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

Map of the countries involved with the Panama Congress

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

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Essential Question

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

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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.

Where It Fits into the Curriculum

Topics: This lesson could be used in American history, social studies, World History, and geography courses in units on the American Revolution, the early national period of the United States or the Age of Revolutions in World History. 

Time Period: Early 19th century.

Relevant Standards

United States Standards for Grades 5-12

Era 3: Revolution and New Nation (1754-1820s)
Standard 2: The Impact of the American Revolution on politics, economy, and society 

Era 4: Expansion and Reform (1901-1861)
Standard 3: The extension, restriction, and reorganization of political democracy after 1800

World History Standards for Grades 5-12 

Era 7: Age of Revolutions 1750-1914
Standard 1: The causes and consequences of political revolutions in the late 18th and early 19th century
Standard 4: Patterns of nationalism, state-building and social reform in Europe and the Americas 1830-1914

Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (National Council for the Social Studies)

Theme II: Time, Continuity, and Change

• Standard C - The student identifies and describes selected historical periods and patterns of change within and across cultures, such as the rise of civilizations, the development of transportation systems, the growth and breakdown of colonial systems, and others.

Theme V: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions

• Standard B - The student analyzes group and institutional influences on people, events, and elements of culture.

• Standard E - The student identifies and describes examples of tensions between belief systems and government policies and laws.

• Standard G - The student applies knowledge of how groups and institutions work to meet individual needs and promote the common good.

Theme VI: Power, Authority, and Governance

• Standard A - The student examines persistent issues involving the rights, roles and status of the individual in relation to the general welfare.

• Standard C - The student analyzes and explains ideas and governmental mechanisms to meet needs and wants of citizens, regulate territory, manage conflict, and establish order and security.

• Standard F - The student explains conditions, actions, and motivations that contribute to conflict and cooperation within and among nations.

• Standard H - The student explains and applies concepts such as power, role, status, justice, and influence to the examination of persistent issues and social problems.

• Standard I - The student gives examples and explains how governments attempt to achieve their stated ideals at home and abroad.

Theme IX: Global Connections

• Standard B - The student analyzes examples of conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among groups, societies, and nations.

Theme X: Civic Ideals and Practices

• Standard A - The student examines the origins and continuing influence of key ideals of the democratic republican form of government, such as individual human dignity, liberty, justice, equality, and the rule of law.

• Standard B - The student identifies and interprets sources and examples of the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

• Standard F - The student identifies and explains the roles of formal and informal political actors in influencing and shaping public policy and decision-making.

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?

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 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?

*Teachers could also pick one or two documents they find compelling and do this activity as a class.

Group 1: Declaration Comparison

Have students compare the Declarations of Independence from the United States (1776) and Venezuela (1811). Then have them discuss what conclusions we can draw about the relationship between these two revolutions.

*Can alternatively use the Argentinean Declaration of Independence

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Declaration of Independence, United States

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

…In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

…We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States…

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Declaration of Independence, Venezuela

In the Name of the All-powerful God. WE the Representatives of the united Provinces of CARACAS, CUMANA, VARINAS, MARGARITA, BARCELONA, MERIDA, and TRUJILLO, forming the American Confederation of Venezuela, in the South Continent, in Congress assembled, considering the full and absolute possession of our Rights, which we recovered justly and legally from the 19th of April, 1810, in consequence of the occurrences in Bayona, and the occupation of the Spanish Throne by conquest, and the succession of a new Dynasty, constituted without our consent: are desirous, before we make use of those Rights, of which we have been deprived by force for more than three ages, but now restored to us by the political order of human events, to make known to the world the reasons which have emanated from these same occurrences, and which authorize us in the free use we are now about to make of our own Sovereignty.

We do not wish, nevertheless, to begin by alleging the rights inherent in every conquered country, to recover its state of property and independence; we generously forget the long series of ills, injuries, and privations, which the sad right of conquest has indistinctly caused, to all the descendants of the Discoverers, Conquerors, and Settlers of these Countries, plunged into a worse state by the very same cause that ought to have favored them; and, drawing a veil over the 300 years of Spanish dominion in America, we will now only present to view the authentic and well-known facts, which ought to have wrested from one world, the right over the other, by the inversion, disorder, and conquest, that have already dissolved the Spanish Nation...

In consequence whereof, considering, by the reasons thus alleged, that we have satisfied the respect which we owe to the opinions of the human race, and the dignity of other nations, in the number of whom we are about to enter, and on whose communication and friendship we rely: We, the Representatives of the United Provinces of Venezuela, calling on the SUPREME BEING to witness the justice of our proceedings and the rectitude of our intentions, do implore his divine and celestial help; and ratifying, at the moment in which we are born to the dignity which his Providence restores to us, the desire we have of living and dying free, and of believing and defending the holy Catholic and Apostolic Religion of Jesus Christ. We, therefore, in the name and by the will and authority which we hold from the virtuous People of Venezuela, DO declare solemnly to the world, that its united Provinces are, and ought to be, from this day, by act and right, Free, Sovereign, and Independent States...

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Have students list similarities and differences between the two documents. Then discuss:

1. What similarities stand out the most? Given the dates of these documents, do the similarities indicate that one of these documents influenced the other? If so, how?

2. What do you think is the most fundamental difference in circumstances between these two independence movements? What do you think is the most fundamental difference in values?

3. If you were a living in the US at the time, would you feel like the Latin American Revolutions shared your values? Why or why not? What would you do (if anything) to support these movements?

Group 2: Bolívar’s Vision

While battles with Spain were still ongoing, a group of 26 representatives of the various regions of Gran Colombia met in 1819 to craft a constitution. At that meeting, Bolívar addressed the assembled members, asking for a constitution that met the unique needs of Gran Colombia, was democratically elected and promoted racial equality with the end of slavery.

Have students read an excerpt of Bolívar’s speech and identify the ways Latin American revolutions were similar to and different from the United States.

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An Address of Bolívar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819)

Modernized by J.S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton.

We are not Europeans; we are not Indians; we are but a mixed species of aborigines and Spaniards. Americans by birth and Europeans by law, we find ourselves engaged in a dual conflict: we are disputing with the natives for titles of ownership, and at the same time we are struggling to maintain ourselves in the country that gave us birth against the opposition of the invaders. Thus our position is most extraordinary and complicated. . . . . We have been ruled more by deceit than by force, and we have been degraded more by vice than by superstition. Slavery is the daughter of darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction….the rule of law is more powerful than the rule of tyrants, because, as the laws are more inflexible, every one should submit to their beneficent austerity; that proper morals, and not force, are the bases of law; and that to practice justice is to practice liberty.

Although those people [North Americans], so lacking in many respects, are unique in the history of mankind, it is a marvel, I repeat, that so weak and complicated a government as the federal system has managed to govern them in the difficult and trying circumstances of their past. But, regardless of the effectiveness of this form of government with respect to North America, I must say that it has never for a moment entered my mind to compare the position and character of two states as dissimilar as the English-American and the Spanish-American. Would it not be most difficult to apply to Spain the English system of political, civil, and religious liberty: Hence, it would be even more difficult to adapt to Venezuela the laws of North America.

Nothing in our fundamental laws would have to be altered were we to adopt a legislative power similar to that held by the British Parliament. Like the North Americans, we have divided national representation into two chambers: that of Representatives and the Senate. The first is very wisely constituted. It enjoys all its proper functions, and it requires no essential revision, because the Constitution, in creating it, gave it the form and powers which the people deemed necessary in order that they might be legally and properly represented. If the Senate were hereditary rather than elective, it would, in my opinion, be the basis, the tie, the very soul of our republic. In political storms this body would arrest the thunderbolts of the government and would repel any violent popular reaction . . . The creation of a hereditary senate would in no way be a violation of political equality. I do not solicit the establishment of a nobility, for as a celebrated republican has said, that would simultaneously destroy equality and liberty. What I propose is an office for which the candidates must prepare themselves, an office that demands great knowledge and the ability to acquire such knowledge. All should not be left to chance and the outcome of elections...

...Give Venezuela such an executive power in the person of a president chosen by the people or their representatives, and you will have taken a great step toward national happiness. No matter what citizen occupies this office, he will be aided by the Constitution, and therein being authorized to do good, he can do no harm, because his ministers will cooperate with him only insofar as he abides by the law. If he attempts to infringe upon the law, his own ministers will desert him, thereby isolating him from the Republic, and they will even bring charges against him in the Senate…

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Have students answer the following questions using evidence from the document:

1. How does Bolívar envision the new government in Gran Colombia? Think about the parts of government he outlines and what values they represent.

2. What does Bolívar think of the United States? 

3. To what extent does this document support Americans’ ideas that South America is emulating them in Bolívar’s words? In the type of government he is proposing?

4. To what extent does Bolívar’s vision support ideals like democracy, liberty, and equality? Provide evidence from the text. 

Group 3: American Popular Reactions to Latin America

American newspapers followed the battles, military and political, in Latin America with a great deal of interest. Have students read 2 excerpts from US newspapers about Bolívar and the Latin American Revolutions, then think about attitudes and perceptions based on these examples.

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Edwardsville Spectator

Edwardsville, Illinois (November 20, 1821). Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress.

 

“Bolívar is efficiently copying the most illustrious traits in the character of our Washington- May he continue faithful to the end and become entitled to be called ‘the father of his country!’ –We have seen that, at the moment when he thought that the independence of Colombia was gained, he wished to lay down his office as president–and the following gives us other instance of equal disinterestedness and magnanimity–It is for the honor of human nature that these things should be preserved.”

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Literary Cadet, and Saturday Evening Bulletin

Providence, Rhode Island (April 7, 1827). Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress.

 

“...There are ten thousand evidences of the patriotism and sincerity of Bolívar, as well as of his entire devotion to the cause of liberty. From our youth upwards, we have not been unmindful of the transactions of South American Chieftains…we have had good and sufficient reasons to applaud, and admire the character, and deeds of Simón Bolívar. From the commencement of his military life, he has devoted himself to the great cause of his country, and has made very sacrifice, to promote her interest, and to divest her of that bondage, which for centuries bound her to the car of despotism, and cut her off from an honorable association with her sister nations, and placed her among the lowest, and most abject, of the accursed and degraded…The last arrivals from South America have brought a document of vast importance ot the world:–it is the abdication of Bolívar; his resignation of office, and expressed desire for that retirement which our Washington, the political god-father of Bolívar, so ardently thirsted for, when he was similarly situated to his present illustrious prototype.” 

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Students can now answer the following questions using evidence from the documents:

1. What do these newspapers in the United States think about Simón Bolívar? Use evidence from the newspapers. 

2. What does this say about their feelings about the Latin American Revolutions? What shared ideals do they see? What distinctions do they make?

3. Given the background reading and the rhetoric used in the article, how accurate do you think this portrayal is? What might be missing from the newspaper’s characterization of Bolívar?

Group 4: Official American Reactions to Latin America

In 1823, President James Monroe outlined the following change in foreign policy for the United States in his annual message to Congress. This reflected not only the US’s understanding of the values of the Latin American Revolutions, but other shifts in political goals.

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Monroe Doctrine excerpt

…The occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. . .

…. Of events in that quarter of the globe, with which we have so much intercourse and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. 

With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments; and to the defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety...

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Students can now answer the following questions using evidence from the document:

1. How does Monroe characterize the Latin American Revolutions?

2. What role does Monroe lay out for the United States’ role in relation to Latin America?

3. What reasons does Monroe give for the US’s position? To what extent does that have to do with shared values? 

4. Do you think Monroe’s phrasing reflects the reason the US is taking this stance in relation to Latin America? Is this the best support the US could offer if true? 

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

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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

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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.