User:LeonelaSerrano/Spanish American wars of independence


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These conflicts resulted in the independence of the South American Spanish-ruled colonial territories throughout the start of the 19th century. These wars began as localized conflict that later spread and expanded to promote general independence from Spanish rule. This independence led to the growth of new national boundaries which would form the future independent countries of :


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By limiting the power of the Church, the crown attempted to centralize itself within the institutions of colonial Latin America. Because of the physical and ideological proximity that the clergy had, they could directly influence and dictate the interactions between populations of colonial Latin America, either as legal counsel or an advisor ; a directness which the crown would need to  to attempt to re-create the centralized, colonial state which it wanted to implement.

Furthermore, the Church functioned as one of the largest economic institutions within colonial Latin America. It owned and retained jurisdiction over large amounts of land, which the crown wanted for itself because of the economic value which could be derived from the land. Moreover, by taking that land for itself, the Crown had the opportunity to cut down the physical presence of the Church to further weaken its ideological and social role within local colonial communities.


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Many Creoles, particularly the wealthy creoles, were negative impacted by the Bourbon Reforms. This resulted in their taking action by using their wealth and positions within society, often as leaders within their communities, to spur resistance to convey their displeasure with Spanish reforms because of the negative economic impact which they had. However, because of how quickly their revolts would further radicalize the lower classes, the Creoles quickly stopped supporting general violent insurrection because they benefitted from social change that occurred through the systems of the Spanish crown. Institutional change ensured stability by supporting the political institutions that allowed for the creation of a wealthy Creole class and further adapting those institutions to meet demands, rather than propose a radical shift in the complete make-up of socioeconomic life and traditions.


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The Spanish Constitution of 1812 also attempted to return to the policies that the Spanish government had implemented under Hapsburg rule. These policies gave more relative independence to the Spanish colonizes are they were recognized as fellow kingdoms with equal standing to Spain. The policies under the Hapsburgs, moreover, allowed for constant revisionism, through corruption and the sale of office, that provided the opportunity to grant more rights and change policy to respond to the demands of the populations. The Spanish Constitution of 1812 could have been an opportunity to enact social change slowly and without the threat of a radicalized uprising from the lower social classes by offering an opportunity to enact change that those in power would believe would best benefit their respective territories. Yet, because the Cortes of Cadiz was located in Spain, political and economic power and decisions were localized in Spain, effectively giving them control over all of colonial Latin America. These tensions further frustrated many Spanish-Americans because of their inability to control the politics that directly affected their economic and sociopolitical wellbeing, further leading them towards independence.


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The new states that began to take root in Latin America were able to gain foreign support from Great Britain. This foreign investment, often came via loans, which only continued to cripple economies that had been destroyed or left alone during conflict. This investment was not enough to support economic recovery and can be considered to have only further negatively impacted economic growth in these newly developing states by pushing them further into debt in an attempt to recover and grow their economies.


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Independence from the Spanish crown required solidarity across all social classes. However, each social faction had their ideas of what local society should and would look like after independence. This impacted the ability for societies to easily integrate because of the disunity of their ideas of future political systems and ideologies, which resulted in more conflict when it came to state consolidation. The power which the elite Creole class commanded allowed them to control state and national development to ensure that they remained in power. As a result, the newly forming Latin American states would fulfill some of the demands of other social factions to ensure the stability and integration of all into the social fabric of a new state.