Author Archives: Ben V

Discussion Question

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Question: What divisions were there among the blacks of Saint Domingue during the rebellions?

Answer:

During the revolt in 1791 one of the biggest divisions that we see among the rebels is over the question of what to do with the whites of the island. Some, such as Jeannot, who is mentioned in In the Camps of the Insurgents, wanted to kill all whites on the island, fearing that any who survived would try to reinstate slavery. Others, such as Jean-Francois, who is also mentioned in that source, were more lenient towards the whites, preferring to treat his prisoners humanely. During the revolt in 1793 we see similar divisions rise again. The rebels who were supported by the Spanish wanted total independence from France and all whites to be removed from the island, as can be seen in Insurgent Responses to Emancipation. Opposed to them were some free blacks and people of mixed race who supported continuing to live under the French republic as equals to the whites. There were also divisions between monarchists and republicans among both blacks and whites. This conflict mirrored the one going on in France at the time, where some fought to keep the monarchy in power, while others fought to establish a republic. The black rebels who were supported by the Spanish seem to favor monarchy over a republic, although they valued independence highest of all it seems. Those who supported the republic were a mixture of whites, blacks, and mixed race people who at least claimed to want a society where the races were equal. Finally, the white monarchists opposed the republican revolutionaries, but tried to win over the black rebels by playing on their monarchist sympathies. Evidence of all of this can be seen in the Decree of General Liberty, where the republicans try to win over blacks by promising them equality, while also saying that monarchist promises of freedom were false.

From Chilean Refuge, Venezuelan Congress Deputy Defies Maduro

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The vice-president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Freddy Guevara, has sought refuge in the residence of the Chilean ambassador to Venezuela. He is wanted by the Maduro government for inciting violence by calling for protests against the Maduro regime. The government has revoked his parliamentary immunity and banned him from leaving the country. Guevara says that he is not guilty of these crimes and that he is being persecuted for opposing Maduro. He did organize protests as a member of the Popular Will party, a major opposition party.

The Maduro regime has had many members of the opposition arrested, including the founder of Popular Will, Leopoldo Lopez. Guevara said that he sought refuge from the Chilean ambassador because he did not want to give Maduro another political “hostage.” The Chilean ambassador took in five pro-opposition magistrates that were being threatened with jail time earlier this year. They were then smuggled out of Venezuela into Colombia, and then flown to Chile. Chile has, like many other Latin American countries, condemned the Venezuelan government for its many rights abuses. The US State Department has denounced the attempted arrest of Guevara, calling it, “yet another extreme measure to close the democratic space in Venezuela, criminalize dissent and control information.”

The articles portray Latin Americans in general in no particular light. They do highlight the political problems ongoing in Venezuela. They try to strike a balance between the two parties, but are slightly more favorable to the opposition, as they are portrayed more as the victims of the Maduro regime, while the Maduro regime tries to portray itself as a victim of violence from the opposition.

These articles relate to class themes in that they describe a government’s attempt to concentrate power at the expense of its opponents. This is similar to the efforts of colonial governments to centralize their own power, often at the expense of other groups, whether they were indigenous leaders, earlier Iberian conquerors, or other groups. This event also connects to class themes of conflicts between the rulers of colonial societies and those they ruled over. In this case there is conflict between Maduro and his supporters and the opposition parties.

Reuters article

BBC article

 

Class Notes- 10/2/17

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Announcements:

  • First exam on Wednesday, 10/4/17
    • A good place to start studying is looking at the HAP homework assignments and class notes posts.
  • Continue thinking about and working on Wikipedia projects.

LA History and Culture Post by Jacob

Cuban Doctors Against Brazil’s “Programa Mais Médicos”

Jacob’s news article was about Cuban doctors who are unhappy with Brazil’s “More Doctors Program.” It is a program where foreign doctors are brought into Brazil to provide healthcare services to remote and impoverished areas of Brazil. Many of these doctors come from Cuba. However, these Cuban doctors are paid less than doctors from other countries, while the Cuban government receives far more money per doctor sent to Brazil than the doctors get. Cuban doctors who have tried to fight for more money have been threatened by the Cuban government. They are told to either immediately return to Cuba or face exile. However, the program does provide much needed medical care to poor and remote regions of Brazil that would not otherwise receive it. For this reason, the UN has supported this program.

Class Discussion- Go Betweens

We talked about the role of go betweens, people who could interact with both European and indigenous societies, helping bridge the gap between the two. A key historical question that was discussed was, “What roles do cultural intermediaries play in Iberian colonization of Latin America?” We talked specifically about the cases of La Malinche, the indigenous woman who served as a translator for the Spanish conquistadors under Hernan Cortes and as Cortes’ mistress, Don Melchior Caruarayco, an Andean kuraka, and Domingos Fernandes Nobre, a mameluco slave trader in colonial Brazil. For La Malinche we discussed both her importance as a facilitator of communication between the Spanish and the Mexica, and her role as Cortes’ mistress. More generally, we talked about the sexual relations, both consensual and non-consensual, between European men and indigenous women in colonial Latin America. The children of these relationships were the mestizos or mamelucos, people of both European and indigenous heritage. These people were often intermediaries between the European and indigenous societies, belonging to both at the same time. Domingos Fernandes Nobre and Don Melchior Caruarayco were both talked about in small groups. Both of these men served as go betweens in different ways. Don Melchior Caruarayco was the leader of an Andean group and had to both lead them, while also making sure his people provided tribute and labor to the Spanish. Domingos Fernandes Nobre was a mameluco slave trader who had two identities, one Portuguese and one indigenous. He used this to build relations with both groups to capture and sell indigenous people as slaves to work on Portuguese sugar plantations. Finally, we also talked about the ways inheritance was carried out in Iberia and colonial Latin America, and how marriage was influenced by this.

Important Terms

  • Mestizo or Mameluco: a person of both European and indigenous heritage.
  • Encomienda: a system where Europeans, often conquistadors, would be given lands in the Americas and the labor of native peoples in the area to work it as a reward for their service to the king or the colonial government.
  • Kurakas: traditional Andean leaders who held political, social, and religious significance. They were in charge of assigning work to the people of their communities and were supposed to protect them. They were used by the Spanish as intermediaries to control the native Andeans.

Links:

Kurakas and Commerce: A Chapter in the Evolution of Andean Society

Impact of the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) Program in reducing physician shortage in Brazilian Primary Healthcare.

Article about the role of mestizos in colonial Latin America

Potential Exam Questions:

How did the role of kurakas in Andean society change after the Spanish conquest?

Who were go betweens in colonial Latin America and what was their importance?

How do historians use historical biography to explain the past?

Wikipedia Article Critique

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I looked at the Guarani War article. All of the information in this article seems relevant to the topic. Nothing clearly stood out as not belonging. The article seems neutral with no viewpoints expressed. It simply explains the facts without any attempts to persuade the reader. The only source cited is an English language book on the suppression of the Jesuits by the Catholic Church. The source seems reliable and non-biased and does talk about the Jesuit missions and the Guarani who were involved in the war. There is also a link to another book about the Guarani under Spanish colonial rule, however it is not cited in any of the text of the article. Of the three external links that included in the article two work and one does not. This broken link is supposed to link to the Madrid Treaty (1750). The article mainly talks about what the Spanish and Portuguese did. It mentions some of what the Guarani did, but does not have as much information on them as it does the Portuguese and Spanish. The one citation that the article does have links to the book about the suppression of the Jesuits on Google books. The link works, but the page cited does not have the information cited. It instead talks about the later expulsion of the Jesuits by the Spanish colonial governor in 1767, over a decade after the Guarani War. None of the information seems out of date. There is definitely more information that could be added. More information about every part of this topic could be added as the article is very basic. There is no discussion on the talk page. The article is rated as a start-class article and of low-importance. It is part of several WikiProjects, including those on the indigenous peoples of the Americas, military history, and the histories of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Portugal, and Spain. This article mostly covers topics we have not yet discussed in depth in class. It does talk about the Guarani, who we have mentioned in class. It only really says that they were a group of indigenous peoples who lived at the missions in question and fought against the Spanish and Portuguese when they tried to move the missions. Ultimately, the major issues with this article are the lack of information and the lack of sources.

Class Introduction

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Hi all, I’m Ben. I’m a senior history and political science double major. My focus in political science is on US national politics. I’m from Carmel, Indiana, a suburb to the north of Indianapolis.

I’ve taken a few classes on Latin American history at Wooster already, but I’m always excited to learn more. Those classes mostly focused on Latin America either during its struggle for independence or afterwards so I want to learn more about Latin America in the colonial era. I am especially interested in learning about the early interactions between the indigenous peoples of Latin America and the Europeans and Africans that settled in the region.