Atlantic Revolutions: Latin American Independence Movements

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the causes, key leaders, and outcomes of the Atlantic and Latin American Revolutions.

Oath of the Ancestors (Serment des Ancêtres)

An 1822 painting by Guillaume Guillon Lethière commemorating the alliance between Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Jacques Dessalines during the Haitian Revolution.

Encomienda System

An early colonial labor system instituted by the Spanish Crown in the Americas, which was originally used to control mining and agriculture before evolving into the enslavement of African people.

Caste System (Colonial Latin America)

A rigid social hierarchy established in Spanish America based on race and ancestry that determined an individual's legal rights, status, and economic wealth.

Peninsulares

Native Spaniards born on the Iberian Peninsula who constituted 0.1% of colonial Latin America's population and held the top political and military offices.

Creoles

Individuals of pure European descent born in the New World who made up 23% of the population; they served as wealthy aristocrats and army officers but were denied top political offices.

Mestizos and Mulattos

Populations of mixed heritage (European with Indigenous American or African) making up roughly 15% of colonial Latin American society, often denied wealth, higher education, and social status.

Viceroys

Colonial governors appointed by the King of Spain to rule administrative divisions, enforce Spanish royal policies, and ensure colonies traded exclusively with Spain.

Joseph Bonaparte

The elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte who was placed on the Spanish throne as King of Spain in 1808, an event that undermined royal authority in Spanish America and catalyzed independence movements.

Toussaint L'Ouverture

A former enslaved military leader who led the 1791 slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue against French rule and plantation slavery, achieving the first major successful slave revolt in Latin America.

Haitian Revolution

A successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection sparked in 1791 by enslaved workers inspired by the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, resulting in Haiti's independence in 1804.

Simón Bolívar

A Venezuelan creole revolutionary leader known as 'The Liberator' who gathered Enlightenment ideas in Europe and led military campaigns freeing Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru from Spanish colonial rule.

Gran Colombia

A short-lived South American confederation envisioned by Simón Bolívar uniting modern-day Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador under one government from 1819 until internal division dissolved it in the 1830s.

José de San Martín

An Argentine creole general who fought Napoleon in the Peninsular War and led campaigns across the Andes to liberate Argentina, Chile, and Peru from Spanish control.

Peninsular War

A conflict fought on the Iberian Peninsula against Napoleon's invading French forces in which José de San Martín gained military experience prior to returning to South America.

Miguel Hidalgo

A Mexican Catholic priest who ignited Mexico's war of independence in 1810 by issuing the 'El Grito de Dolores' speech, leading an army of mestizos and indigenous people until his defeat and execution in 1811.

El Grito de Dolores

The historic 1810 proclamation delivered by Father Miguel Hidalgo in Dolores, Mexico, urging mestizos and indigenous peoples to rise against Spanish colonial oppression.

José Morelos

A Mexican priest and general who assumed leadership of the revolutionary movement after Hidalgo's death, leading rebel forces until his capture and execution by firing squad for treason in 1815.

Agustín de Iturbide

A Mexican creole military officer who negotiated Mexican independence, proclaimed himself emperor of Central America, and was overthrown in 1823.

King John VI

The monarch of Portugal who fled Napoleon's invasion in 1807, moved the royal court to Rio de Janeiro, and ruled the Portuguese Empire from Brazil for 14 years.

Dom Pedro

The son of King John VI who stayed in Brazil, responded to creole petitions for autonomy, and declared Brazilian independence in 1822 to become head of a constitutional monarchy.

Caudillos

Upper-class creole military strongmen and political leaders who seized dictatorial power across newly independent Latin American nations by 1830, suppressing basic rights to control lower social classes.

Monroe Doctrine

An 1823 U.S. foreign policy principle asserting that the American continents were no longer open to European colonization and that foreign intervention would be met with military opposition.