Liberators : Latin America's struggle for independence, 1810-1830

Author / Creator

Harvey, Robert, 1953-

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Summary

"By 1824 Spain's 300 year-old empire in Latin America, once thought to be permanently entrenched, had vanished in less than two decades of insurrection beginning in 1810. A unique combination of ci...

"By 1824 Spain's 300 year-old empire in Latin America, once thought to be permanently entrenched, had vanished in less than two decades of insurrection beginning in 1810. A unique combination of circumstances was to expose the cracks and fissures running through the Spanish colonial monolith - the wave of radicalism that characterized the American and French Revolutions, the decadence of the Spanish court, and the havoc wreaked by Napoleon across Europe. Yet this whole process of colonial disintegration might still have been reversed had it not been for the dashing, even romantic, leadership displayed by seven men known collectively as the Liberators." "These seven young men led an entire continent to freedom. Treated with contempt by their Spanish overlords, often given to dissipation, debauchery, and lofty proclamation, they nonetheless achieved unsurpassed military feats. Francisco de Miranda impressed both George Washington and Catherine the Great. The aristocratic Simon Bolivar led his guerilla armies through swamp, jungle, and Andean ice to surprise his enemies and liberate most of northern South America, while Jose de San Martin had joined Bernardo O'Higgins to do the same in the south. Their allies were cut from the same cloth - the Scottish admiral, Lord Cochrane, cowed the Spanish and Portuguese navies and later fought, like Byron, in Greece; Augustin de Iturbide became Emperor of Mexico; Crown Prince Pedro of Portugal turned against his father and brought independence to Brazil. In this era of revolutionary ferment, the Liberators were ultimately successful in gaining independence for their people, but each of them paid the highest price: all seven died in either the most tragic, violent, or sordid of circumstances."--BOOK JACKET.

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