Gran Colombia Gets Independence

     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? The past few days in class we've been focusing on Latin American revolutions to help come up with an answer to this question. We were split into three groups and assigned a revolution; Mexico, Brazil or Gran Colombia. My group got Gran Colombia and we decided it is important to think about this question because racial inequality has been a part of the world's history for a long time, and it is important to understand this social imperative in other countries in addition to the United States. 

     
     This timeline shows the events of the Latin American revolution in Gran Colombia. In class we were briefed on the timelines for the revolutions in Brazil and Mexico. All of the revolutions ended in independence due to the strong leaders each nation had. Gran Colombia was lead by Bolivar. Mexico had Miguel Hidalgo, and Brazil had the courageous Pedro and King John VI. Another similarity that we observed is that race was an issue in all of the revolutions. For Brazil, at first Jose da Silva Xavier was killed because he did not pertain an elite status and Pedro tried to make the Portuguese the only people with power. In Mexico, Miguel called for the end of 300 years of racial inequality. Bolivar's main goal was to liberate New Granada from Spanish control in Gran Colombia. Though there many similarities seen between these revolutions there were also some differences. For example, Brazil's revolution resulted in an empire where Mexico's produced a republic. During the times of war Brazil had Portuguese monarchy that came over to rule. Gran Colombia was controlled by the dictorial powers that Bolivar managed to have over Caracas. 

     America is very lucky to have already gotten rid of most racial injustices. We had great leaders like Martin Luther King Junior who worked very hard during the civil rights movement to gain equality for African American people. Recently in St. Louis, Missouri, a white off duty police officer shot and killed a young black man. This is seen as a racial injustice and there have been protests throughout the city. I think it is still important to consider race in our society today so that we can prevent revolutions like those fought in Gran Colombia, Brazil and Mexico.