Long-Term Causes
Immediate Causes
• People of Latin America resent
• European domination of Latin
colonial rule and social injustices
America
• Spread of Enlightenment ideas
• Revolutionary leaders emerge
• American and French revolutions
• Napoleon invades Spain and ousts
• Growth of nationalism in Latin
Spanish king
America
Immediate Effects
Long-Term Effects
• Toussaint L‘Ouverture leads
slave revolt in Haiti
• Attempts made to rebuild
economies
• Bolívar, San Martín, and others
lead successful revolts in Latin
America
• 18 separate republics set up
• Colonial rule ends in much of
Latin America
• Continuing efforts to achieve
stable democratic governments
and to gain economic
independence
Latin American Social Classes
Peninsulares : men born in Spain or Portugal
who held highest offices and important
military and political positions
Creoles : Spaniards born in the Latin American
colonies who were officers in army, but not
in government. They controlled much of the
land and business in the colonies, but they
deeply resented power of the peninsulares.
Mestizos: made up the majority of the society
because it was mixed European and Indian.
They worked as servant to the peninsulares
and Creoles and as plantation overseers and
farmhands.
Mulatto-European and African mixed ancestry
Native Americans/Africans were the lowest
society group but also the largest. They were
not known as citizens but did much labor.
3
What Caused Discontent in Latin America?
By the late 1700s, the revolutionary fever that gripped Western
Europe had spread to Latin America. There, discontent was rooted
in the social, racial, and political system that had emerged during
300 years of Spanish rule.

Peninsulares were those born of Spanish parents in Spain;
therefore, they had the most wealth, education, & status
*Creoles resented their second-class status.
 Mestizos and mulattoes were angry at being denied
the status, wealth, and power available to whites.
 Native Americans suffered economic misery under the
Spanish.
 Enslaved Africans who worked on plantations longed
for freedom.
Haiti
Toussaint L’Ouverture
First to Gain Independence!
 In 1791, Toussaint L’Ouverture
led slaves in revolt.
 By 1798, enslaved Haitians had
been freed.
 In 1802, Napoleon sent an army
to recapture Haiti. They failed
(yellow fever).
 Napoleon’s forces agreed to a
truce, or temporary peace (arrest
Toussaint- dies in French prison
1803).
 In 1804, Haitian leaders declared
independence.
Look Familiar…???
• 1808- Napoleon controlled Spainthis allowed revolutionary leaders
to take advantage of Spain’s
weakness.
• 1810- Simon Bolivar leads
revolutions against Spanish rule for
over 10 years. Came to be called
“The Liberator” and “The George
Washington of South America.”
• During this time Bolivar liberated
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador,
Peru, and Bolivia.
• Bolivar then joined forces with Jose
de San Martin- who had already
liberated Argentina and Chili from
Spanish rule.
• Bolivar’s goal of creating a
unified South American
country did not happen.
Rivalries and cultural
differences resulted in the
creation of many different
countries.
• Brazil gained its
independence without
bloodshed.
• In 1822 Brazil declared its
independence from
Portugal.
MEXICO
 Father Miguel Hidalgo was a
Mexican priest who was the
leader of the Mexican war for
Independence.
 Hidalgo’s goals were political
freedom, an end to slavery,
and improvements to living
conditions for Mexico’s poor
and revolt was the only way to
bring change
 Father Hidalgo raised armies
of free Mexicans and swept
through parts of Mexico and
killed many Spaniards. Mexico
gained independence from
Spain in 1821.