The stories of independence in Latin America are a far cry from the only one I’ve ever had to know about, namely Canada’s.  In Canada, we gained independence way later than other countries, and we did it diplomatically, consulting Britain and reaching agreements through negotiations rather than by violently expelling our sovereignty.  As a result, Canada never suffered under the same trials and tribulations faced by many countries in Latin America (though it did have its own troubles).  Of course other factors were at play here, such as the fact that the colonial era in Canada never had a caste system that so influenced the rebellions in Latin America.  And so, I find reading about other nations’ routes to independence rather strange because it seems so foreign, even if these nations’ methods were more common than my own country’s.  I feel as if there is a disconnect in the history I have learned all my life in the Ontarian school system, and the history of other areas of the world.  I realize that I truly wish we were taught history from numerous more global viewpoints, rather than just from Canada’s!

Coming from a nation that, to my knowledge, has never endorsed or had a culture involving slavery, I cannot seem to fathom just how influential slavery and slave rebellions were to the independence and rights movements of many Latin American countries.  I never realized that such oppression would drive entire nations to fight for their freedom.  Again, since I’ve only ever viewed independence from a Canadian standpoint, in which the driving factor for the establishment of one united country had nothing to do with rights and everything to do with the logistics of managing such a huge territory and defending it from the US, the notion that people first fought for their rights and, consequently, their freedom seems backward to me.  Canada was long established before major issues in oppression and inequality were solved (some only as recently as the 1980s, and some still unresolved).  I am surprised by how different I find Canada and Latin American countries, since essentially, both originated in the same way (i.e. through colonization).  Perhaps this has to do with who the colonizers were (e.g. the British and French versus the Spanish and Portuguese), however I think there must be more to it than that, even if I cannot pin-point what these factors are.

Some questions:

• Why did Canada never have slavery?  Did Europe have slavery, and if not, then why would Europe’s colonies in the New World have such prominent slavery and oppression?
• Are some countries in Latin America still in a state of political change and reform?
• Have all countries in Latin America now adopted democratic governmental structures?  Why or why not?
• Why was Canada’s route to independence so different from other countries’ routes to independence?