4.4: South Atlantic Revolutions

Haitian Independence

As France’s wealthiest colony, Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola yielded roughly 40 percent of the sugar and nearly half the coffee imported to Europe in the eighteenth century. Producing these labor-intensive commodities depended on maintaining a ruthless regime that enslaved most of the colony’s population. Slave labor was therefore an integral part of the success of this particular commodity since the work was difficult at best and shortened life spans at worst. At the beginning of the Haitian Revolution, roughly 500,000 enslaved Africans lived in Saint-Domingue. A population of about forty thousand Whites was a mix of wealthy planters, middle-class professionals, and poor laborers. A third group of about thirty thousand were free blacks called Affranchise, many of mixed-race heritage and some holding enslaved people themselves. Given sharp social divisions and the exploitation of the colony’s enslaved people, Saint-Domingue was poised for turmoil.

Figure 4.4.2: “A Representation of the Sugar Cane and the Art of Making Sugar,” a picture of a sugar plantation for a magazine in the eighteenth century, Popular Graphic Arts, in the Public Domain.

Figure 4.4.2 depicts sugarcane processing on a plantation in the Caribbean. A white plantation owner with a stick in left hand is looking and pointing in the direction of a few slaves who are engaged in processing the cane. Sugarcane, palm trees, and a man in a boat are also seen in the image.

After news of the revolution in France reached the colony, each group interpreted the principles and goals of the revolution differently. Whereas wealthy White planters sought more political power and greater freedom from trade restrictions, poor Whites were primarily interested in securing equal citizenship for themselves. Neither wealthy nor poor whites were concerned with gaining equal political or legal rights for people who were not white. The Affranchise interpreted the revolutionary rhetoric of liberty to mean the extension of equal rights to all free people regardless of race. Given that some of them owned enslaved people, however, they did not call for an end to slavery. The incompatible goals of each group intensified hostilities among the free sectors of Saint-Domingue’s population.

The conflict between Whites and Affranchise exploded in 1791, after Haiti’s White population refused to acknowledge the citizenship rights that France had extended to wealthy people of color. The resulting turmoil and instability provided the perfect opportunity for rebellion, which expanded into a full-fledged revolution. Encouraged by the French Revolution, slaves on sugar plantations on Hispaniola rebelled. Some Affranchise joined forces with rebelling enslaved people in an uprising against White colonists. Slavery in French colonies was then abolished by the Jacobins in 1793, but then Napoleon reinstituted slavery and sent 40,000 troops to retake the island for France. However, these French forces were decimated by yellow fever. The former slaves defeated the French and established the Republic of Haiti in 1804.

Revolutions in the Spanish Empire

The Seven Years War and the French invasion of Spain sparked political revolution in the Spanish world. Political leaders all over the Spanish Empire increasingly embraced Enlightenment ideas.

The Bourbon Reforms

Under the Bourbon King Philip V, the Spanish government sought to strengthen the power of the monarchy on the Iberian Peninsula. However, it was not until Charles III (1759-1788) was defeated in the Seven Year’s War that serious reform took place in the Americas. Previously, the Spanish Habsburgs supported the idea that the Spanish Americans enjoyed the same status as the various regions of Spain, such as Aragón and Castile. However, the Bourbons viewed the Americas more as a modern colony which existed to enrich Spain.

The architect for reforms in the Americas was Jose de Galvez who headed the Secretary of the Indies during 1776-1787. Galvez openly stated that Creoles were inferior and sought to exclude them from government in the Americas. As a result, most bishops and higher-ranking officers in the military were Peninsulares. The Americas were reorganized into administrative districts known as intendancies. There was to be well paid official, known as an intendent, in each important provincial city. Most intendents were Peninsulares who were seen as intrusive outsiders.

The goal of the Spanish government was to extract more wealth from the Americas to finance a military buildup. Intendents had a great deal of power, because they oversaw the collection of taxes, local military forces, and public works. For the most part, there was a much more rigorous tax collection. Although revenues increased dramatically, government spending was geared toward lavish spending at the royal court in Spain and the armed forces not public works in the Americas.

Spanish American society was based on a small aristocracy of Spanish Peninsulares and Creoles ruling large populations of casta (mixed) populations, free Afro-Latinos, American indigenous, and enslaved Africans. Most Penninsulares believed that they were both racially and culturally superior to Creoles who competed with Penninsulares for business opportunities as well as military, government and clerical appointments. However, Creoles increasingly saw Spain as an underdeveloped country and sought to trade directly with foreigners rather than going through Peninsular merchants who controlled internation trade. While Spain was at war with Britain (1796-1810), Spanish Americans were able to freely trade with foreigners, because the British navy cut Spain off from its colonies in the Americas.

Turmoil in Spain

Although the Spanish monarchy was against the French Revolution, King Carlos IV (1788-1808) supported France in its war against Britain 1796. However, the Spanish navy was no match for the British navy. In 1807, Spanish Prince Ferdinand VII sought to end the French alliance and led a rebellion against his father Carlos IV. Napoleon then made his brother Joseph king of Spain and invaded. The French put Ferdinand VII under house arrest in France, but the Spanish considered him their legitimate king.

Spaniards immediately rebelled against Joseph and the country was in chaos. The Spanish formed local governing councils called juntas in 1808. These juntas argued that with the king gone, the people should rule and that political power rested with the people and not the king. To establish a more permanent government, the Spanish rebels held elections for an empire-wide Cortes to rule. Elections for deputies to sit on this Cortes were held not just in Spain but in Spanish America as well. The Cortes convened in 1810 and were made up of both Peninsulares and Creoles who drafted the Constitution of 1812. This was the first constitution of the Spanish world and it guaranteed freedom of press and speech. The Constitution of 1812 also created a powerful Cortes which approved of all laws and taxes. All adult males except for Afro-Latinos could vote. Figure 4.4.2 shows Professor Jordan Stanton at the Museum of the Cortes in Cadiz in Spain next to the first ballot box used for the first election of an empire-wide Cortes. The ballot box is fairly small and made out of wood.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Jordan Stanton next to Ballot Box, Museo de las Cortes de Cadiz, CC BY

France was finally driven out of Spain, but King Ferdinand VII (1813-1833) immediately revoked the Constitution of 1812 and removed anyone who opposed him from the armed forces and the government. For the most part, he sought to bring back every aspect of traditional monarchical authority while he ignored the calls for change in Spain during the French occupation. Nevertheless, many army officers embraced the ideals of the 1812 Constitution. For this reason, the military rebelled in 1820 and forced Ferdinand VII to reinstall the constitution. Spain then became increasingly unstable, because Ferdinand VII never accepted the Constitution of 1812. French forces then invaded Spain in 1823 and restored the king to power. 45,000 French troops would remain in Spain until 1828.

Primary Sources: The Constitution of 1812

In 1812, the leaders of Spain and Spanish America drafted the first constitution of the Spanish Empire. Many of the ideas in this document were influenced by the Enlightenment and the US and French constitutions.

Discussion Questions

• How is this constitution democratic?
• How is this constitution undemocratic?

Chapter II. Of Religion.

Art 12. The Roman catholic and apostolic religion, the only true one, is and always shall be that of the Spanish nation; the government protects it by wise and just laws, and prohibits the exercise of any other whatever.

Chapter III. Of Government.

Art. 13. The government has for its object the happiness of the nation, for the only end of all political associations is the welfare of all its members.
Art. 14. The government of the Spanish nation is an hereditary monarchy, moderated by laws.
Art. 15. The legislative power belongs to the Cortes, together with the king.
Art. 16. The executive power belongs to the king.
Art. 17. The judicial power, in civil and criminal cases, resides in the tribunals established by law.

Chapter VII. Of the Powers of the Cortes

Art. 131. The Cortes shall have power―

1. To propose and decree the laws, and to explain and repeal them if necessary;
3. To decide upon every question of fact or law concerning the succession to the crown;
10. To determine every year, on the king's proposal, the number of the sea and land forces, and how many are to be kept on foot in time of peace, and to what extent they shall be increased in time of war;
11. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
12. To determine the expenses of the public administration;
13. To lay annually the imposts and taxes;
16. To examine and approve the accounts of the expenditure of the public money;
22. To establish a general plan of teaching for the public schools throughout the monarchy, and approve of the plan which shall be prepared for the education of the prince of Asturias;
23. To approve of the general regulations concerning the public health, and the general police throughout the kingdom;
24. To protect the political freedom of the press;
25. To enforce the responsibility of the ministers of state and other public functionaries;

Chapter I. Of the Inviolability of the King, and of his Authority.

Art. 168. The person of the king is sacred and inviolable, and he can do no wrong.
Art. 169. The king shall be styled, his catholic majesty.
Art. 170. The executive power shall be vested exclusively in the king, and his authority shall extend to all that may be conducive to the preservation of the public order and safety of the state, conformably to the constitution and laws.

Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy (1812), in the Public Domain

Spanish American Independence

Spanish Americans believed that they were under the rule of the Spanish monarchy not the Spanish Peninsular government. As a consequence, when Ferdinand VII was deposed in 1808, Spanish Americans formed juntas and argued that they were independent of any government in Spain until Ferdinand VII returned. However, once Spain and Britain formed an alliance to fight France in 1810, Peninsulares immediately sought to reestablish commercial dominance in the Americas. Creoles in Spain sitting on the Cortes demanded equality and free trade which the Peninsulares almost unanimously rejected.

Fighting broke out in Spanish America quickly when the Spanish government collapsed. It tended to be mixed race peoples, culturally Spanish natives (foresteros), and Afro-Latinos who never really benefited under Spanish rule that fought the Spanish. These rebels usually fought to end discrimination that they faced under colonial rule and better working conditions. They tended to be led by Creoles such as Simon de Bolivar in South America or Father Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico, but there were important mixed-race generals as well such as Vicente Guerrero and Jose Morelos. Ethnic sedentary natives, in general, supported Spain. In Mexico, they did not join the insurgents, and in the Andes they actually fought for Spain against Bolivar and his forces. Nevertheless, a stalemate emerged with neither side being able to defeat the other. Ferdinand VII and the Peninsulares would not negotiate and wanted to maintain dominance over Spanish America. Most of Spanish America broke free after the rebellion in Spain in 1820, because Spain was unable to send troops to the Americas.

Independence in Spanish America was not a result so much of European government actions like in British America but from a collapse of authority in Spain. During the US war for independence, the elected civilians remained in control of the government and the military. However, in Spanish America civil authority broke down and Creole military officers took control. In some ways, the break with the past was radical. While the US independence movement was a political process where American elites replaced British elites, in Spanish America corporatism was diminished and a new type of society based on Enlightenment principles was introduced.

Revolutions in the Portuguese Empire

The French invasion of Portugal resulted in the reorganization of the Portuguese Empire. Brazil sough independence after political revolutionaries seized the government of Portugal in 1820. The Napoleonic Wars brought about a political revolution in the Portuguese world.

Pombaline Reforms

In the second half of the 1700s, the Portuguese government sought to extract more wealth from Brazil to strengthen the power of the Portuguese monarchy. During the reign of John V and Joseph I (1750–77), Portugal benefited from the gold that flowed in from Brazil. To more effectively tax the wealth of Brazil, the government was strengthened with the creation of a ministry of finance and a ministry of the navy and the colonies. Reforms in the Portuguese empire were implemented by the Marquis de Pombal who granted Jews rights and freed enslaved Blacks in Portugal. The Portuguese government sought to stop colonial families from bringing African slaves off the plantations of Brazil to Portugal as servants. Brazil remained the key to Portugal’s finances, and the government could not afford to lose Black labor which was taken away from mines and cash crop estates to work in Europe.

In addition to gold, increasing the agricultural wealth of Brazil became one of Pombal’s economic reforms. The monarchy expelled Brazilian Jesuit priests and seized their land. These Jesuits controlled some of the most lucrative plantations and expensive urban real estate in the colony. In fact, one Jesuit estate in Rio de Janeiro covered 100,000 acres and employed 1,000 slaves. Additionally, the Jesuits controlled seventeen sugar processing mills in Brazil.

The Portuguese monarchy sought to tightly control Brazil. Therefore, it appointed all administrative, military, judiciary, and ecclesiastical officials. However, more and more Brazilians felt antagonized by Portuguese born residents who were in control. For the most part, these Portuguese Peninsulares saw Brazilians as lazy and inferior. Additionally, the Portuguese government banned printing and prohibited the establishment of universities in Brazil. Brazilian born Portuguese could attend a Brazilian high school but would have to attend college in Portugal. Similar to the Spanish government, the Portuguese government spent little on Brazilian infrastructure. For this reason, there were no roads along the coast or in the interior. Most communication was between major port cities by boat. To better control the colony, the Portuguese government discouraged trade between different regions of Brazil.

Brazilian Independence

In 1807, when Napoleon instituted his Continental System aimed at isolating Britain and economically destroying it. However, Portugal had a long-standing alliance with Britain and was not able to comply. As a result, French troops swept across the Iberian Peninsula to storm into Lisbon. The imminent arrival of French forces in November 1807 convinced King João VI (1816-1826) that fleeing to Brazil was the only solution. As the troops approached, the Portuguese royal family and its entourage of about ten thousand people escaped to Brazil in a fleet under British convoy. In return for their assistance, the British received generous commercial privileges in Brazil.

In 1808, the royal family and their courtiers were welcomed by Brazilian colonists and departed to settle in its capital, Rio de Janeiro. For the first time in modern history, a European monarch had set foot in their American domain. Brazilian ports were opened to all friendly nations and Brazilians no longer had to go through Portuguese merchants. All previous manufacturing prohibitions intended to protect Portuguese industry were revoked, and the Bank of Brazil was established. The Portuguese crown’s willingness to share power with the local planter aristocracy led to the expansion of institutions such as hospitals, libraries, and schools and universities. Even after the fall of Napoleon in 1814 and the restoration of Bourbon kings in both France and Spain, the Portuguese Crown resolutely stayed on in Brazil. On December 16, 1815, Brazil was officially given the status of a kingdom. Overall, King João VI was more sympathetic to his Brazilian subjects than King Ferdinand VII was to his own in Spanish America.

In 1820, a political upheaval took place in Portugal. Its leaders drafted a constitution similar to Spain’s 1812 Constitution with a powerful Cortes. In fact, this constitution was even more democratic than Spain's. Free Afro-Brazilians were citizens with the right to vote. Portugal’s leaders then demanded that King João VI return. However, the Portuguese monarch left his son and heir Pedro I as prince regent in Rio de Janeiro, with instructions to preserve the family’s lineage and power. The talented twenty-three-year-old prince enthusiastically took to his duties. The Cortes in Portugal wanted to reduce Brazil to its former colonial status and ordered the dismantling of Rio’s central government structure. In January 1822, it commanded the prince to return, but Pedro sided with the Brazilians when they asked him to stay. Brazilian elites rejected Portuguese rule, and Pedro declared Brazilian independence on September 7, 1822.

Review Questions

• What role did the French Revolutions play in the south Atlantic revolutions?
• What are some similarities and differences between the revolutions in the south Atlantic?