Question

How did the Age of Enlightenment influence independence movements in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 19th century?

Answer 1

The Latin American Wars of Independence were the revolutions that took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries in Latin America. In the late 18th century Enlightenment ideas spread to Latin America. The success of the American Revolution showed that foreign rule could be thrown off. The French Revolution showed that the people could overthrow an unjust monarch. These two events inspired revolutions in Latin America, which had profound effects on the Spanish, Portuguese and French colonies in the Americas. The results were the end of colonial rule that had lasted 300 years. this is the correct answer

Answer 2

The correct answer is: "the Enlightenment principles that had governed the French Revolution, were subsequently spread and adopted by revolutionaries from Latin America and the Caribbean"

The Enlightenment philosophers, such as Locke, Monstequieu or Rosseau. introduced ideas that challenged, and ended up derrocating, the power structures of the Old Regime.They promoted reason and the scientific method over religious dogmatism and superstititions.

The main principles developed were the following: definition of bills of citizens' rights, social contract (citizens electing political representatives to create goverments through suffrage, in opposition to the prevailing absolute monarchies whose power was supposed to arise from God's will), and the division of the powers of the state in order to avoid excessive power accumulation in certain sectors, and risks of authoritarism.

These abovementioned principles that were defended by French revolutionaries were subsequently adopted during the revolutions which also fought for popular sovereignty and for the end of colonialism that took place in Latin America and the Caribbean.