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The Age of Revolutions
The United States Revolution from the British Empire inspired a series of revolutions throughout both the new and old world. Inspired by their enlightened ideas the French followed suit and established their own republic issuing the declaration of rights of man. This made way for the republic of San Dominque to rebel and establish the republic of Haiti. When Napoleon marched into the Iberian peninsula it weakened both Portugal and Spains ability to hold onto their colonies. This allowed Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to become independent of their old world leaders.
Chapter 12 of the Atlantic World chooses to focus on Simon Bolivar, class struggles between the Creoles and the poor, and racial struggles, but what captured my attention was a central theme to the class. This theme was introduced during our reading of treacherous rivers in North America and the increase trials of treason, the theme of interpreting what a monarch would want while furthering their own political gain. We see this theme throughout the chapter with the formation of Juntas in Spanish America, these juntas claim to be enacting the will of Ferdinand VII yet leave some things open for interpretation. The most prominent decisions of the Juntas is the establishment of free trade which was extremely beneficial for the merchants in the New world. The Juntas provided several rights to its citizens and were set up as a form of autonomous governments, for as long as Joseph Bonapart sat on the Spanish throne. These autonomous governments would play a pivotal role during the age of revolution.