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Hi, I’m John Green,
this is Crash Course World History,

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and today things are going
to get a little bit confusing,

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because we’re going to talk about
revolution and independence

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in Latin America.

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It’s a bit confusing because
1: Latin America is big,

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2: It’s very diverse,
3: Napoleon makes everything complicated,

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and 4: As we’ve seen in the past, 
sometimes revolutions turn out

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not to be that revolutionary.

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Witness, for instance,
the New England Revolution,

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who instead of trying to form new 
and better governments,

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are always just kicking balls around 
like all the other soccer teams.

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[♪ Intro music ♪]

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Right, so before independence,
Latin American society was characterized

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by three institutions 
that exercised control

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over the population.

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The first was the Spanish Crown,
or if you are Brazilian,

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the Portuguese crown.

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So, as far as Spain was concerned,
the job of the colonies was

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to produce revenue
in the form of a 20% tax on everything

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that was called “the royal fifth.”

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So government administration was
pervasive and relatively efficient

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because it had to be 
in order to collect its royal fifth.

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Then there was the Catholic Church.

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Even more than royal officials,
the church exercised influence

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over people's everyday lives.

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I mean, 
the church even controlled time.

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The church bells 
tolled out the hours

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and they mandated 
a seven day work week

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so that people could go 
to church on Sunday.

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And finally, 
there was patriarchy.

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In Latin America,
like much of the world,

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husbands had complete control
over their wives;

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and any extra, 
or-pre-marital skoodilypooping

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was severely punished.

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I mean, when it was the women 
doing the illicit skoodilypooping.

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Men could basically 
get up to whatever.

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This was mainly about property rights
because illegitimate children

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could inherit their father’s property,
but it was constructed to be about,

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you know, purity.

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To get a sense of how patriarchy
shaped Latin American lives,

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take a gander at
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz,

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whose name I’m actually abbreviating.

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A child prodigy who spoke five
languages by the age of 16,

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de la Cruz wanted to disguise herself
as a boy

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so she could attend University,
but she was forbidden to do so.

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Still, she wrote plays and poetry,
she studied math and natural science.

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And for being one of the leading minds
of the 17th century,

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she was widely attacked,
and eventually forced

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to abandon her work
and sell all 4,000 of her books.

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That’s a shame because
she had a great mind,

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once writing that:

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“Aristotle would have written more
if he had done any cooking.”

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Couple other things.

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First, Latin America led the world 
in transculturation,

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or Cultural Blending.

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A new and distinct Latin American
culture emerged mixing,

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1: Whites from Spain 
called Peninsulares,

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2: Whites born in the Americas
called Creoles,

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3: Native Americans,
and 4: African slaves.

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This blending of cultures
may be most obvious

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when looking at Native American 
and African influences on Christianity.

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The Virgin of Guadalupe, for instance,
was still called Tonantzin

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the indigenous earth goddess,
by Indians;

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and the profusion of blood
in Mexican iconography

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recalls the Aztec use 
of blood in ritual.

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But transculturation pervaded
Latin American life,

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from food, to secular music, 
to fashion.

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Somewhat related, 
Latin America had a great deal

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of racial diversity 
and a rigid social hierarchy to match.

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There were four basic 
racial categories:

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white, black, mestizo:
a mix of white and American Indian,

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and mulatto: 
a mix of white and black.

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We try not to use that word anymore
because it’s offensive,

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but that’s the word they used.

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And from the 16th century on, 
Latin America had a huge diversity

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of mixed race people;
and there were constant attempts

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to classify them 
and divide them into castes.

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You can see some of these
in so called 'casta paintings',

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which attempted to establish 
in a very weird

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and Enlightenment-y way
all the possible racial combinations.

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But of course 
that’s not how race works,

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as evidenced by the fact 
that successful people

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of lower racial castes
could become “legally white”

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by being granted gracias al sacar.

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So by 1800, 
on the eve of Latin America’s

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independence movements, 
roughly a quarter of people

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were mixed race.

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Alright, now let's have us 
some revolutions.

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How should we organize this Stan?

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Let's begin with Latin America's 
most successful country

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as defined by quality 
of soccer team.

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So Brazil, he said as thousands 
of Argentinians booed him,

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is obviously different 
because it was ruled,

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not by Spain,
but by Portugal.

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But like a lot of revolutions
in Latin America,

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it was fairly conservative.

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The creoles wanted to
maintain their privilege

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while also achieving independence
from the Peninsulares.

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And also like a lot of
Latin American revolutions,

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it featured Napoleon.

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Freaking Napoleon,
you’re everywhere.

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He’s behind me, isn’t he?
[Noise of exasperation]

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So when Napoleon
took over Portugal in 1807,

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the entire Portuguese royal family
and their royal court

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decamped to Brazil.

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And it turned out, 
they loved Brazil.

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King Joao loved Brazil so much.

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Off topic, but do you think 
that J-Woww named herself

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after King Joao?

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I mean, does she have 
that kind of historical sensibility?

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I think she does.

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So King Joao’s life in Rio 
was so good

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that even after Napoleon was defeated
at the Battle of Waterloo,

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he just kind of stayed in Brazil.

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And then, by 1820,
the Portuguese in Portugal were like,

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“Hey, maybe you should come back 
and, like, you know,

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govern us, 
King of Portugal.”

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So in 1821,
he reluctantly returned to Lisbon,

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leaving his son, 
Prince Pedro, behind.

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Meanwhile, Brazilian Creoles 
were organizing themselves

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around the idea that 
they were culturally different

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from Portugal.

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And they eventually 
formed a Brazilian Party—

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no, Stan, not that kind of party,
come on.

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Yes, that kind.

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A Brazilian party to lobby 
for independence.

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Then in 1822, 
they convinced Prince Pedro

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of boring, old Portugal 
that he should just become

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King Pedro of sexy, big Brazil.

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So Pedro declared Brazil 
an independent constitutional monarchy

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with himself as king.

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As a result, 
Brazil achieved independence

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without much bloodshed; 
and managed to hold on

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to that social hierarchy 
with the plantation owners on top.

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And that explains why Brazil was 
the last new world country

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to abolish slavery,
not fully abandoning it until 1888.

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Right so, even when Napoleon
wasn’t forcing Portuguese royals

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into an awesome exile, 
he was still messing

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with Latin America.

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Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

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So Latin America’s 
independence movements

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began not with Brazil, 
but in Mexico,

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when Napoleon put his brother 
on the Spanish throne in 1808.

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Napoleon wanted to institute 
the liberal principles

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of the French Revolution, 
which angered the ruling elite

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of the Peninsulares 
in what was then called New Spain.

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They were aristocrats 
and they just wanted to go back

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to some good, old-fashioned, 
divine-right monarchy

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with a strong church.

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So the Mexican Creoles, 
seeking to expand their own power

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at the expense of the Peninsular elite, 
saw an opportunity here.

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They affirmed their loyalty
to the new king,

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who was French even though
he was the king of Spain.

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I told you this was complicated.

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Then, a massive peasant 
uprising began,

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led by a renegade priest 
Padre Hidalgo,

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and supported by the Creoles 
because it was aimed

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at the Peninsulares;
even though they weren’t

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actually the ones 
who supported Spain.

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This was further complicated
by the fact that

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to the Mestizo peasants 
led by Hidalgo,

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Creoles and Peninsulares looked
and acted basically identical.

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They were both white 
and imperious.

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So the peasants often attacked
the Creoles, who were,

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technically on their side 
in trying to overthrow

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the ruling Peninsulares.

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Even though it had
tens of thousands of supporters,

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this first peasant uprising 
petered out.

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But, a second peasant revolt,
led by another priest,

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Father Morelos,
was much more revolutionary.

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In 1813,
he declared independence

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and the revolt lasted 
until his death in 1815.

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But since he was a Mestizo,
he didn’t gain much Creole support.

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So revolutionary fervor 
in Mexico began to fade until...1820,

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when Spain, which was now 
under the rule of a Spanish,

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rather than a French king;
had a REAL liberal revolution

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with a new constitution 
that limited the power

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of the church.

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Thanks, Thought Bubble.

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So, in the wake
of Spain’s liberalizing movements,

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the Mexican elites,
who had previously supported Spain,

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switched sides 
and made common cause

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with the Creoles in the hopes 
that they could somehow

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hold onto their privileges.

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And pushing for independence together,
things went very well.

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The Creole general Iturbide,
and the rebel Mestizo commander Guerrero

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joined forces 
and won independence

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with most of the Peninsulares
returning to Spain.

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Iturbide, the whiter 
of the two generals,

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became king of Mexico in 1822.

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Remember, 
this was a revolution

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essentially AGAINST 
representative government.

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But that didn’t work out; 
and within a year,

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he was overthrown by the military 
and a republic was declared.

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Popular sovereignty was
sort of victorious,

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but without much benefit 
to the peasants

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who actually made
independence possible.

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This alliance between 
conservative landowning elites,

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and the army,
especially in the face of

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calls for land reform, 
or economic justice—

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would happen over and over again 
in Latin America

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for the next century and a half.

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But before we come 
to any conclusions,

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let’s discuss one last revolution.

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So Venezuela had a codray 
of well trained Creole revolutionaries;

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who by 1811, 
had formed a revolutionary quonta

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that seized power in Caracas, 
and formed a republic.

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But, the interior of Venezuela 
was home to mixed-race cowboys

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called llaneros,
who supported the king.

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They kept the Caracas revolutionaries
from extending their power inland.

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And that is where Simon Bolivar,
“el Libertador,”

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enters the picture.

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Bolivar realized that the only way
to overcome the various class divisions,

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like the one between 
the Caracas creoles and llaneros,

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was to appeal to a common sense
of South American-ness.

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I mean, after all,
the one thing that almost all

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South Americans had in common:
they were born in South America,

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NOT SPAIN.

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So then,
partly through shows of toughness

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that included, like,
crossing flooded plains,

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and going without sleep;
Bolivar convinced the llaneros

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to give up fighting for Spain
and start fighting against them.

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He quickly captured the
viceregal capital at Bogota,

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and by 1822 his forces
had taken Caracas and Quito.

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Hold on, hold on.

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Lest I be attacked 
by Argentinians

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who are already upset 
about what I said

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about their really good soccer team,
I want to make one thing clear.

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Argentina’s general, 
Jose de San Martin,

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was also vital to the
defeat of the Spanish.

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He led an expeditions against
the Spanish in Chile,

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and also a really important one 
in Lima.

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And then, in December of 1824,
at the battle of Ayacucho,

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the last Spanish viceroy
was finally captured

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and all of Latin America 
was free from Spain.

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Oh, it’s time for the open letter?

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That’s A chair, Stan,
but it’s not THE chair.

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An Open Letter to Simon Bolivar.

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But first, let’s see what’s in
the secret compartment today.

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Oh, llanero.

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00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:32,827
I wonder if his hips swivel
when I wind him up.

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00:09:32,827 --> 00:09:35,027
Context is everything.

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00:09:35,027 --> 00:09:36,628
They do!

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00:09:36,628 --> 00:09:37,884
Hey there, cowboy.

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00:09:37,884 --> 00:09:38,884
Dear Simon Bolivar,

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00:09:38,884 --> 00:09:41,177
First,
you had fantastic muttonchops.

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00:09:41,177 --> 00:09:43,818
It’s as if you’re some kind of
handsome Martin Van Buren.

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00:09:43,818 --> 00:09:45,220
You were a man
of immense accomplishments,

249
00:09:45,220 --> 00:09:47,660
but those accomplishments
have been richly rewarded.

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00:09:47,660 --> 00:09:49,901
I mean, you have a country 
named after you.

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00:09:49,901 --> 00:09:51,408
Not to mention, 
two different currencies.

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00:09:51,408 --> 00:09:54,621
But for my purposes,
the most important thing you ever did,

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00:09:54,621 --> 00:09:55,517
was die.

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00:09:55,517 --> 00:09:56,917
You may not know this, 
Simon Bolivar,

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00:09:56,917 --> 00:10:00,012
but when I'm not a world history teacher
sitting next to a fake fireplace,

256
00:10:00,012 --> 00:10:01,372
I am a novelist.

257
00:10:01,372 --> 00:10:02,373
And your last words,

258
00:10:02,373 --> 00:10:04,706
“Damn it, how will I ever
get out of this labyrinth,”

259
00:10:04,706 --> 00:10:07,362
feature prominently in my first novel,
Looking for Alaska.

260
00:10:07,362 --> 00:10:10,122
Except it turns out,
those weren’t your last words.

261
00:10:10,122 --> 00:10:12,924
Your last words were probably,
“Jose, bring the luggage.”

262
00:10:12,924 --> 00:10:16,445
But I decided to use your fancy, 
romantic, inaccurate last words.

263
00:10:16,445 --> 00:10:17,833
It’s called artistic license.

264
00:10:17,833 --> 00:10:19,274
Put that in your luggage.

265
00:10:19,274 --> 00:10:20,487
Anyway, fantastic life.

266
00:10:20,487 --> 00:10:23,475
I just wish you’d nailed it a little
bit better with your last words.

267
00:10:23,475 --> 00:10:25,222
Best wishes,
John Green

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00:10:25,222 --> 00:10:28,303
So by 1825, 
almost the entire western hemisphere,

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00:10:28,303 --> 00:10:29,890
with a few exceptions 
in the Caribbean,

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00:10:29,890 --> 00:10:31,730
was free from European rule.

271
00:10:31,730 --> 00:10:33,052
Oh, right, 
and Canada.

272
00:10:33,052 --> 00:10:33,972
I’m just kidding, Canadians.

273
00:10:33,972 --> 00:10:36,560
It’s so easy to make fun of you
because you’re so nice.

274
00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:38,000
So I tease you, 
and then you’re like,

275
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:41,267
“Aw, thanks for noticing 
that we exist.”

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00:10:41,267 --> 00:10:42,080
My pleasure.

277
00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:43,521
Anyway, 
this is pretty remarkable,

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00:10:43,521 --> 00:10:45,882
especially when you consider 
that most of this territory

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00:10:45,882 --> 00:10:48,205
had been under Spanish 
or Portuguese control

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00:10:48,205 --> 00:10:50,312
for almost 300 years.

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00:10:50,312 --> 00:10:52,286
The most revolutionary thing about
these independence movements

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00:10:52,286 --> 00:10:55,646
were that they enshrined
the idea of so called popular sovereignty

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00:10:55,646 --> 00:10:56,554
in the New World.

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00:10:56,554 --> 00:10:59,489
Never again would Latin America
be under the permanent control

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00:10:59,489 --> 00:11:02,383
of a European power,
and the relatively quick division

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00:11:02,383 --> 00:11:04,518
of Latin America 
into individual states,

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00:11:04,518 --> 00:11:07,133
despite Bolivar’s pan 
South American dream;

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00:11:07,133 --> 00:11:09,771
showed how quickly the people
in these regions developed

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00:11:09,771 --> 00:11:12,627
a sense of themselves as
nations distinct from Europe,

290
00:11:12,627 --> 00:11:14,027
and from each other.

291
00:11:14,027 --> 00:11:16,735
This division into nation states
prefigures what would happen

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00:11:16,735 --> 00:11:18,669
to Europe in the mid-19th century.

293
00:11:18,669 --> 00:11:20,990
And in that sense,
Latin America is the leader

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00:11:20,990 --> 00:11:22,925
of 19th century world history.

295
00:11:22,925 --> 00:11:26,326
And Latin American history presages
another key theme in modern life:

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00:11:26,326 --> 00:11:27,420
multiculturalism.

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00:11:27,420 --> 00:11:29,381
And all of that makes Latin America
sound very modern,

298
00:11:29,381 --> 00:11:31,635
but in a number of ways,
Latin American independence

299
00:11:31,635 --> 00:11:33,449
wasn’t terribly revolutionary.

300
00:11:33,449 --> 00:11:35,157
First,
while the Peninsulares were gone,

301
00:11:35,157 --> 00:11:38,291
the rigid social hierarchy, 
with the wealthy Creoles at the top,

302
00:11:38,291 --> 00:11:39,225
remained.

303
00:11:39,225 --> 00:11:41,572
Second, whereas revolutions 
in both France and America

304
00:11:41,572 --> 00:11:43,772
weakened the power
of the established church;

305
00:11:43,772 --> 00:11:45,828
in Latin America,
the Catholic Church remained

306
00:11:45,828 --> 00:11:48,228
very powerful 
in people’s everyday lives.

307
00:11:48,228 --> 00:11:49,896
And then, 
there is the patriarchy.

308
00:11:49,896 --> 00:11:51,416
Although there were many women
who took up arms

309
00:11:51,416 --> 00:11:54,205
in the struggle for independence,
including Juana Azurduy;

310
00:11:54,205 --> 00:11:57,072
who led a cavalry charge
against Spanish forces in Bolivia,

311
00:11:57,072 --> 00:11:59,327
patriarchy remained strong
in Latin America.

312
00:11:59,327 --> 00:12:01,420
Feminist ideas, 
like those of Mary Wollstonecraft,

313
00:12:01,420 --> 00:12:02,395
would have to wait.

314
00:12:02,395 --> 00:12:04,488
Women weren’t allowed to vote 
in national elections

315
00:12:04,488 --> 00:12:06,811
in Mexico until 1953.

316
00:12:06,811 --> 00:12:10,504
And Peru didn’t extend voting rights
to women until 1955.

317
00:12:10,504 --> 00:12:14,067
Also, Latin America’s revolutionary wars
were long and bloody.

318
00:12:14,067 --> 00:12:18,160
425,000 people died in Mexico’s
war for independence.

319
00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:19,855
And they didn’t always lead 
to stability.

320
00:12:19,855 --> 00:12:21,816
Venezuela, for instance,
experienced war

321
00:12:21,816 --> 00:12:25,191
for much of the 19th century,
leading to as many as a million deaths.

322
00:12:25,191 --> 00:12:27,258
And it’s important to note that
fighting for freedom,

323
00:12:27,258 --> 00:12:29,045
doesn’t always lead to freedom.

324
00:12:29,045 --> 00:12:30,872
The past two centuries 
in Latin America

325
00:12:30,872 --> 00:12:34,501
have seen many military dictatorships
that protect private property

326
00:12:34,501 --> 00:12:36,863
at the expense 
of egalitarian governance.

327
00:12:36,863 --> 00:12:39,128
“Freedom,” “independence,”
and “autonomy”,

328
00:12:39,128 --> 00:12:41,771
are complicated terms 
that mean different things

329
00:12:41,771 --> 00:12:44,132
to different people 
at different times.

330
00:12:44,132 --> 00:12:47,080
So, too, with the word, 
“revolutionary.”

331
00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:48,520
Thanks for watching.

332
00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:49,372
I’ll see you next week.

333
00:12:49,372 --> 00:12:52,201
Location change because
I forgot to record the credits,

334
00:12:52,201 --> 00:12:54,563
and my shirt matches the wall.

335
00:12:54,563 --> 00:12:56,976
Probably should have thought 
about that one a little bit harder.

336
00:12:56,976 --> 00:12:58,738
Crash Course is produced 
and directed by Stan Muller.

337
00:12:58,738 --> 00:13:00,444
Our script supervisor is
Danica Johnson,

338
00:13:00,444 --> 00:13:02,898
the show is ably interned 
by Agent Meredith Danko,

339
00:13:02,898 --> 00:13:04,659
and it’s written by 
my high school history teacher,

340
00:13:04,659 --> 00:13:05,994
Raoul Meyer and myself.

341
00:13:05,994 --> 00:13:07,980
Our graphics team 
is Thought Bubble.

342
00:13:07,980 --> 00:13:09,808
Last week’s phrase of the week was,
"giant squid of anger."

343
00:13:09,808 --> 00:13:11,796
If you want to suggest 
a future phrase of the week,

344
00:13:11,796 --> 00:13:13,517
or guess at this week’s,
you can do so in comments;

345
00:13:13,517 --> 00:13:15,304
where you can also ask questions
that will be answered

346
00:13:15,304 --> 00:13:17,038
by our team of historians.

347
00:13:17,038 --> 00:13:18,638
Look at the beautiful 
Crash Course poster!

348
00:13:18,638 --> 00:13:21,651
Available now at DFTBA.com,
link in the video description.

349
00:13:21,651 --> 00:13:23,746
Thanks for watching,
and as we say in my home town,

350
00:13:23,746 --> 00:13:25,455
"Don’t forget to be awesome!"