Article

Sister Revolutions: American Revolutions on Two Continents (Teaching with Historic Places)

Map of North, Central, and South American countries that were involved with the Panama Congress. Countries are color-coded based on if they attended, were invited, or signed the treaty.
Map of the countries involved with the Panama Congress

Photo by Nagihuin, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.


Essential Question

How are ideas about freedom, democracy and equality transmitted across borders?


About This Lesson

This lesson is based on “Statues of the Liberators, Hispanic Heroes Walking Tour,” which tours sites as part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, DC.

It was was researched and written by Alison Russell, a NCPE intern with the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.

Objectives

  1. Examine the way Americans in the United States used the Latin American Revolutions to understand general principles of liberty, equality and democracy (viewed and fit into their narrative of democratic progress).

  2. Analyze the relationship between Latin American leaders like Simón Bolívar and the United States.

Getting Started

Read with students the following excerpt from a speech by President Eisenhower at the dedication of the Equestrian of Simón Bolívar Statue in Washington DC. Then discuss the questions that follow.

“…It is indeed a great honor to join with you in the dedication of this impressive statue to the memory of Simón Bolívar. He was the hero of more than two hundred battles for the emancipation of man from foreign bondage and for the democratic way of life.

In times of crises and hardship, every nation produces its heroes, its leaders. Many are good. Few are great. But on occasion a leader emerges whose goodness and whose greatness reach far beyond his own country and beyond his own time. Simón Bolívar was one of these. He belongs to your nation, surely. But the world claims him, too, as one of the true benefactors of mankind...”

—President Dwight D. Eisenhower. February 27, 1959. Excerpt from the Presidential Library.

Questions for students to discuss:

  1. Have you heard of Simón Bolívar before? If so, what do you know about him?

  2. Based on this, what predictions can you make about the relationship between the United States and Venezuela (along with other Latin American countries) in the early 1800s (when Bolívar was fighting)?

  3. What questions does this raise for you about Simón Bolívar, South American independence movements and/or the relationship between South American countries and the United States?

Spanish-language map showing historical boundaries of Gran Colombia, with subnational borders around present-day Venezuela, Colombia (labeled Cundinamarca), Ecuador, and the Isthmus of Panama
Historical map of Gran Colombia, 1822

Photo by Milenioscuro, Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-3.0).

Historical Background

The American Revolution in the 1770s started an era referred to by historians as the Age of Revolutions (ca. 1760-1850). Revolts for equality and republicanism took place in Haiti, France, and much of Latin America. While there is a relationship between these revolutions, the movements for independence in Central and South America have a complicated relationship with the American Revolution.

Spain and Portugal began colonizing Central and South America about a century before Britain began colonizing North America. Portugal primarily claimed territory in modern Brazil, while Spain claimed most of the rest of the continent. While the institution of slavery and the Euro-centric bias discriminated against and oppressed people of African and Indigenous descent on both continents, there was more fluidity in the Spanish political system and more opportunity for people of color to claim rights than in the Anglo-American one. Many Indigenous American societies had their own governments under Spanish rule, known as “republicas” which were interwoven with the colonial administration. For example, even though the Spanish installed a governor under the Viceroyalty of Peru in Popayán (present day Colombia), the Indigenous office of cacique, or chief, continued to have power and advocate for Indigenous interests in Spanish courts. There were also some free Black towns like Palenque de San Basilio (present day Colombia), of self-emancipated people known as maroons, who fought to live within the Spanish empire. The partial self-government was different than in English colonies, where many Native Americans were either assimilated, pushed west or killed. The shared governance in Spanish colonies would become a model and power base on both sides of the conflict for independence.

Between 1808 and 1836, all of Latin America except the Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico and Cuba gained their independence. Part of the revolutions originated in changing ideas in Europe and the Americas about the role of government and individual rights from the Enlightenment. But Latin American independence was also a specific reaction to the conflicts in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. A new Spanish king, installed by Napoleon as he worked to conquer Europe, led some colonial leaders to demand more political power and autonomy from Spain. Two hundred representatives from Spain and sixty from various colonies wrote the Constitution of Cadiz in 1812. The constitution tried to both reinstate the old monarch and guarantee certain freedoms for all citizens, including Indigenous people in Spanish-controlled South America. The constitution’s rapid failure motivated some colonial leaders to push for independence. Similar to rebels in the thirteen colonies who considered themselves to be English, defending their rights as Englishmen, Latin American revolutionaries saw themselves as Spanish and entitled to the protections of the Spanish crown.

Each Latin American country had a distinctive path to independence, making slow and uneven progress, but there are times when their histories overlap. After the Constitution of Cadiz fell apart in 1814, some colonies like Venezuela and Argentina declared independence, touching off a decade of battles between interracial factions. Spanish Creoles, enslaved and free Black communities and Indigenous communities fought on both the Spanish and rebels’ sides. Independence leaders promised a society free of slavery. Between 1814 and 1824, rebels led by Simón Bolívar fought battles in what would become Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador. In 1821, they formed the nation of Gran Colombia, writing a constitution and creating a congress to represent a wide swath of South America. Battles continued, the decisive end coming at the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824 in Peru, guaranteeing independence for Peru and Argentina.[1] Gran Colombia would fall apart with the death of Simón Bolívar in 1830. But republics were established in most of Spanish-speaking South America by the 1830s.

Citizens of the United States watched the Latin American revolutions with great interest. Many sought to incorporate these movements into a larger American tradition, claiming credit for spreading ideals like democracy and liberty. Some Americans celebrated the departure of large imperial powers, like Spain, from near US borders. Others viewed the multi-racial coalitions and rhetoric of equality in Latin America as a threat to the expansion of racial slavery in the United States. The US sent some monetary aid and supplies to these revolutionaries. In 1826, after heated debate in Congress, the US sent a representative to the Panama Congress, a gathering of newly independent Latin American countries. The delegation did not arrive in time to participate. Ultimately, discussion in the US was more about bolstering Americans’ pride.

One hundred and twenty-five years later, Cold War alliances led to US support for Latin American anti-communist governments. Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay gifted the United States with statues of their revolutionary leaders: Simón Bolívar, Jose de San Martin, and Jose Artigas, to remind the United States of their shared histories and commitments to liberty, democracy, and equality.

Notes

[1] Brazil won independence from Portugal in 1822 and Mexico became an independent republic in 1823 in separate military revolts.

Flag split into three horizontal bands: gold, blue, and red. A seal in the top left depicts an Indigenous person sitting on a rocky shore with a ship in the background. Other symbols include a handshake surrounded by a wreath, four spears, and three stars
Flag of Gran Colombia.

Photo by Salvadoroff, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.

Activity 1: Latin American Actions, US Reactions

Divide students into four groups. Each group will examine a different document(s) to help determine similarities and differences between the American Revolution and Latin American Revolutions. Each document(s) has guiding questions to help support students. When the class comes back together, each group should be prepared to contribute to a discussion of the following questions using evidence from their documents:

  1. What are the similarities and differences in the values fought for in the Latin American Revolution and the United States?

  2. How does the United States perceive the Latin American revolutions? How accurate do you think that perception is?

  3. In what ways do the similarities or differences between the two regions and their revolutions inform their relationship?

Teacher Tip: Teachers can also pick one or two documents they find compelling and do this activity as a class.

Activity 2: Share Memory Monument Analysis

Have students, in groups or individually choose a monument on the “Statues of Liberators: Hispanic Heroes Walking Tour.” Students will research the person represented in the monument using the following graphic organizer. They will evaluate what values the person represents and their relationship to the history of both American continents.

Students may choose one of the statues of Latin American revolutionary fighters from this period of Independence:

  • José Artigas
  • Simón Bolívar
  • José de San Martín

If teachers would like to expand the conversation about Hispanic contributions to shared ideals, they may include the other three statues of Hispanic leaders from the 18th and 19th centuries that are featured in the article.

  • Bernardo de Gálvez
  • Benito Juárez
  • David G. Farragut

Hispanic Hero Organizer


Name

Years Lived

Military Experience

Political Experience

Contribution to liberty, equality, and/or democracy in the Americas

Reliationship (if any) to the United States









Student can share their plaques verbally or do a gallery walk. After students have a chance to view each other’s works, wrap up by discussing the following questions:

  1. What did you notice about what these Latin American leaders contribute to a larger history of the Americas?

  2. Why do you think it is important to learn about leaders and historical figures from outside the United States? What do they contribute to our understanding of the world? Of ourselves?

  3. What questions does this lesson leave you with about the relationship between the United States and Latin America? If you could learn more, what would you want to know?

Additional Resources

The title of this lesson comes from Caitlin Fritz’s Our Sister Republics: The United States in the Age of American Revolutions (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2016). Other helpful scholarship includes Roberta Breña’s “Revoluciones Hispánicas and Atlantic History: A Spanish Language HIstoriographical Interpretation and Bibliography” (Age of Revolutions, 2021), Jeremy Adelman’s “An Age of Imperial Revolutions” (AHR, 2008), and Jaime E. Rodriguez’s “The Emancipation of America” (AHR, 2000).

Additional documents from Simón Bolívar can be found in the companion website to Modern Latin America, 8th Edition, Oxford University Press and Brown University Library’s Center for Digitial Scholarship.

Students can see digital renderings of the statue of José de San Martín by the National Park Service and take a digital tour of one of the parks in Washington DC.

National Mall and Memorial Parks

Last updated: October 17, 2024