South American History Q

[AgentDrake]

Hey, I know there's FM and Pepin on here from Brasil and Gizlivadi is in Chile.... No, I'm not asking you guys to do my homework for me. I'm just looking for any heads-ups on research ideas from those more knowledgeable on South American history than myself.

Anyway, I had a question for you guys (and anyone else who would know):
For my history class, I have to write a paper on the South American Independence movements, and I'm starting to look around for a few primary sources (ie, letters, correspondence, et cetera from, say, Simon Bolivar or some other important figure) and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for good things to look for. My topic deals with the initial motivations for the independence movements and the expectations of the leaders for what sort of nations would result-- monarchies, republics, confederations, et cetera.

I already have Bolivar's Jamaica Letter, and I need at least two more. I'm planning on checking out a lot of stuff that I already have leads on over the week, but I need to find at least two more primary sources. Anyway, I was just wondering if any of you would know of some important historical figure or writings I should specifically look for.

[Pepin The Breve]

  Check out some of these:

- Emiliano Zapata
- Che Guevara
- I think the military dictatorial governaments in countris of South America worth a research too (Brazil, Argentina, Chile...)
- The civil war in Bolivia in 90´s and even today

   We are really full of social movements (not all strictly related to independence) but you can consider some kind of social independece too...

   If you are looking strictly for "independece as it´s formal definition" Simon Bolivar is a great one to go. I really not a expert in history (not close to that  ) but maybe take a look at Fulgencio Yegros, Pedro Juan Caballero and Vicente Ignácio Iturbide in Paraguay.

   But don´t forget that you have to search for diferent versions and look all that you find with a critical pont of view for some history books (authors) tend to be really biased.

   We have cases of independences that haven´t come for the "people" (povo, pueblo) like Brazil (Dom Pedro).

   I hope this helped somehow...

[Yanko Markovic]

check Bernardo O'Higgins, Manuel Rodríguez and José Miguel Carrera. also, check the long post I wrote in the 11/9 topic in Council of Cobra (not sure if it's there, anyway). Of course, all this is referred to Chile.

[AgentDrake]

Great, thanks guys!

Oh, and I probably should've noted in my initial post, the only independence movements relevant to my topic are specifically independence from Europe. (ie, Spain, Portugual, Britain... did Britain even have any colonies in SA?)

  for both as soon as I can.

[Pepin The Breve]

  Guiana Inglesa ("british Guiana" maybe?) is teh one i recall, maybe some other peninsular country i can´t tell now.

  Anyway England have done great influence in the countries of SA like at the Paraguay war...

[AgentDrake]

Great, thanks a lot!
I was able to find some stuff on a lot of those people on the university library web catalog, so I'm off to go start research right now.

Thanks again, guys!

[FM]

From what I've gathered, all the Independence movements in South America were at least influenced by the guiding principles of the French Revolution. It's also said that every single Leader of those movements belonged to the Freemasons, which also have known principles that can guide your research.
As for Leaders, my fellow South Americans already pointed out some pretty great names. And I guess it might not count for "Independence" movements, but there IS the whole question involving the Malvinas, also called Falkland Islands, that led to a war between Argentina and Britain.
Also, does it have to be SOUTH America? Or just "south of the US"? Otherwise, I believe Jamaica was a british colony.

[AgentDrake]

From what I've gathered, all the Independence movements in South America were at least influenced by the guiding principles of the French Revolution. It's also said that every single Leader of those movements belonged to the Freemasons, which also have known principles that can guide your research.
As for Leaders, my fellow South Americans already pointed out some pretty great names. And I guess it might not count for "Independence" movements, but there IS the whole question involving the Malvinas, also called Falkland Islands, that led to a war between Argentina and Britain.
Also, does it have to be SOUTH America? Or just "south of the US"? Otherwise, I believe Jamaica was a british colony.

Okay, that bit about the French Revolution could actually be really useful as something to look at, because part of my topic deals with the initial grievances against the Europeans and the ideals leading to the revolutions.

And my topic region is specifically South America.

I think.

I should probably go check that again....

I did see something about a war between Argentina and Britain. Might look into that some, too. Lots of great stuff. And I just got a book from home about South American history. Lots of stuff to look though. Fortunately, I have awhile before this is due.

Thanks!

[Gil-Estel]

The Dutch were there as well  Suriname became in 1975 independent......

[TheJord]

The Falklands War between Argetina and the UK was in 1982. Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April and after a short conflict, surrendered the Islands back in June.

It is wrongly labelled a war, as neither nation officially declared war on the other. It is more accurately described as the Falklands Conflict.

The military junta of Argetina wanted to divert attention away from the civil unrest of the country by invading the Falklands. The didnt expect the British to respond with military force, or at least not as quickly as they did.

The result of the conflict was varied for the respective governments. It hastened the downfall of the Argetinian junta and stregthened the position of the Thatcher government in the UK.

A whistlestop explanation

[SomeRandomDude]

Ya, I was just gonna mention the Falklands.

Possibly the Spanish. Conquistadors and stuff like that were the first ones in South America...actually all of the Americas.

Other than that, the most I know about South America is that I don't like the Venezuelan government.

[FM]

They do have the most beautiful women in the world, though, according to recent polls.
And yeah, TheJord is right on with the whole Falkland fiasco, the Argentinian government actually used it as a cover-up for the huge number of people that were disappearing due to the dictatorship.

[TheJord]

And General Pinochet, he is another name we hear a lot in the UK.

Beautiful Brazilian women, then there is Ronald and Ronaldinho... oh dear.

[Pepin The Breve]

  I don´t like to deviate the focus of the topic but i have to agree with FM, brazilian women just rule them all. 

   And i live in south where you can find every type of beautys: from afro-descendant black to "sweden" blonde, short to tall, shy to "knife on the boot ones, you name it!

   Well, most of soccer players aren´t..well...very pretty...    But i guess you can´t want have everything!

   Well, back to the topic...

  If you search for south america dictatorship you will find Pinochet in Chile (Gaisel, Medici and their crew at Brazil) and then you will se how things could get bad for people in history...

   I´m not a big fan of Hugo Chaves either but i recognize that he have done some right stuff for Venezuela citzens (even that US governament hate him a lot).