NATIONALIST REVOLUTIONS

The Reaction Against Revolutionary Ideas UNIT #2-GLOBAL HISTORY

LATIN AMERICA INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA

Case Study:

TOUSSAINT L’OVERTURE

• The French colony of Haiti was the first Latin American colony to revolt against European rule. • In 1791, a selfeducated former slave named Toussaint L’Overture led a revolt against the French owners of the island’s sugar plantations.

• Toussaint was familiar with the works of the Enlightenment thinkers and wanted to lead his people to liberty. • He gained control of the island which allowed the Haitian slaves to win their freedom in 1798.

• After a failed attempt by Napoleon’s forces to retake the island, Haitians formally declared their independence in 1804. • Haiti became a republic in 1820.

Case Study:

SIMON BOLIVAR

• In South America during the early 1800s, an educated creole named Simon Bolivar led resistance movements against the Spanish. • Bolivar was inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, along with the French and American Revolutions.

• Simon Bolivar vowed to fight Spanish rule in South America.

• Called “the Liberator,” Bolivar became one of the greatest Latin American nationalist leaders of this period.

• However, Bolivar did fail to unite Latin America as a single state, instead multiple independent states emerged. • These nations faced a long struggle to gain stability, achieve social equality, and eliminate poverty.

THE REACTION AGAINST REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS

LATIN AMERICA The Failure of Democracy and the Search for Stability

• Although revolutionaries in Latin America had eliminated Spanish rule, life did not improve for most people after they achieved independence. • Revolts and civil wars broke out while poverty and prejudice continued. • Many factors made it difficult for Latin American nations to benefit from these revolutions.

Geographic Barriers

• The Latin American nations that gained independence in the 1800s covered a vast area, from Mexico to the southern tip of South America.

• This area included numerous geographic barriers, such as the Andes Mountains. • Fights between various leaders and nationalistic feelings within isolated groups also kept Latin Americans from uniting.

Social Injustice • Despite the establishment of Latin American republics with constitutions, democracy did not follow. • One problem was that the colonial class structure remained largely intact.

• Creoles-those of European descent born in the colonies-were the ruling class. • Mestizos (people of mixed Native American and European decent), mulattos (people of mixed African and European descent), Indians and Africans gained few rights and faced racial prejudice.

Power of the Church • The Roman Catholic Church acted as a stabilizing force in Latin America and promoted education. • However, the Church owned large amounts of land in Latin America which gave them a great deal of power.

Military Rulers • Local military strongmen called caudillos put together their own armies and challenged central governments. • Some caudillos even gained control of governments. • These dictators usually favored the upper class.

Economic Problems

• CASH CROP ECONOMIES-Under colonial rule, Latin American economies had become dependent on trade with Spain and Portugal. • Latin American colonies sent raw materials such as sugar, cotton, and coffee to Europe and imported manufactured goods.

Cash Crop Economies

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• Dependence on just one crop or even a few crops makes a nation’s economy very unstable. • If a drought or crop failure occurs, or if prices for products fall, the economy can be devastated.

THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION (1910-1930)

CAUSES… • General Porfirio Diaz ruled Mexico as a dictator in the late 1800s and early 1900s. • Diaz brought economic advances to Mexico; railroads were built and industry grew. • However, the wealth went to a small upper class.

• The rule of Diaz, who brutally suppressed opposition, left most Mexicans uneducated, landless, and poor. • Finally, in 1910 the discontent boiled over into a revolution that forced Diaz from power.

Key Figures…

Several local leaders assisted in leading the revolution.

• Emiliano Zapata-led a large peasant revolt in the south, calling for land reform. • Francisco “Pancho” Villafought against the U.S. government when they sided with Mexico. • Venustiano Carranzaelected president of Mexico in 1917.

EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION… The Constitution of 1917 • The new constitution agreed to by Carranza in 1917 called for land reform, gave the government control of Church estates, and guaranteed more rights to workers and to women.

Social Reforms • Mexico was the first Latin American nation to achieve social and economic reform for the majority of its people. • For example, the government set up libraries and schools. • Some Native communities were given land that had been taken from them.

Economic Nationalism • Mexico became determined to develop its own economy. • The Mexican government brought industries under government control and took over foreign-owned industries.

Cultural Nationalism • In the 1920s and 1930s writers in Mexico and other parts of Latin America began to take pride in their culture. • These nationalistic feelings helped revive interests in mural painting. • These paintings showed the struggles of the Mexican people for freedom.

GLOBAL NATIONALISM

Role in Political Revolutions Global Nationalism

NATIONALISM

• Nationalism-a feeling of pride in and devotion to one’s country. – Example: If you take great pride in being a

citizen of the United States of America, these feelings are considered nationalistic (nationalism).

Force for Unification & Self-Determination Nationalistic feelings became an increasingly significant force for self-determination and unification in Europe.

ITALY

Giuseppe Mazzini • One of the three great leaders of Italian nationalism was Giuseppe Mazzini. • Mazzini formed the Young Italy national movement in 1831, but he was exiled for his views. • His writings and speeches provided inspiration to the nationalistic movement.

Count Camillo Cavour • Count Camillo Cavour was the prime minister of the Italian state of Sardinia. • He shrewdly formed alliances with France and later with Prussia. • He used diplomacy and war to drive Austrian power from Italy in order to bring unification to the peninsula.

Giuseppe Garibaldi • Giuseppe Garibaldi was a soldier who led the forces that won control of southern Italy and helped it to unite with the north.

Unification of Italy • By 1861, Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia was crowned king of a united Italy. • Rome and Venetia, at first not part of Italy, were included by 1870.

GERMANY

The Rise of Prussia

• In the 1830s, Prussia set up a trade union among German states called the Zollverein. • This agreement ended trade barriers between the states and was a step toward unity. • More important, it established Prussia as a leader among the states.

Otto von Bismarck • In 1862, Otto von Bismarck was appointed chancellor of Prussia. • Over the next decade Bismarck, a strong and practical leader, guided German unification. • Aside from unification, Bismarck sought to make the Prussian king the ruler of a strong and united German state.

• Bismarck believed that the only way to unify Germany was through a policy he called “blood and iron.” • Not believing in speeches and representative government, Bismarck believed that the only way to unite the German states was through war. • In seven years Prussia was involved in 3 wars, each bringing the German states closer to unification.

• In 1871, the German states united under the Prussian king, William I. • As their ruler, William called himself the kaiser, a title that was derived from the name Caesar and meant “emperor.”

ZIONISM GLOBAL NATIONALISM

• The rise of nationalism in Europe had led to an intensification of anti-Semitism in the late 1800s. • As citizens grew more patriotic about their own nations, they often grew more intolerant of those whom they saw as outsiders, including Jews.

• As anti-Semitism (anti-Jew) grew in Europe, some Jews moved to Palestine, the ancient Jewish homeland, buying land that they organized into farming communities. • A Jewish journalist named Theodor Herzl called for Jews to establish their own state.

• Herzl’s writings helped to build Zionism, the movement devoted to building a Jewish state in Palestine. • Herzl’s dream of an independent Israel was realized a little more than 50 years later.

Force Leading to Conflicts GLOBAL NATIONALISM

Balkans before WWI The Ottoman Empire as the Pawn of European Powers

• Nationalism was a source of conflict in the Balkans peninsula of southeastern Europe. • In the 1800s, the Ottoman empire still ruled much of the area, which was home to many groups. • Among these were Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Romanians. • During the 1800s, nationalist groups in the Balkans rebelled against this foreign rule.

• The nations of Europe viewed the Ottoman empire as “the sick man of Europe.” • They hoped to gain land from the Ottoman empire. • Russia, Austria-Hungary, Britain, and France all entered into alliances and wars that were designed to gain territory from the Ottoman empire.

• In the early years of 1900, crisis after crisis broke out on the Balkan peninsula. • By 1914, the Balkans were the “powder keg of Europe.” • Tensions would soon explode into a full-scale global conflict: World War I.