The enormous economic and commercial development that the American colonies had experienced during the 17th and 18th centuries was due to the system of massive plantations of products consumed by the European market, and to the slave trade. However, discrepancies began to arise between the Creole producers and the metropolis, regarding the exploitation of the riches that were extracted from the Indies.
The disagreements became more acute in the eighteenth century, so the new Bourbon dynasty, more centralist than that of the Austrias, but endowed with a plethora of enlightened advisers, undertook a series of reforms to neutralize the most virulent manifestations of the latent antagonism between Creoles and peninsular.
In the second half of the 18th century, America had become for the Bourbons one of their most precious treasures and one of the investments that yielded the most revenue.
Political Situation
Carlos III governed the empire under the aegis of Enlightened Despotism, a political ideal of the 18th century Enlightenment, concerned with raising the economic, social and cultural level of the people, with an incipient sense of democracy, although controlled from above by the ruling classes. aristocrats of the time. His maxim could be expressed in "Everything for the people but without the people." To this end, he surrounded himself with capable ministers such as Florida-blanca, Campomanes and the Count of Aranda, who sent, in response to the alarm signals that were perceived in America, able and resolute rulers such as Viceroy Vertiz to the River Plate region and the Marquis of the Tower, to the Captaincy General of Cuba.
Economic Situation
Through the promotion of the Economic Societies of Friends of the Country, the colonies gained an enormous boom. Its architects carried out, as in the peninsula, the new layouts of the important American cities, which they provided with wide landscaped avenues. The increasingly prosperous trade was provided with a regulation, which allowed exchanges with all the ports of Spain and its colonies, although not with those of other countries.
System for Internal Cohesion
Thus the Count of Aranda foresaw the establishment of some fundamental reforms. He proposed the creation of three kingdoms in Peru, Mexico and Costa Firme, linked by close alliances (each under the crown of an infante de Bourbon) to both France and Spain, with the king retaining his title of emperor. This system, according to Aranda, would guarantee internal cohesion for the future. But the leaders of the Peninsula, fearful of a secession before the federal autonomy that the project implied, rejected it.
Social Situation
American society was very different from European society, in which ethnic and, above all, cultural and political homogeneity already existed. At the top of the American social pyramid were the peninsular Spaniards, who enjoyed privileged positions and the highest positions. Immediately below were the criollos or Spaniards born in America, relegated by the peninsulares, despite the fact that many of them, from the exploitation of encomiendas, slaves and haciendas, were immensely rich and, in certain cases, noble. The Creoles contemptuously called them gachupines, chapetones or godos to the peninsulares (depending on the country), a clear reflection of the rivalry between them, which did not prevent both groups from mixing by marriage and, on occasions, making common cause against blacks and Indians. The slaves, great fear of the whites, lent, served in the lowest category and heaviest agricultural tasks. Meanwhile, free blacks and all kinds of mulattoes did not feel they belonged to any social group. The Indians, subject to onerous taxes, were exploited in mines and artisan-industrial work, such as mills. However, the mestizos of Indians and whites constituted a proletarian aristocracy that carried out more important jobs such as service in the local militia.
Public Positions
Neither criollos nor mestizos could aspire to any position of importance; In addition, they were subject to rigid censorship, the surveillance of the Inquisition and the prohibition to acquire certain books.
The Bourbon administration, like the French administration of Louis XIV, subjected the American empire to excessive centralism. Power fell to the viceroys, who relegated the councils to a representative role.
Education
Elementary education was abandoned and higher education was limited and mediated. The lack of regular press prevented the children of the colonies from expressing their opinions, as was already the case in the most advanced countries of Europe.
Main causes of precursor movements
Injustice prevailed in everything that concerned the economic situation. Agriculture was directed by Spain, which demanded to plant what interested it; from here starts the monoculture that still affects many Latin American countries. The colonies had to sell their crops only to the metropolis, often under the tobacconist system (true monopolies), such as that of tobacco, where the only beneficiary was the peninsular tobacconist company.
Trade, hampered because the products could only be sold in the ports of the Peninsula (especially Cadiz and Seville), lost entire harvests due to saturation of the Spanish market and the impossibility of disposing of its surpluses in other nations.
The infant industry languished, unprotected; the public revenues went to the development of the metropolis and of them, only a small part was destined to the improvement of the colonies.
The lower classes were overwhelmed by onerous taxes, which did not allow them to get out of poverty. The tobacconist and the levies on products such as tobacco, salt or brandy displeased the lower classes. The Creole upper classes also suffered from this policy, which prevented them from developing economically; they could not invest, improve, or trade with foreigners. For all these reasons, the situation reached a crisis during the 18th century.
Precursormovements
Some of the first violent demonstrations took place in the last colony that Spain kept in America, Cuba. The vegueros of Jesús del Monte, near Havana, revolted against the burdensome tobacconist in 1717, an action that they repeated in 1723 and that the soldiers brutally repressed by hanging the rebels from the trees along local roads, as a mockery and example to others. However, this uprising did not take on a pro-independence aspect, remaining within the scope of an economic demand.
Uprising of Antequera
The governor of Paraguay, supported by the Jesuits, committed abuses in the yerba mate trade, from which substantial income was obtained. The neighbors sued before the hearing of Charcas, which sent investigator Antequera, an honest Panamanian, who deposed the governor. Not defeated this, he got the viceroy to replace it. The investigator, supported by the council of Asunción and by the people, invoked the superiority of the people over royal decisions and raised an army that defeated the royalist and Jesuit troops in 1724. The viceroy of Peru sent a troop from Buenos Aires that captured to Antequera, who was sentenced to death, accused of lese majesty, and murdered before reaching the scaffold, his guards fearful that the town would rescue him.
Years later, during the reign of Carlos III, although his memory was restored, Antequera's ideas did not stop in Paraguay and had repercussions on the inhabitants of the River Plate province of Corrientes, who rose up in arms in 1732 and 1764 and refused to fight. to the Paraguayan community members. Sent these to the border against the revolted Guarani, they deserted in their majority. The governor of Buenos Aires ordered the levy of the residents of Corrientes to arrest the escapees, but they refused to do so. The governor then relented, allowing rebels and deserters to win.
Uprising of the Yucateco Indian Jacinto in New Spain
Popular reactions also took place in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The most important was that of the Yucatecan Indian Jacinto, who revolted with his racial brothers and defeated a small troop. He brought together thousands of ragged Indians who, despite their number, were defeated by a royalist army of two thousand men.
Manuela Beltrán uprising in Nueva Granada
At the end of the eighteenth century there were other manifestations of rebellion against the metropolitan power. In 1780 the comunero movement of Nueva Granada exploded, due to the increase of the tobacconist and the alcabala of soap and salt. The uprising was led by Manuela Beltrán who, by entering the town hall to destroy the edict that demanded extraordinary taxes, was imitated by the entire town. An army of twenty thousand poorly armed rebels was formed who, led by the mestizo Galán, set the slaves free and proclaimed himself a comunero.
A skilful mediation by the Church managed to get the rebels to lay down their arms in exchange for some capitulations in which the tobacconist's shop was ended, taxes were reduced and the Creoles were given the right to occupy some positions.
The viceroy, unaware of the peace that had been difficult to achieve by the prelate, sent a regiment from Cartagena to Bogotá, which produced a new insurrection led by Galán, which was harshly repressed.
Uprising of Túpac Amaru II
The most important of all the uprisings, that of Tupac Amaru II, was simultaneous to that of the comuneros of Nueva Granada. José Gabriel Condorcanqui, of the Inca aristocracy, claimed to be a descendant of the Inca Huayna Capac and, tired of the exploitation to which his brothers were subjected, he arrested the mayor of the area in 1780 and had him hanged. He raised an army of about seven thousand Quechuas, proclaimed himself Inca Tupac Amaru II and marched on Cuzco, where he defeated the first troops that fought against him. The viceroys of Lima and Buenos Aires concentrated an army of eighteen thousand men, with whom they dispersed the rebels. Tupac Amaru was arrested, and he was sentenced to quartering by four horses tied to each of his limbs.
Tupac Amaru's rebellion was born doomed to failure. While the community movement of New Granada seemed more Creole and vindictive than secessionist, that of Tupac, essentially Indian, sought to restore the identity of the Inca empire, but without counting on the Creoles, whom the Indians regarded with suspicion.
RepercussionoftheNorthAmericanRevolution
The revolution in North America had repercussions throughout the continent and marked the triumph of two centuries of anti-absolutist thought. The ideological origins of change in Spanish America were rooted in English thought and the French Enlightenment of the eighteenth century.
The ground was fertilized for the new publications (prohibited by the Court of the Holy Office and the monarchical authorities) to bear fruit in the minds of the Creoles. They read pamphlets, documents, libels, letters, and forbidden translations that inflamed their spirits. The people and the workers, generally illiterate, did not know the enlightened thinking of the time, but they joined the independence movement, hoping for a better life.
The Letter to Spanish Americans of Father Vizcardo, a Jesuit from Arequipa, incited rebellion against the constituted power. A famous speech whose copies circulated clandestinely throughout the viceroyalty of Peru, was delivered by Baquíjano, in the form of a criollista allegation.
The Illustration in America and the Precursors
The spirit of the Enlightenment resided in the Creole intelligentsia, which secretly learned about Montesquieu, Voltaire, Locke and Rousseau. Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopedia also obtained resonance . Patriotic ideas began to flourish in precursors of independence such as Fray Servando Teresa de Mier (in Mexico), Camilo Torres (in Colombia) and Francisco Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo (in Ecuador). The Chilean Manuel de Salas and the Peruvian Victoriano de Villava they attacked the social scourges that affected colonial society. In the River Plate region, Manuel Belgrano and Mariano Moreno , collaborated in the creation of an Argentine national conscience.
Manuel Gual and José María España conspired in Venezuela to achieve free trade with all nations and abolish slavery, but they were betrayed and executed in Caracas in May 1799.
Antonio Nariño
Antonio Nariño, a native of Nueva Granada, influenced by the revolutionary spirit, became an essential figure for the men of his time, forging a reputation as an impeccable intellectual, who was attended by the most radical youth. He translated and spread the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of the French Revolution. Arrested and summarily tried, he ordered his imprisonment in Cartagena and the loss of his property. Transferred to Cádiz by ship, he managed to escape and took refuge in Paris and London, where he tried to win supporters for the cause of South American freedom. He clandestinely returned to New Granada in 1797 but after countless incidents he was imprisoned in Cartagena de Indias.
He regained his freedom in 1810, when conflicts broke out with the metropolis and since then he has become one of the fundamental heads of the local independence movement.
Francisco de Miranda
Another precursor was Francisco de Miranda, born in Caracas in 1756. He studied at the university and entered the royal army, where he reached the rank of captain. He fought in the Caribbean islands against the British army and in Florida, on behalf of the colonists from North America, where he moved after leaving the army. His adventurous spirit led him to Europe, where he enjoyed the attentions of the Russian court of Catherine II and Parisian society. When the bursting
French Revolution, the Convention imprisons him.
Once released, he dedicated himself fully to the work he planned for his native America. He wanted to establish a great confederal state, extending from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, under the leadership of an Inca, who would govern aided by two legislative chambers and advisory bodies. For them he sought the support of Pitt in England and of Jefferson and Madison in the United States. However, the expedition that left New York (1806) and landed on the shores of Coro failed, since the people did not support him. His men handed him over to the English authorities in the British West Indies but he was saved from jail by his friend, the sailor Thomas Cochrane, later a leading figure in Chile. Miranda managed to see his dream partially realized. He led the Venezuelan insurgents, until he had to capitulate in San Mateo, before the superiority of the troops of Domingo Monteverde, Enclosed in Puerto Cabello and in Puerto Rico, he died a prisoner in the Arsenal of La Carraca (Cádiz) in 1816.
Abdication of Bayonne
The ideas of these men facilitated the access to independence of the Hispanic colonies of America and the prior awareness of all social classes.
In Spain, the king abdicated in favor of José Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, and the incidents of May 2, 1808 took place.
Connoisseurs in America of the news and of the existence of a Central Supreme Board that did not recognize the new imposed monarchy, they found themselves faced with the dilemma of choosing between the Board and obedience to Napoleon's brother. The Creole assemblies chose to create local Government Boards to cover the power vacuum. However, serious disputes broke out in them, skillfully exploited for secession.
The American independences did not turn out to be the product of a combined common action, but experienced two periods, divided by the reestablishment of Fernando VII. The first period, from 1810 to 1815, coincides with the Spanish War of Independence and the absolutist restoration of Ferdinand VII The second, from 1816 to 1826, covers the first and second absolutist periods ("Ominous decade"), separated by the " Liberal triennium» from 1820 to 1823.