The Haitian Revolution and the Latin American Revolution were revolutions that occurred in the 17th and 18th century, mainly to obtain independence from their mother country. Haiti, under the rule of France, was the richest colony in the world with thousands of enslaved Africans working for sugar and coffee plantations, where as, Latin America, under the rule of Spain, had various people in different social classes, getting discriminated. Although these two revolutions look very similar to each other on the outside, for they were both trying to declare independence, in fact, there are more differences than there are similarities.
First of all, the causes, or the incentives, of these two revolutions were thoroughly different. The major cause of the Haitian Revolution was the slave resistance, due to France’s inhuman and brutal treatment of the slaves. The slaves were the people who actually started the revolution with strong anger and hatred towards France. To put in other words, it was the passion of the men and women, who worked as slaves all their lives, that started and boosted the revolution. They wanted to obtain freedom and equality, and start a new life without anyone enslaving and abusing them. They also wanted to gain vengeance, which tells us how miserable and furious they were. In contrast, the major cause of the Latin American Revolution was the desire for a new leader and discrimination between different social classes. Even though people were upset about the huge gap between the life style of the higher and the lower social classes, it wasn’t the slaves who upraised against Spain with anger and hatred. It was the entire discrimination between the different social classes, and for some people, a new leader who precisely knew what was going on in the colony. Additionally, the creoles brought new ideas about human rights and justice from the Enlightenment and used them as the fundamental structure of the revolution. They didn’t revolt because the slaves were terribly suffering, but because they wanted to govern themselves by themselves without the consultation of Spain. In simpler words, they just strongly disliked the way the Spanish governed them. So basically, the Haitian Revolution was caused by the anger of the slaves, and the Latin American Revolution was caused by the desire of change in political, social, and economical ways.
Also, the consequences of the Haitian Revolution were different from those of the Latin American Revolution. The slaves victoriously succeeded in becoming free and changing their life style. Slave trading was stopped, and the whites began to fear their slaves of revolting once again. Where as, the Latin American Revolution had a very hard time recovering from poverty and disruption. It was long until they finally founded a country with peace and order.
Still, there were some similarities between the two revolutions. They were both shouting for liberty, equality, and justice, in the end, declaring independence. The economic status of both of the revolutions went down due to lack of labor and chaos within their country.
The Haitian Revolution and the Latin American Revolution influenced the world considerably in various ways. Although they are somehow very different, we cannot deny that they have this one single thing in common. They inspired other colonies to revolt and gave hope and courage to other colonies. They showed that all men were capable of accomplishing their goal and that human power, as in determination and bravery, is phenomenal. They set a brilliant example of achieving their goal with their very sweat and tears, and I know, for sure, that no one will be able to deny the “astonishment” of this.
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