Analysis of The Age of Change: Bolivar’s Plans Essay

This chapter discusses the history and realization of Bolivar’s plans. Each region of South America, on its way to independence, experienced various challenges. Some campaigns turned out to be successful, and others were not. From the Age of Change chapter, the following facts could be obtained:

• Bolivar’s revolutionary campaign inspired the past century’s events, including the American independence and French and Haitian revolutions. Bolivar was motivated mainly by the Haitian revolution; however, the American scenario seemed more attractive (278).
• During La Guairá’s rebel conspirators distributed the French-inspired title “The Rights of Man and Citizen” to support revolutionary plans (280).
• The elites of Vila Rica, pressed by the royal tax demand, decided to follow the idea of the Enlightenment and the American Revolution. Twelve prominent citizens created the plan to kill the royal governor forming an independent U.S.-style republic (280).
• Bahian rebel was the one that required independence from Portugal, highlighting the importance of free trade and freedom of religion, as well as aristocratic designation and total abolishment of slavery (281).
• Hidalgo, a leader of the Mexican revolution, was captured and found guilty for his views after the Guadalajara conflict (282).
• The chain of independence referred to the cycle of events in the 1810s when the countries of Central America started to declare their status. In 1822 the unity between Spanish South American countries seemed possible, as Bolivar extended his authority in Peru (283).
• The first resultative campaign on the way to independence of Spanish South America emerged in the Rio de la Plata region, where local leaders created Buenos Aires after defeating “a rogue British force” (286).
• The freedom of Venezuela was mainly facilitated by two persons, Francisco de Miranda and Simon Bolivar. Miranda occupied Caracas’s government and captured royalists, while Bolivar continued his campaign in Colombia, Haiti, and Jamaica (286).
• The independence of Latin America was an entirely local, accidental, and cynical process manipulated by the local elite (282).

Works Cited

Part four. The age of change. (n.d.). Essay.