Victor Jones

Mr. Clayton
IB HOA
8 December 2014
The American Revolution and Latin American Independence Movements

The discovery of the Americas in 1492 started the race of Europe to imperialize
everything they could to get resources such as land, gold, and other natural resources. As years
pass, groups of colonists started to grow exponentially and nationalism with it. Throughout
North America and Latin America, causes started to arise that prompted the idea of independence
from their mother countries. Economic interference, strong leaders, and foreign support are just a
few similarities and differences that led to these countries choosing to liberate themselves.
Economic interference from Europe to the Americas was a major cause of the
Independence movements. The French and Indian War in 1754 was won by the British in 1763
but crippled there economy. The large debt formed by the war demanded increased financial aid
from the colonies. The mercantilist policies issued by Europe at this time exploited the colonies
and fueled the drive of the colonist to revolt. Both Britain and Spain limited the trade system of
their colonies to concentrate wealth within their own country. Britain imposed an array of taxes
through major acts such as the Sugar and Molasses Act of 1773, the Tea Act (1773), and the
Townshend Acts (1763) that caused distress to the already weak economic stability of the
colonies. Spain used an unbalanced trade system with Latin America which also weakened their
economic stability. The concentration of imports from colonists was significantly higher than
what Spain was giving back to them. Responses from colonists were emanate and resulted with

events like the Boston tea party and smuggling throughout Latin America. How Spain and the
British responded to the conflict was very different. In Spain, to fix their problems the Bourbons
consisting of Philip V, Ferdinand VI, and Charles III issued certain reforms to resolve their
problems with Latin American trade. The installment of the fleet system presented more
protection for the trade ships that Spain was sent to their colonies. They also created the
guardacostas which stayed at the ports to prevent any chance of smuggling. The British was
more drastic in their actions by completely shutting down the Boston port through the Boston
Port Act of 1774 and limiting the Massachusetts government severely. King George III appointed
General Thomas Cage, who was a British army commander, as the new governor of
Massachusetts which clearly implied a type of martial law on the colonists. The extreme actions
of the British could have been a cause to why the North Americans began to react faster than
there Latin American counterpart.
Strong leaders within the Americas influenced the mindset of the colonists to congregate
and force out their monarchical impediment. These leaders vehemently sought after the complete
freedom of their people realizing that they are the people of their land and they deserve to govern
over it. The only difference between North America and Latin America was how their leadership
was structured. In North America, their main leader was George Washington who, with help with
the colonies leaders/mayors, joined together as a major force to be liberated all at once as a
single country. Latin America was different because instead of combining under one central
leadership like North America, they had many different leaders going from country to country
trying to liberate them. One of these leaders was Simon Bolivar who started in Venezuela and
liberated most of Northern Latin America. His unknown partner and peninsular, San Martin,
helped in the liberation of southern Latin America. These two great leaders with the

accompaniment of others such as Hidalgo in Mexico took the perfect opportunity of Spains
weakness during the peninsular war to act.
None of these countries would have been liberated without the assistance of some type of
foreign support. With the victory at the Battle of Saratoga, the American Revolution experienced
a turning point because of Frances alliance. With France as an ally, North America had access to
extra supplies, troops, arms and ammunition, and naval support which led them to victory over
the British. The Haitian revolution was beginning to fail until LOverture made a deal with the
U.S. The U.S. provided arms so that they could win the War of Casks in 1801 and eventually
abolish slavery.
There were many causes that led to the upheaval of colonists and the eventual liberation
of their respective country. Both the U.S and Latin America were tired of distant rule of their
land and in their own ways figured a way of taking it for themselves. Either if it was combing as
one great power under central rule or an abundance of great leaders liberating land piece by
piece, the end result produced the freedom of the Americas from European control.