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Essay On The Latin American Revolutions

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After the age of enlightenment, colonies and nations around the world began questioning their rulers and ruling nations. Liberal and nationalist ideas spread across Europe and the world, especially after the French Revolution. When these beliefs spread to the colonies of America, independence movements and revolts occurred. The Latin American revolution and Haitian revolution were both significant events during the 19th century that affected both their respective nations and the world. While both revolutions resulted similarly such that a social hierarchy based on race existed after independence, they differ in that while the Latin American revolutions placed an emphasis on ending the Spanish casta system, Haitian revolution was based on freeing slaves. A common issue that existed in both regions before and after independence was that many people were dissatisfied with the racial hierarchy implemented by their ruling …show more content…

However, even after gaining independence both regions still had a societal social structure based on race. Social structure seems to exist in many colonies around the world, as demonstrated by the Spanish colony in the Philippines. The Philippines social structure was very similar to the Latin American casta system, except that most americans in Philippines were regarded as high ranking than native asians. Similar to in Latin america, the main revolutionists who fought for independence were the “middle tier” Ilustrados. These Ilustrados, much like Creoles, were educated native Filipinos who played a massive role in Filipino nationalism against Spanish rule. The power and influence of the Ilustrados are yet another example of how many revolutions in history are led by the “mid-ranking social

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