Latin American Independence

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The Wars of Independence in Latin America caused a transition in the region. Under the control of the Spanish, all American-born subjects were subjects to unequal treatments in the land they resided in. The Creoles were in charge of planning the rebellions against the Spaniards, such as Simon Bolivar, ot achieve independance. The transition from colonial to independent status took a while to achieve. There were different reasons as to why the Wars of Independence took place to begin with. One such reason is the tension between the Creoles and Peninsulares . The Creoles in the late 18th century, held government offices and were seen as an improvement. That shifted when the Bourbons decided to change the policies in the Americas. One of the…show more content…
Latin America changed from an absolute monarchy to a republican model. With the king gone, the power should be placed under a written constitution (Safford, 357). Most of the constitutions in the independent states were based on the social contract. Most of the ideas came from the Enlightment Age and based on the constitutions of the USA. There were early influences to create constitutions in Independent Latin America in the form of the Cadiz Constitution of 1812. It was the first taste for Americanos of a system government that gave them individual rights. There were two ways to run the early republics in Latin America. One-way is to let the educated elites run the republican government (Safford 364). The people gave their trust to the elites because they were the ones that had a better understanding to run a government. The problems with the new republican countries were the disagreement over polices in economic, social, and political issues. Which caused another group to run the new republics in a different matter. Simon Bolivar, and other military leaders, believed it would be better if the republics were in control of one leader that served for life (Safford, 365). This method of running the country resembled more of a monarchy in colonial times. The reason that Bolivar wanted a paternalistic republic is that he didn’t trust the elites and that he assumed that the republic…show more content…
Beforehand, all the economic policy was controlled by Spain herself and the colonies were only allowed to trade with Spain. Americanos wanted to rid of the monopoly privileges that were placed in colonial times (Safford, 385). Only Spanish merchants can make a profit themselves and the rest was to benefit the mother country [Spain]. With independence, countries in Latin America were free to trade who ever they wanted. There was an increase of European and North American demand for Latin America’s raw material (Safford, 386). Latin American countries finally had the chance to trade with other European countries. External trade brought in money for many of these countries. At the same time, taxes that were placed by Spain were removed, which was a relief for many Indians. In addition, the Church was an obstacle for many countries because the Church held many lands and many countries wanted to retrieve the land to give them for people to work on them (Safford, 385). Some states were able to take land from the Church and give them to the Indians. The Indians were given land because countries wanted to give them an opportunity to make a living and profit for themselves after years of
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