Latin American history and culture:

Relief efforts for the hurricane-inflicted devastation on the US Virgin Islands are proceeding slowly, partially hindered by the current political climate. 73% of the islands still lack electricity and plant life is effectively gone. Businesses and homes have sustained enormous damage, and the buildings that survived are often waterlogged and moldy. To this day, the Virgin Islands have lingering effects from colonialism such as old, ruined buildings and poverty.

Class:

• Both the New and Old worlds contribute to the “Trans-Atlantic Story” of interaction
• The European Enlightenment affects both sides of the Atlantic in the 18th century
  • John Locke was an important Enlightenment thinker
  • emphasis was placed on reason and observation to obtain information
  • creation of humanism: emphasis on individual natural rights
  • rise in secularism and republicanism/classical liberalism
• The Bourbon Reforms (1713-1762)
  • Were they full-blown reforms, or simply a series of administrative changes?
  • Initiated by Philip V of Spain (reigned 1700-1746), first king of the new Bourbon dynasty
  • the power of the king in the colonies is always limited by intermediaries
  • inspired by the Enlightenment
  • administrative:
    • power of Criollos is curtailed, more power given to peninsulares
    • selling of offices is prohibited, making it more difficult for Criollos to rise through the ranks and decreasing social mobility
  • economic:
    • tax system is redesigned to be more efficient
    • attempt are made to regulate wages
    • government maintains monopolies on certain goods such as tobacco and gunpowder
    • loosening of trade restrictions (partially attributable to concessions from the Spanish War of Succession) increases Atlantic trade overall
  • social:
    • government exerts more control over the Catholic Church
    • influx of peninsulares
• Pedro de Ayarza
  • respected Panamanian merchant racially labeled as pardo
  • sued to purchase official “whiteness” and honorific “don” for himself and his sons from 1795 to 1807 after his eldest was denied a university degree due to being pardo
  • fails to get title of “don,” succeeds in receiving “whiteness” for himself and one of his sons with his youngest being denied on account of age
  • this story shows how, in a legal sense, “whiteness” grants social mobility and allows a family to cast off racial stigma, but it is very expensive to obtain

We were unable to talk about Juan Barbarin because we ran out of time.

Definitions:

• Criollos/Creoles: American-born Spaniards
• Peninsulares: Iberian-born Spaniards in America
• Pardo: dark-skinned
• Bourbon Reforms: a series of reforms (or administrative changes, depending on who you ask) in the Spanish colonies from roughly 1713-1762 performed under the Bourbon dynasty that permanently altered colonial government
• Age of Revolutions: an era in history in which revolutionary fervor gripped numerous oppressed peoples, causing uprisings in such places as America, France, and Haiti
• Honor: public reputation
• Gracias al Sacar: official decree freeing one from the caste system; official recognition of someone’s “whiteness”

Miscellaneous:

• peer reviews for audio slideshows have been assigned on moodle and are due on Wednesday, after which Professor Holt will give her own feedback
• we will later study the breakdown of colonial authority by analyzing the Haitian War of Independence
• Monday will be an in-class discussion on Haitian independence with emphasis on primary source analysis

Links:

The Enlightenment: https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-Enlightenment

The Bourbon Reforms: http://historyworldsome.blogspot.com/2013/11/bourbon-reforms-in-latin-america.html

Age of Revolutions: https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-age-of-revolution