ANALYSIS: Latin America after Spain: 200-year independence journey

By Veronica Sardon Apr 15, 2010, 5:43 GMT

Buenos Aires - This year, five countries in Latin America celebrate 200 years of independence from once powerful Spain, and another three also came of age in the same era.

These landmark celebrations, which begin Monday in Venezuela, highlight how far the region has come politically and economically in the two centuries since then.

In 1810, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Chile started down the road that would end three centuries of Spanish rule. Ecuador in 1809 and Uruguay and Paraguay in 1811 were also part of this trend.

The immediate catalyst came from Europe and the Napoleonic wars. The elite 'criollos,' locals of Spanish ancestry, often educated in Spain, looked across the Atlantic with a combined sense of ill ease and opportunity as Spain was overcome by French troops.

'1810 fell upon them from the sky like a meteorite, and they did not know what to do with it. Revolution just happened to them,' Argentine historian Luis Alberto Romero said in an interview with the German Press Agency dpa about Argentine independence.

The crumbling of the Spanish empire unleashed a political crisis, and people soon discovered 'that there was no legitimate power and that someone had to take charge. And they took charge.'

Suddenly, local elites had to grapple with the ideas of the Enlightenment that were to change so much of the rest of the world. But independence from mother Spain was was hardly the original idea.

'There were 300 years of Spanish dominance. We considered ourselves Spanish, that is why it is so difficult to achieve the independence process,' said Venezuelan historian Angel Almarza.

In Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Chile, local elites initially sought only to distance themselves from the usurping regime of Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte, who ruled Spain 1808-13 as Joseph I.

But the process was not uniform, given the vast expanse and diversity of Spain's New World empire.

In Brazil, the Napoleonic Wars forced a fleeing Portuguese Crown to its American colony. Independence took another decade, and transformed the former Portuguese monarchy into a Brazilian empire.

Mexico's intellectual elites were already openly speaking of independence by 1810.

Through it all, charismatic leaders, including most notably Simon Bolivar and to a lesser extent Jose de San Martin, worked hard to rally the people and provide both military and political guidance in the struggle against Spain.

However, independence was by no means a panacea, as witnessed by the poverty, the steady outside interference of the United States, and regular political upheavals that followed.

Dictatorships - including bloody variants in the 1970s and 1980s - plagued the region for nearly another two centures and claimed tens of thousands of lives. So did internal conflicts over politics and drugs like those of Central America in that period, and those of Colombia to this day.

In the late 20th century, the end of the Cold War brought increased autonomy, and a wave of democratic elections put both conservative and liberal, even leftist, governments into power.

Today, there are popularly elected governments in 31 countries - all except Cuba and Honduras, which is recovering from a coup d'etat, and the region is determined to shed its pejorative 'Banana Republic' image.

Bolivia has its first-ever president of indigenous descent, and several women presidents have served across the region. Brazil and Mexico have become international economic and political powerhouses.

Still, many countries are nostalgic about what could have been.

'If you compare it with the expectations, there is without doubt a failure. However, it's different if you compare it with things that could also have happened,' said Argentine historian Gabriel Di Meglio. 'Argentina could have been Australia and it could also perfectly well have been Haiti.'

Bicentennial celebrations are about the future as much as they are about the past.

'Every country has to look at its 200 years of independence when they come ... and the successes that have been attained, which are quite a few,' said Enrique Iglesias, a Spanish-born former Uruguayan minister who is in charge of coordinating Iberian-American relations.

'It is also important for countries to look at what remains to be done,' he warned.

In the 21st century, Spain is left in an uncomfortable position. On the one hand, its former colonies are celebrating its expulsion. Spain's history of slaughter and terror in the New World has never really receded from memory.

On the other hand, Madrid is keen to use the celebrations as a springboard for future cooperation. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero believes that Spain simply 'cannot be understood without Iberian America.'

While this has forced Spain to walk a fine line, Iglesias believes it is healthy: 'The fact that the former colonial power celebrates with the former colonies ... is an act of political maturity and an ethical message which is worth highlighting.'

Others disagree. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rejects Madrid's involvement, saying Latin American independence celebrations are a continuation of the 'rebellion' of its peoples.

While the bicentennial commemorations are a chance to celebrate across the region, there's no denying the major challenges: great inequality between the wealthy and the poor, ethnic segregation and widespread poverty.

'Independence was basically done by criollos for criollos, with some mestizo elements. But it was not conceived for the emancipation of indigenous peoples,' Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes has noted.