Lecture Outline:

 A. European Developments: Spain and Portugal under Attack
  1. Napoleanic Invasions
  2. Brazil: João IV,  Dom Pedro I, and the Brazilian Empire
  3. The Spanish Constitution of 1812
 B. Creole Nationalism in Action:
  1. 1810 in Argentina and the English Invasion
 C. The Breakdown in Colonial Ideology and the Failure of "Revolution"
 

Key Terms:
 

May 25, 1810  Secularism  Republicanism

Joseph Bonaparte  José María Morelos  Simón Bolívar

José de San Martín  Pedro I  Pardocracy

 

Click here to read the Inquisition trial of José María Morelos
 

Reading Assignments:

David Brading, Chapter 23, "The Republican Hero" in The First America, pp. 603-620.

Timothy Anna, "Spain and the Breakdown of Imperial Ethos: The Problem of Equality"  Hispanic American Historical Review (1981), pp. 254-272

“The Argentine Declaration of Independence” from Colonial Spanish America: A  Documentary History

Question for Consideration:

1.  Assess the degree to which each of the following was a cause of wars of independence : a) the Bourbon Reforms in the second half of the 18th century; b) political events in nineteenth- century Europe; c) alliances between American elites and popular groups; d) changes in ideas about politics from Europe and in the Americas.  Consider what your answer says about the nature of top-down versus bottom-up change in colonial society.
 
 

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