WEBVTT 1 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:22.679 Hello, and welcome to Western civ Episode five hundred and fifteen, 2 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:27.839 The Liberator. When we talk about independence in Central and 3 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:32.799 South America, it's tempting to imagine a clean break, a 4 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:38.200 triumph movement, when colonial rule collapsed and free nations rose 5 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:41.039 in its place. And the changes that are going to 6 00:00:41.079 --> 00:00:44.719 grip Central and South America. Don't get me wrong, they're momentous, 7 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:49.920 and the consequences for Spain in the long run are devastating. 8 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:54.640 But the important thing to recognize is that between eighteen 9 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:59.920 ten roughly and eighteen thirty independence was not a moment, 10 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:05.719 and it was honestly a never ending, grinding, continent wide 11 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:11.000 civil war followed by an uneasy piece that few truly 12 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:16.640 understood how to keep. And no one's life captures that reality, 13 00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:19.719 of course, more than the man who is one hundred 14 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:27.519 percent associated with these independence movements, the Liberator himself, Simon Bolivar. 15 00:01:29.079 --> 00:01:34.120 This is the story of how an empire fell, and 16 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:38.920 honestly also how the men who tore it down struggled 17 00:01:39.239 --> 00:01:44.519 mightily to build something lasting from the ruins. Then we'll 18 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:46.359 get to Bolivar and Moore in a second. Don't worry 19 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:50.200 about that, but let's start to set the stage on 20 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:56.159 the eve of the revolution. Spanish America was vast, it 21 00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:00.480 was wealthy, and it was profoundly unequal. I mean, if 22 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:05.680 we're going to count Spanish territory, because we're pre Mexican independence, 23 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:09.240 you're talking about a territory that stretches really from the 24 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:15.199 northern boundaries of California, cutting down diagonally through today what 25 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:18.439 is Utah, parts of Colorado, New Mexico, so on and 26 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:21.159 so forth. We'll throw Texas in there for right now, 27 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:24.039 for the sake of argument. Then cut down through Mexico, 28 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:28.280 Central America, and then excluding Brazil, of course, which was 29 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:31.840 under the purview of the Portuguese, you're talking about all 30 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:36.560 of South America. So I'm absolutely huge swathen By the way, 31 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:39.439 I'm not counting the islands in the Caribbean, or of 32 00:02:39.479 --> 00:02:42.960 course territories in the Asia Pacific, like the Philippines. I'm 33 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:47.879 not counting those. But the Spanish crown governed all of 34 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:53.800 this really with a smash and grab colonial extraction method. 35 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:59.560 The idea was to govern through viceroys, audiencias and military 36 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:02.639 governor and it was a mismatch of those different ruling 37 00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:08.560 styles to extract silver predominantly agricultural wealth kind of and 38 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:13.120 customs revenue a lot less, while tightly controlling political power. 39 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:16.639 Now at the top, as we discussed in our last 40 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:20.919 episode of this social pyramid, you have in all of 41 00:03:20.919 --> 00:03:26.240 these territories Spaniards born in Europe. Those are the peninsularees. 42 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:32.120 They monopolized basically all of the high offices beneath those 43 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:35.879 with the creoles the American and I don't mean United States, 44 00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:40.599 I mean born in the Americas. American born Spaniards like Bolivar, 45 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:45.240 wealthy and educated, but politically excluded because of their place 46 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:49.400 of birth. And then, of course, below these two tip 47 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:54.280 points on the pyramid, you have a massive population of 48 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:59.520 indigenous peoples, free people of color, and enslaved Africans, more 49 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:03.159 or less those depending upon where you are. Almost none 50 00:04:03.319 --> 00:04:07.960 in California, quite a few in South America. Now, the 51 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:13.080 system depended on obedience and legitimacy, because this is a 52 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:19.519 centrist rule system. It's all governed ultimately from Madrid, from 53 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:23.279 the Spanish crown and the bureaucrats that surround that crown. 54 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:28.920 But when Napoleon invades Spain in eighteen o eight and 55 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:36.839 deposed King Ferdinand, the seventh, that legitimacy collapsed literally overnight. 56 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:45.240 Suddenly there was no unquestioned sovereign across the empire. Elites 57 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:50.720 started to ask a dangerous question, if the king is gone, well, 58 00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:58.319 then why bother obeying anyone? Huntas quickly emerged across the 59 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:05.279 America's initi claiming loyalty to Ferdinand. But their existence alone 60 00:05:05.319 --> 00:05:11.800 was revolutionary. Howard had very rapidly, almost overnight, shifted from 61 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:15.959 obedience to Spain to local administration. So we went really 62 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.720 from a centrist system to a federal system without anybody 63 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:22.399 deciding that that's what we were going to do. And 64 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:26.399 once power shifts locally, it just doesn't go back, at 65 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:31.160 least not easily or quietly. And between the American Revolution 66 00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:35.439 and particularly this time period eighteen thirty and then we're 67 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:37.240 going to get to some of the revolutions in Europe 68 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:39.240 that failed ones. Of course, we're going to be talking 69 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:42.000 about a period of time in which you really feel 70 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.800 like the ideals that were planted in the American and 71 00:05:44.839 --> 00:05:48.879 French revolutions are driving the boat to a large extent, 72 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:53.639 not for everyone, of course, no, because those indigenous peoples, 73 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:56.240 those enslaved Africans, they're not going to get political power. 74 00:05:56.279 --> 00:05:58.399 But it's very similar to what we see in the 75 00:05:58.519 --> 00:06:01.480 United States, where it's not necessarily that we're going to 76 00:06:01.519 --> 00:06:04.800 get rid of slavery, but we want our elites to 77 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:07.439 be in charge. And that's so much of what you 78 00:06:07.560 --> 00:06:10.720 have going on in South and Central America at the 79 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:13.000 same time. So in a lot of ways, it really 80 00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:16.959 is the true ideals of the American Revolution, a transfer 81 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:22.199 of sovereignty and power from the elites back in Spain, 82 00:06:22.759 --> 00:06:24.720 I'll just say Europe, so we can capture them all, 83 00:06:24.839 --> 00:06:28.959 and then the elites who are local. But let's talk 84 00:06:29.079 --> 00:06:33.439 about Simon Bolivar before we go any further, because he's 85 00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:39.519 the George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, He's all those 86 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:42.480 people in Central and South America just kind of like 87 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:46.319 wrapped into one. Although I think you could argue if 88 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:49.439 you wanted to, that he was a significantly better general 89 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:51.360 than George Washington. I'm not going to make that argument, 90 00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:55.680 but I've certainly seen it made. Now. Bolivar's early life 91 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:01.600 mattered enormously. He was orphaned young like Alexander Hamilton, but 92 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:07.199 fabulously wealthy like Alexander Hamilton, and educated by enlightened minded tutors. 93 00:07:07.879 --> 00:07:12.879 He had already by mid teens, traveled extensively in Europe. 94 00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:18.160 He had witnessed personally Napoleon's rise. He admired him, particularly 95 00:07:18.399 --> 00:07:22.600 his energy, but he didn't like his tyranny in Rome. 96 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:27.000 According to later accounts, Bolivar swore an oath at the 97 00:07:27.079 --> 00:07:31.720 Vatican to liberate his homeland. Now what the Pope would 98 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:34.040 have thought of that at the time is probably something 99 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:36.519 we will never know, but my guess is they wouldn't 100 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:42.120 have been particularly favorable. But Bolivar, of course, wasn't a 101 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:49.040 pure democrat. He distrusted mass politics, he feared social upheaval, 102 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:53.240 and he believed that strong leadership was essential, especially in 103 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:57.399 a society emerging from colonial rule. I don't think he's 104 00:07:57.399 --> 00:08:00.600 necessarily wrong about that. By the way, if you're trying 105 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:04.920 to transition out of a period of direct colonial rule 106 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:09.399 into home rule, you really do need someone Anna Mtill 107 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:12.759 who has that power, who has that authority, and who 108 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:17.560 has that legitimacy, and I guess critically isn't afraid necessarily 109 00:08:17.639 --> 00:08:22.079 to use it. I mean, George Washington put down revolts 110 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:27.800 in western Massachusetts quite successfully, and they needed his legitimacy 111 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:31.079 in the United States. Of course, there's a huge difference 112 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:34.240 in the economy and the society of the thirteen original 113 00:08:34.279 --> 00:08:37.000 colonies that become the Young Republic and what we're dealing 114 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:40.519 with in Mexico and what's going to become Columbia, Bolivia 115 00:08:40.679 --> 00:08:44.279 and Venezuela, so on and so forth, And that's worth noting, 116 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:47.480 and we can get into all of that, but the 117 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:51.840 principle is the same, so that it's really, really, really 118 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:56.840 hard to go from colonial rule directly to a democracy, 119 00:08:57.639 --> 00:09:03.240 particularly a peer one, and this tension between liberty and 120 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:07.480 authority would come to define every single constitution that Bolivar 121 00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:11.480 later wrote. Now, Bolivar really gets into the game in 122 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:13.759 the year eighteen ten, which is why we start this 123 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:17.840 episode talking about eighteen ten, because that's when Caracas, which 124 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.120 is one of the provincial capitals at the time of 125 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:22.480 Venezuela today we all know because it's in the news 126 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:27.360 a lot is the capital of Venezuela. When Caracas announces 127 00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:30.000 that it will form a junta, it's going to essentially 128 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:34.919 separate at least its ruling elite from Spain Spanish domination. 129 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:39.000 Bolivar announced that he would join the movement with enthusiasm, 130 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:42.960 and it didn't take long for officials in Caracas to 131 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:46.480 realize that you can't go halfway on this stuff, right 132 00:09:47.320 --> 00:09:49.600 if you're going to declare that you are ruling elite 133 00:09:49.639 --> 00:09:52.759 and that you're separating yourself from Spain, I mean, honestly, 134 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:55.600 what is the difference between that and a declaration of independence? 135 00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:00.519 And recognizing that there really wasn't a difference in dependence 136 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:04.679 in Venezuela was declared in eighteen eleven. But to be clear, 137 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.000 the experiment, like it had been in the United States, 138 00:10:08.039 --> 00:10:10.879 like it had been in Mexico, was a bit fragile 139 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:17.279 from the very beginning. The First Venezuelan Republic was destroyed 140 00:10:17.639 --> 00:10:22.360 not only by Spanish arms but by internal weakness. Federalism 141 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:27.360 quickly fragmented authority the economy such that it was collapsed, 142 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:33.120 and then there was an unfortunate circumstance. In eighteen twelve, 143 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:39.159 a massive earthquake hit Caracas. It killed thousands of people 144 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:43.600 and was widely interpreted by a population that was overwhelmingly 145 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:50.080 Roman Catholic as divine punishment for the rebellion. Royalist forces 146 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:57.000 surged throughout Venezuela, and Bolivar was forced to flee. An 147 00:10:57.039 --> 00:11:02.679 exile to a large extent radicalized him. Moving to Cartagena 148 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:07.759 in modern day Columbia, he wrote with brutal clarity. He 149 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:13.799 wrote that Venezuela had failed because it mistook theory for reality. 150 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:21.080 Liberty without discipline, he argued, invited disaster. Yes, there needed 151 00:11:21.080 --> 00:11:23.960 to be some sort of representation in government, but the 152 00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:31.840 republic also needed above all, unity, authority, and force. Returning 153 00:11:31.960 --> 00:11:39.600 in eighteen thirteen, Bolivar launched the admirable campaign reclaiming western 154 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:45.039 Venezuela and briefly restoring Republican rule. But this second Republic 155 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:49.360 collapsed even more violently than the first. The royalist leader 156 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:54.320 Jose Tomas Boyes mobilized the rural poor, especially Janeros and 157 00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:58.799 formally enslaved men, against creole elites and turned the war 158 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:01.639 from something that was political and this thing that was social, 159 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:05.799 and as a consequence, he turned it into a literal bloodbath. 160 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:18.720 Independence itself now meant survival. By eighteen fifteen, Simon Bolivar 161 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:22.600 was again in exile, this time in Jamaica. His famous 162 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:25.120 letter from Kingston is one of the greatest documents of 163 00:12:25.159 --> 00:12:30.440 Atlantic revolutionary thought. He predicted that Spanish America would fragment, 164 00:12:30.919 --> 00:12:35.440 suffer civil wars, and struggle with Republican government, and he 165 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:41.080 was right on basically every single count. Salvation came from 166 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:46.559 an unlikely place. Haiti, the world's first black republic born 167 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:52.519 of a successful slave revolution, offered Bolivar, arms, ships and sanctuary. 168 00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:57.799 President Alexandre Petien asked only one thing in return, the 169 00:12:57.879 --> 00:13:03.000 abolition of slavery. Bulivar was only too quick to agree, 170 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:09.039 and this decision transformed the war for independence in Central 171 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:13.960 and South America. Independence was no longer merely a creole 172 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:18.279 political project. It was no longer just about switching who 173 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:21.519 the political elites were going to be. This was now 174 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:26.559 a social revolution, drawing thousands of enslaved and marginalized men 175 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:31.480 into patriot armies. It also deepened elite fears of chaos, 176 00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:38.799 contradiction that Bolivar will never fully resolve. Between eighteen sixteen 177 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:44.480 and eighteen twenty four, Bolivar didn't fight for a country. 178 00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:49.399 He fought for a continant. His most audacious gamble came 179 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:52.720 in eighteen nineteen, when he led an army across the 180 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:58.039 flooded plains and frozen andes into New Grenada. Men died 181 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:00.960 of cold disease and exhaustion. But as we have seen 182 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:04.679 so many times throughout history, whether we're talking about Hannibal 183 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:07.799 or where we're talking about Napoleon, the element of speed 184 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:13.279 and surprise was decisive. Bolivar crossed into what is today 185 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:18.000 Colombia and fought really the largest pitched battle of the 186 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:23.879 entire war for independence at a place called Boyaca. Bolivar 187 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:30.200 scored an enormous victory at Boyaca and marched triumphantly into 188 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:34.519 the capital city of Bogota in a moment that shattered 189 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:38.720 Spanish power in the northern part of Central and South America. 190 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:44.799 By eighteen twenty one, after another battle, Venezuela was effectively 191 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:50.279 independent and Bolivar found himself hailed as a liberator the liberator, 192 00:14:51.320 --> 00:14:55.200 but the war, of course, wasn't finished. While Bolivar pushed 193 00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:59.360 into Ecuador and Peru, one of his subordinates, Jose de 194 00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:04.320 San Martin Kin, liberated all of southern South America. They 195 00:15:04.360 --> 00:15:07.759 had a brief meeting in Guyaquiel in eighteen twenty two 196 00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:11.480 and then ended with Bolivar assuming overall command of the 197 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:15.519 final phase of liberation, and the decisive blow finally came 198 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:20.399 in eighteen twenty four when Patriot forces crushed Spanish armies 199 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:25.639 at Juien and Ajuco. Three centuries of imperial rule ended, 200 00:15:25.639 --> 00:15:29.399 in this case, not with negotiation, but with pure annihilation. 201 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:33.240 Now the reality is is that Spain and the Spanish 202 00:15:33.320 --> 00:15:35.960 Empire was coming to an end of its own accord. 203 00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:41.000 Spain had never really moved away from the model that 204 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:45.120 it established after Columbus's expedition to the New World. That 205 00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:49.360 is sort of a wealth extrapolation model. Spain had never 206 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:55.200 done an effective job of establishing an independent industry for 207 00:15:55.279 --> 00:15:58.200 all of its colonies. All of them were still run 208 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:01.639 on essentially the old mercantile model, and that was a 209 00:16:01.639 --> 00:16:04.759 model that just didn't work anymore in the nineteenth century. 210 00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:08.559 As a consequence, and as a consequence of European affairs, 211 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:13.840 Spain found itself weak, disorganized, and unable, frankly, to respond 212 00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:18.799 to these attacks. Now, Bolivar's victory did create nations, but 213 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:23.200 it didn't create states. The Spanish Empire had centralized authority 214 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:29.120 in Madrid. When it vanished, local institutions were weak, economies 215 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:34.039 were shattered, and armies accustomed to power. Bolivar attempted to 216 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:37.799 impose order through a new country that he called Grand 217 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:42.679 Columbia a vast republic, stretching from Panama all the way 218 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:49.080 to Ecuador, and it failed almost immediately. Regional elites resisted 219 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:55.200 in central authority. Federalists clashed with centralists, elections bread factionalism. 220 00:16:56.039 --> 00:17:01.720 Bolivar increasingly relied on emergency powers, convinced that democracy without 221 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:08.319 discipline would destroy independence itself. Elsewhere, the pattern found itself repeating. 222 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:13.039 Central America fractured into rival states within a decade, Peru 223 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:20.440 oscillated between military strongmen, and Argentina descended into Koidillo warfare. Chile, 224 00:17:20.839 --> 00:17:23.960 of course, achieved stability, but at the cost of restricted 225 00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:29.400 political participation. Yes, the war for independence had removed Spain, 226 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.079 but it had not removed or resolved inequality, racial hierarchy, 227 00:17:34.359 --> 00:17:40.599 or economic dependency. Power flowed through armies and not through ballots. 228 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:45.519 By the late eighteen twenties, Simon Bolivar was exhausted and 229 00:17:45.559 --> 00:17:50.319 he was ill. Grand Columbia had long ago disintegrated. Former 230 00:17:50.359 --> 00:17:55.720 allies now denounced him as a dictator. Assassination attempts stalked him, 231 00:17:55.960 --> 00:17:59.039 and in despair, he resigned power and prepared for an 232 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:02.640 exile that he ever made it to. And eighteen thirty 233 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:07.039 Bolivar died poor, bitter, and convinced that his life work 234 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:13.359 had failed America. He wrote, is ungovernable, and yet without 235 00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:17.960 him there would have been no independence. Between eighteen ten 236 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:22.559 and eighteen thirty, Central and South America achieved political freedom, 237 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:28.200 but they inherited instability. Their revolutions destroyed empire, but they 238 00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:33.559 couldn't instantly create citizenship. Bolivar understood this better than anyone, 239 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:37.039 and it haunted him until the end of his life. 240 00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:40.160 And honestly, his life reminds us that independence and this 241 00:18:40.279 --> 00:18:43.799 is key, is not an ending. It's a beginning and 242 00:18:43.960 --> 00:18:53.279 is often violent, uncertain, and unfinished. When Simon Bolivar died 243 00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:55.960 in December eighteen thirty, he did not leave behind a 244 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:00.480 continent at peace. He left behind a power vacuum. Bolivar 245 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:04.039 had dreamed of unity, a single strong republic stretching from 246 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:07.119 the Caribbean to the Andes, looking a lot like the 247 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:11.880 United States, capable of resisting European imperialism and internal decay. 248 00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:14.559 But by the time that his body was carried from 249 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:18.240 Santa Marta, his dream was already in ruins. The great 250 00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:22.319 experiment of Grand Colombia had collapsed, and South America entered 251 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:26.400 a turbulent decade defined not my liberation but my fragmentation. 252 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:31.920 The continent was newly freed, but deeply divided and struggled 253 00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:36.200 to govern itself. Between eighteen thirty and eighteen forty, the 254 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:41.599 Grand Colombia, comprising modern day Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, had 255 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:45.759 been Bolivar's greatest political project, but it collapsed under the 256 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:50.240 weight of regional rivalries, weak institutions, and bitter disputes over 257 00:19:50.279 --> 00:19:56.400 federalism versus central authority. By eighteen thirty, Venezuela had seceded 258 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:02.799 under Jose Antonio Paez, E declared independence under Juan Jose Flores, 259 00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:07.240 and Bolivar had resigned, exiled from the political system that 260 00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:11.880 he had created. He wrote, those who served the revolution 261 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:16.240 plow the sea, and his death marked not an ending, 262 00:20:16.279 --> 00:20:20.000 but a beginning, a new era dominated by strongmen who 263 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:24.759 ruled through political loyalty called cadillos. They ruled through military 264 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:30.400 power and fear. The rump state of Colombia, oftentimes called 265 00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:36.000 New Granada, struggled to define itself after Bolivar. The eighteen 266 00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:42.240 thirties were consumed by constitutional experiments and civil unrests. Liberals 267 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:45.240 and Conservatives in Colombia fought over the power of the 268 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:49.559 Catholic Church, federalism versus central authority, and the role of 269 00:20:49.960 --> 00:20:55.599 military and politics. Presidents often came and went ruling weekly 270 00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:59.559 from Bogata, while regional elites governed their own territories as 271 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:04.319 they saw fit. Elections existed, but violence was never far behind. 272 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:10.000 The state survived, but barely. Now Colombia did not collapse 273 00:21:10.119 --> 00:21:13.279 like Grand Colombia had, but it entered a long pattern 274 00:21:13.319 --> 00:21:18.319 that would define much of South American politics. Formal republicanism 275 00:21:18.519 --> 00:21:24.920 layered over informal oligarchy. In Venezuela, independence brought not unity 276 00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:30.279 but exhaustion. Years of brutal warfare had devastated the countryside. 277 00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:35.799 Slavery remained in place, the economy had been shattered. Juan 278 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:40.559 Antonio Paiez ruled as a president and strong man, representing 279 00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:45.440 only the interest of landowners and cattle elites. Venezuela became 280 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:50.839 nominally constitutional, but in practice power flowed through personal patron 281 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:56.640 client networks, and military loyalty. The irony, of course, was bitter. 282 00:21:57.400 --> 00:22:02.160 Venezuela had been liberated predominantly by mass mobilization of enslaved 283 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:07.000 people and rural fighters, yet the republic that emerge entrenched 284 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:12.680 inequality rather than dismantling it. Ecuador entered the eighteen thirties 285 00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:17.759 as a state with little national cohesion. The coastal elites 286 00:22:17.799 --> 00:22:21.519 of Guadalakielle and the highland elites of Quito mistrusted each 287 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:27.519 other completely. President Juan Jose Flores governed through force patronage. 288 00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:32.680 Indigenous populations, who formed the majority, remained excluded from citizenship 289 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:37.759 in any meaningful sense. Ecuador survived the decade, but as 290 00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:42.240 a fragile creation, held together less by institutions than by 291 00:22:42.359 --> 00:22:47.119 exhaustion and fear of chaos. And further south, the world 292 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:51.400 of the Andes descended into rivalry. In Peru, the military 293 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:55.839 totally dominated politics. Governments came and went through coups rather 294 00:22:55.839 --> 00:23:01.400 than elections. Economic instability and debt haunted the republic. In Bolivia, 295 00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:05.799 named after all, after Bolivar himself, the instability was even worse. 296 00:23:06.519 --> 00:23:10.039 Bolivia went through multiple presidents in rapid succession, many of 297 00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:14.240 the military generals. In eighteen thirty six, the two countries 298 00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:18.440 were actually briefly united in the Peru Bolivian Confederation, an 299 00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:22.319 ambitious attempt to restore power throughout the Andes, but the 300 00:23:22.440 --> 00:23:27.400 experiment alarmed neighboring Chile, which feared regional domination, and so 301 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:31.400 Chile invaded, and by eighteen thirty nine Chilean armies had 302 00:23:31.400 --> 00:23:35.839 destroyed the confederation. The message was now clear. Unity in 303 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:41.720 South America would be punished, not rewarded. And nowhere in 304 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:46.799 post Believiar politics take a darker turn than in Argentina. 305 00:23:47.640 --> 00:23:51.920 The country was torn between unitarians who wanted centralized authority 306 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:56.960 in Buenos Aires and federalists who defended provincial autonomy. And 307 00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:01.359 out of this chaos rose Juan Manuel. They were by 308 00:24:01.400 --> 00:24:04.880 the late eighteen thirties. The euros us ruled Buenos Aires 309 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:10.279 and effectively the country through censorship, secret police, and political violence. 310 00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:15.759 His regime enforced loyalty through fear, while claiming to defend tradition, 311 00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:22.799 order and national sovereignty. Argentina did not stabilize. Instead, it 312 00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:28.599 hardened amid the chaos of Spanish America. Brazil followed a 313 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:33.240 strikingly different course. Brazil had achieved its independence in eighteen 314 00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:38.359 twenty two, but actually, interestingly enough, remained a monarchy. When 315 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:42.319 Emperor Pedro the First abdicated in eighteen thirty one, Brazil 316 00:24:42.440 --> 00:24:46.359 entered a regency period marked by revolts, but the imperial 317 00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:51.519 framework endured. Brazil's actually the only South American country to 318 00:24:51.559 --> 00:24:56.799 continue to try to work on monarchy after independence. Brazil's 319 00:24:56.799 --> 00:25:03.559 monarchy paradoxically provided, interestingly enough, more continuity than republicanism did. 320 00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:07.599 Throughout the rest of South and Central America. Slavery continued 321 00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:11.839 in Brazil. Elites remained powerful, but there was no fragmentation 322 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:15.039 in the Brazilian state. It was a reminder, though, that 323 00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:20.160 independence didn't dictate political reform at all. Change had to 324 00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:23.319 come from within, and normally it had to come from 325 00:25:23.400 --> 00:25:27.079 the bottom. The elites were only interested in securing their 326 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:31.000 own power, and so by eighteen forty, which is where 327 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:34.039 we're going to leave South America for now, the continent 328 00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:37.599 was free from Spanish domination, but it was really unsettled. 329 00:25:38.440 --> 00:25:42.559 Bolivar's dream of unity lay shattered, and in its place 330 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:47.640 were weak republics with strong men, constitutions overshadowed by the 331 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:52.759 power of bayonets and social hierarchies inherited from empire and 332 00:25:52.880 --> 00:25:59.119 never erased by revolution. Independence had ended colonial rule, but 333 00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:03.680 it had never those deeper questions who should rule, who 334 00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:07.400 counted as a citizen, and how could power be restrained 335 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:12.799 once gained by force? Those questions would haunt South America 336 00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:17.119 for the rest of the nineteenth century and beyond. And 337 00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:21.799 in that sense, Bolivar's death didn't close a chapter, it 338 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:26.680 opened a long and uncertain aftermath. Now that's a lot, 339 00:26:26.759 --> 00:26:30.160 but it sets the stage for where we're going from 340 00:26:30.200 --> 00:26:33.680 here to understand how Central and South America are now 341 00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:37.880 free from Spanish domination and how eventually the Spanish Empire 342 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:42.240 will come to its final denouncement in the Spanish American War. 343 00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:46.039 But that's a little bit away for now. We do 344 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:50.720 now need to rotate back to Europe and begin to 345 00:26:50.839 --> 00:26:55.240 talk about really what the post Napoleonic world looked like 346 00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:00.559 in Europe and how the economic and social changes that 347 00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:05.200 are moving through your predominantly economic and industrial changes are 348 00:27:05.240 --> 00:27:11.039 going to now catapult this post Napoleonic Europe out of chaos, 349 00:27:11.079 --> 00:27:15.240 out of constant warfare, and into a position where Europeans, 350 00:27:15.559 --> 00:27:17.680 for a period of time up until World War One, 351 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:42.279 are going to completely dominate the globe.