slaves. They hardly had any access to education,
they could not enter into professional occupations that required advanced education, and they
were legally deprived the right to vote.
In the 18th century, advocates of womens rights became active in Britain, France and
North America. A British writer name Mary Wollstoncraft (1759-1797) published a considerably
important essay, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, that argued that women possessed
all rights that John Locke granted to menthe right of women to have an education, would make
them better mothers and wives, and would also enable them to contribute to society by preparing
them professional occupations and a participation in political life.
French revolution also brought the following rights to women: free public education,
wives were allowed a share of family property, and to get a marriage dissolved by an Act of
Parliament; but it still didnt bring women the right to vote or have major roles in public affairs.
Revolutions also only brought the United States and Latin Americas legal equality and political
rights to white adult males only and still allowed them to retain patriarchal authority over their
wives and family. Social reformers, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), helped organized
a conference of feminists at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. It passed twelve resolutions
demanding lawmakers to grant women rights equivalent to men: the right to vote, attend public
school, enter into professional occupations, and participate in public affairs.
The revolutionary wars in America, France, and Latin America all had their
independence from colonial rule from Great Britain, Spain and Portugal. While it did bring
independence, slaves and women still had no rights such as voting, education, professional
occupations, and participation in public affairs. Other movements, or revolutions, resulted in
order to gain slaves and women the rights equal to adult white males.





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