Latin American Revolutions

The essential question for this lesson was: Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race? How are the events in the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative? This is an important question to ask ourselves because when human value is not acknowledged, revolts and the destruction of nations can occur. We see this proven by the Latin American Revolutions. To learn about the cause and effects of the revolutions in Latin America, each group received a revolution to read about (Mexico, Gran Columbia, and Brazil) and make a timeline for and then shared with those in other groups.
This is the timeline we made for the Mexican Revolution. It explains how Napoleon's occupation of Spain led to Spanish American revolts and how, eventually, Mexico became a republic. Along the way, you see Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla's impact and the treaties signed before the republic was put into place.

We made groups of 2 people from each revolution and presented our timelines to the other group members. Then, as a class, we discussed commonalities and differences between the revolutions. We noticed that all three revolutions were successful and took place in the early 1800s. However, we also noticed that the Brazilian Revolution was significantly less violent than the other two and that Gran Columbia ended up splitting into several independent countries.

Though many people preach racial equality, a lot of times there is still judgment regarding race. It never really ended. Just this past week, the very controversial Ferguson case was in the news. It's important to consider the issue of race because riots can still occur and lives can be lost.