Photo: Adrian Garcia
The 16th of September is traditionally celebrated as Mexican Independence Day. On that day in 1810, the parish Priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla gave the famous “Grito de Dolores” that sparked the War for Independence, which led to the end of over 3 centuries of Spanish rule.
The Mexican War of Independence took place during an epoch of social and political revolution caused by the early development of capitalism. It was a time of social ferment that for the first time showed the interconnectedness of the world created by capitalism. Ideas and actions in one nation or even across the Atlantic Ocean had their unintended consequences elsewhere.
It is important to look at the Mexican War of Independence in this light in order to understand events of the present. Now with highly advanced communications, events in one part of the world are instantaneously felt in others. Examples are the shockwaves felt around the world after the 2008 financial crisis in the U.S. Thus we can understand the relation of Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, and Dreamers defying the border patrol and political officials that we see today.
While Mexican revolutionaries fought and died for their ideals, including the ending of slavery, further to the south Simon Bolivar and other revolutionaries likewise fought for the independence of the rest of Latin America from Spain. In Haiti, former slave Toussaint L’Overture had thrown off the shackles of French oppression and slavery in 1806 by defeating Napoleon Bonaparte’s world-class army, causing tremors of dread even among slave owners in plantations of the United States.
All of these revolutions happened close to one another and influenced one another. In fact, Simon Bolivar had sailed from Haiti to present day Colombia when launching his second attempt to defeat the Spaniards.
The very first successful revolution in the hemisphere, however, was the American Revolution of 1776. It was influenced by the ideals of the rights of man and social ferment that grew out of the early development of capitalism and the decline of feudalism in Europe. In turn the American Revolution inspired the rest of Latin America with a vision of freedom, harmony, and plenty.
French assistance to American colonists in defeating the British, assisted American independence, which inspired all of Latin America’s revolutions, including unwittingly France’s very own revolution.
The French Revolution, following the American Revolution, weakened control of France’s colonial possessions such as Haiti. The French counter-revolution by Napoleon Bonaparte that followed, led to the invasion of Spain and deposition of the Spanish king. An unintended consequence was the loosening of Spain’s control in Latin America, including Mexico. England’s assistance under General Wellington to Spanish guerillas fighting the French led to Napoleon’s weakening. So also did Napoleon’s ill-fated invasion of Russia, which indirectly aided the Haitian Revolution, which in turn inspired the Latin American revolutionaries.
Although the vision of the Mexican and other revolutionaries for a better future for all has remained largely unrealized, it is more realizable today than at any other period of time in history. Today we live in a highly interconnected world of abundance where advanced means of production mean no one has to go without necessities. Unlike the tyranny of the divine right of kings of back then, today we face the tyranny of global corporations, which claim to have more rights than human beings. The path is becoming clear to revolutionaries. We are in a position to fulfill the vision of peace, freedom, and plenty of which our forefathers dreamed.
