|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
The French Revolution and Latin America
| Article
# : |
16032 |
|
|
Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
|
| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1989 |
1,654 Words |
| Author
: |
Luis E. Aguilar
Luis E. Aguilar is professor of history at Georgetown
University. |
The French Revolution has often been credited with fanning the revolutionary flames that swept through Latin America at the turn of the nineteenth century. It thus seems logical that the struggle against Spain was conditioned by the ideas and events that caused the upheaval in France, and that the great liberators of the continent, men like Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, were inspired by political tremors from across the sea.
Yet a careful study of the Latin American uprisings--placed against the nineteenth-century backdrop and amid the influences of the American Revolution, several English authors, and the writings of some "liberal" Jesuits--makes the French connection rather difficult to discern. The scholar must also distinguish between the influence of the famous "critics" of the ancien regime--Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and the encyclopedists--and the impact of the guillotine. In Latin America, the first carried much more weight than the second.
Placing the whole period in historical perspective, it is safe to say that French Jacobinism produced a negative reaction among most Latin revolutionary elites. By the mid-eighteenth century, the Creoles--a powerful white minority born in the colonies--were undergoing a cultural crisis. Taught that their mother countries were glorious and powerful empires, they realized Spain and Portugal had become second-rate powers, far beneath mighty England and enlightened France.
Seeking cultural independence, the Creoles learned economic liberalism from England and political liberalism from France--along with near mystical faith in the power of a constitution, popular sovereignty, and the
... (2000 of 10848 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
