The Spark that Lit the Fire

      The essential question for this unit was "Essential Question: Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race? How are the events in Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative?" This is important to think about because no matter what, all humans should be treated the same. In the past, the white people treated those of another race as slaves. These people received terrible pay and countless hours of work. They were treated poorly as well. No one should have to live like this. It is ridiculous and unfair. In class, we started out with a map, that should the dates of independence of Latin American countries. Most of them took place between 1815 and 1825. We looked at class structure and population. One thing that surprised me was that the majority of people were Indians and not African slaves, because it would be typical of European settlers to bring many slaves with them. The main project for this lesson was to create a timeline of events in a particular revolution. 


        My group was in charge of making a timeline for the Mexican Revolution. You can see it below. 

Early 1800's: Napoleons occupation of Spain led to the outbreak of revolts across Spanish America.

Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla, a catholic priest, launches the Mexican War of Independence with the "Cry of Dolores."

January 1811: He was defeated at Calderon, and fled north. He was eventually captured and executed.

1820: Liberals took power in Spain, and the new government promised reforms to appease the Mexican revolutionaries.

Early 1821: Agustin de Iturbide, the leader of royalist forces, negotiated the Plan of Iguala with Vincent Guerrero, which would eventually end up establishing the Mexican Monarchy.

August 24, 1821: Spanish Viceroy Juan de O'Donoju signed the treaty of Cordoba, which approves a plan to make Mexico an independent constitutional monarchy.

1822: Iturbide was proclaimed as emperor of Mexico

1823: Republican leaders Santa Anna and Guadalupe Victoria deposed Iturbide and set up a republic, with Guadalupe Victoria as its first president.

There were many similarities between these revolutions (Gran Columbia, Mexico, and Brazil.) They were all fighting against their leaders in Europe in the war against independence. They were also well organized. The leaders of these revolts created powerful armies to go against these European rulers. There were also many differences between these revolutions. Brazil had help from Spain and Portugal, while Columbia and Mexico did not. In the Columbian revolution, Simon Bolivar conquered many other Latin American cities during his lead in the revolt.  Race was the spark that lit the fire of these revolutions. Without any unfair treatment or slavery, none of these revolutions would have happened. 

Unfortunately, race is still an issue in our lives today. Recently, the nation was shocked when the cop that shot Michael Brown was not convicted of murder; see here. Whether people say it or not, they will make choices based on the race of a person. Many banks are reluctant to lend to non whites because they fear that they will not get any money back. I think that it is still important to not judge someone based on their race because they may be the same as you. Maybe they like all of the same things that you do and have similar friends to you. But if you put them off because of race, you won't know what kind of an awful person they may be. 

                              Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, A Leader of the Mexican Revolution