History of Latin America
War to the Death

Lecture outline

David Siqueiros (Mexico), “Excommunication and Execution of Father Hidalgo,” 1953. Pyroxylin. University of San Nicolas, Morelia, Michoacán.

Three quotes, in chronological order, from Simón Bolívar:

"... we are threatened with the fear of death, dishonor, and every harm; there is nothing we have not suffered at the hands of that unnatural stepmother-Spain....The chains have been broken; we have been freed, and now our enemies seek to enslave us anew. For this reason America fights desperately, and seldom has desperation failed to achieve victory.” (1815)

" Is it fair that only free men should die for the liberation of the slaves? Is it not proper that the slaves should acquire their rights on the battlefield and that their dangerous numbers should be lessened by a process both just and effective?" (1820)

"America is ungovernable, for us. Those who serve the revolution plough the sea." (1830)


David Frum reviews J.H. Elliott's magnum opus Empires of the Atlantic World
comparing British and Iberian imperialisms and their implications for the nation-states that followed

Historical tensions between the Dominican Republic and Haiti

Haitian and Haitian-American history,
with portraits (and caricatures) of Toussaint Louverture and the mid-19c Haitian leader Soulouque.