Eliner said 1/15...

Today in class, we focused mostly on Mexico and South America. The majority in South America are Portuguese and Spanish. We briefly went over the social hiearchy, emphasizing the fact that the peninsulares, those who are born in Spain that moved to the New World, have most of the social, political and economic power. The creoles are upset since they are as educated and as rich as the peninsulares, but don’t have as much political power since creoles are born in the New World. Simon Bolivar, a creole, strongly believes that this is unfair and is angry at the Spanish for treating the people in South America badly and for taking their money. His main goal is to help the people and free South America from Spain. So he decides to take action while Napoleon is revolting against France and conquering Europe since the government would be weakened. Bolivar organizes a meeting to discuss his plan to liberate South America. Keep in mind that the Spanish would never expect Bolivar to rebel because he’s already wealthy, however the Spanish think the natives (peasants) will rebel. Bolivar liberates Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama, and Peru after a long period of conquest. A creole named San Martin helps liberate Argentina as well as another creole named O’Higgins who helped liberate Chile. When Bolivar gets back to Spain, he decides to meet with the leaders of the liberated nations and tells them he wants to unify them and form the Grand Colombia, all of South America. He tries convincing them to give up their power to unify, but all of them don’t want to. Since the countries aren’t cooperating and are consistently arguing against Bolivar’s plan, he is devastated and leaves South America, returning to Europe.
Before the period ended, we reviewed two worksheets. One was about Bolivar’s message to the Congress of Angostura (the creoles) saying how unfair it is that the creoles are being ruled by peninsulares. He pretty much bad-mouths about Spain and ends it by talking about democracy in North America. The document shows that Bolivar wants enlightenment to the creoles. Now the second sheet – on the front was about Mexico and a revolt lead by Father Hidalgo, a mestizo. Father Hidalgo wants an enlightenment government and wants independence from Spain, as well as equality. The back illustrates parts of the Mexican Constitution of 1824 which was after Father Hildago is dead (dies in 1814). The difference about Mexico is that the revolution is by the people and for the people unlike the revolution in South America. Lastly, Ms. Separ gave us a series of events that came before this constitution. In 1820, they gained their independence. 1821, Mexico was appointed an emperor who was miserable. 1822, Mexico established a republic that was controlled by the creoles.
The homework is the Monroe Doctrine packet and the comparative essay. Sorry for the long blog, guys! The next person to blog will be Jut.