No More Europe Control

This past week in my Honors History class we learned about the revolutions of Latin America. We split into three groups and each group was assigned either Mexico, Gran Colombia or Brazil. After the groups were made we had to analyze a Casta Painting and create a pie chart with the percentage of each race such as Peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizo, Indian People, and Slaves. After the analyzation and pie chart were done each group had to create a timeline for their assigned revolution. The timelines had to give the dates of major events in each revolution. After each group completed their timelines each group split so that there were two representatives for each country in each group. Once the groups were formed each twosome took turns summarizing their timelines to the others.

Our group was assigned the Brazil revolution. Everything started when Napoleon and his troops forced many people out of Portugal so the leader of Portugal, John VI and 10,000 others fled to Brazil. After a while John was forced to return back to Brazil to serve as a constitutional monarch. When he left his son Pedro took his place on the throne. Before pedro inherited the throne Brazil declared independence from Brazil. Portugal did not put up much of a fight and they recognized Brazil’s independence three years later. After everyone shared timelines we discussed similarities and differences of all the revolutions. One similarity between all the revolutions were that they were all seeking freedom from a European country. (Brazil from Portugal, Mexico from Spain, and Gran Colombia from Spain. Next, all the leaders of the countries did not last long. In Brazil John VI had to return to Portugal. In Mexico Iturbide was dethroned by republican leaders Guadalupe Victoria, and Santa Anna. In Gran Colombia Simon Bolivar was forced to go to Venezuela and then to Jamaica and Haiti.  One difference was that Brazil was not as violent as Mexico and Gran Colombia. In Brazil there was no real war and Portugal did not put up much of a fight. Secondly, Gran Colombia resulted in several different countries, and Brazil stayed as one. Mexico slit a little later than Gran Colombia. Race played a role in all revolutions. In Brazil Pedro only allowed Peninsulares into his government. In Mexico the entire revolution was for racial equality. Finally, in Colombia everyone who was not enslaved united in order to fight the Spanish.

Race was a major issue during these revolutions, however race still is a major problem today. As many of you may know there have been some serious problems involving race in Ferguson, Missouri. In Ferguson an African American unarmed teenager was shot and killed by a policeman. The policeman, who was white, has now been proven not guilty, and this verdict caused massive uproar in the town. Riots broke out all over Ferguson and people were seriously injured. Also, because of the riots there were many cases of looting. In these cases many businesses in Ferguson were damaged. This all started because a caucasian male shot and killed an unarmed African American teenager. This story has been all over the news and many people with white and black have expressed outrage over the verdict via social media. Ferguson, Missouri was the head trending topic on twitter all day yesterday. The story has been drawing many comparisons to the Treyvon Martin trial about a year ago, in which a teenage African American was shot and killed by a man, and the man was found not guilty. Both of these stories prove that race is still a massive problem in our world today.

Mexico Revolution
Gran Colombia