World History Portal

The Legend of the Four Suns is one of the most significant surviving texts detailing Nahua cosmology, offering a comprehensive account of the universe’s origins and evolution. Equally important, it presents a cyclical view of time, describing the successive ages the earth has undergone. According to this tradition, four previous suns—or eras—preceded the current one. In addition to the Legend of the Four Suns, the Aztec Calendar Stone also records these four previous ages, prominently depicted at its center (see image above). Consider the following questions as you analyze this source:

• What is the purpose of cosmologies?
• How were the different ages in Nahua cosmology created and destroyed?
• What insights does this cosmology provide about Nahua culture?

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The Legend of the Four Suns

Here is the oral account of what is known of how the earth was founded long ago.
One by one, here are its various foundations [ages].

How it began, how the first Sun had its beginning 2513 years ago—thus it is known today, the 22
of May, 1558.
This Sun, 4-Jaguar, lasted 676 years.
Those who lived in this first Sun were eaten by ocelots. It was the time of the Sun 4-Jaguar.
And what they used to eat was our nourishment, and they lived 676 years.
And they were eaten in the year 13.
Thus they perished and all ended. At this time the Sun was destroyed.
It was on the year 1-Reed. They began to be devoured on a day [called] 4-Tiger. And so with this
everything ended and all of them perished.

This Sun is known as 4-Wind.
Those who lived under this second Sun were carried away by the wind. It was under the Sun 4-
Wind that they all disappeared.
They were carried away by the wind. They became monkeys. 13. Their homes, their trees everything was taken away by the wind.
And this Sun itself was also swept away by the wind.
And what they used to eat was our nourishment.
[The date was] 12-Serpent. They lived [under this Sun] 364 years.
Thus they perished. In a single day they were carried off by the wind. They perished on a day 4-
Wind.

The year [of this Sun] was 1-Flint.
This Sun, 4-Rain, was the third.
Those who lived under this third Sun, 4-Rain, also perished. It rained fire upon them. They
became turkeys.
This Sun was consumed by fire. All their homes burned.
They lived under this Sun 312 years.
They perished when it rained fire for a whole day.
And what they used to eat was our nourishment.
[The date was] 7-Flint. The year was 1-Flint and the day 4-Rain.
They who perished were those who had become turkeys.
The offspring of turkeys are now called pípil-pípil.

This Sun is called 4-Water; for 52 years the water lasted.
And those who lived under this fourth Sun, they existed in the time of the Sun 4-Water.
It lasted 676 years.
Thus they perished: they were swallowed by the waters and they became fish.
The heavens collapsed upon them and in a single day they perished.
And what they used to eat was our nourishment.
[The date was] 4-Flower. The year was 1-House and the day 4-Water.
They perished, all the mountains perished.
The water lasted 52 years and with this ended their years.

This Sun, called 4-Movement, this is our Sun, the one in which we now live.
And here is its sign, how the Sun fell into the fire, into the divine hearth, there at Teotihuacán.
It was also the Sun of our Lord Quetzalcóatl in Tula.
The fifth Sun, its sign 4-Movement.
Is called the Sun of Movement because it moves and follows its path.
And as the elders continue to say, under this sun there will be earthquakes and hunger, and then
our end shall come

Source: León-Portilla, Miguel. Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind. University of Oklahoma Press.

Fray Diego de Landa’s Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán (1566) is a pivotal historical and ethnographic account of the Maya civilization, written during the Spanish colonization of the Yucatán Peninsula. As a Franciscan missionary, Landa meticulously documented Maya culture, language, religious practices, and daily life. However, he is also infamous for orchestrating the 1562 auto-da-fé in Maní, which led to the destruction of Maya codices and religious artifacts. Despite this contradiction, his work remains an invaluable resource, offering crucial insights into Maya glyphs and traditions that later contributed to the decipherment of the Maya script. Notably, Landa’s original Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán has never been found. The version that survives today is an abridged copy, transcribed by unidentified bureaucrats. This preserved text remains a key source on the Maya calendar and writing system, ensuring that some of Landa’s observations endure despite the loss of the original manuscript. As you analyze this selection from the abridged manuscript, consider the following questions:

• According to Landa, what materials did the Maya write on?
• What happened to many of these works?
• How does Landa describe the workings of the Maya writing system?
• Use these questions to guide your analysis as you engage with the text.

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Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán

These people also used certain characters or letters with which they wrote in their books their
ancient affairs and their sciences, and with these and with figures and some signs in the figures,
they understood their affairs and they made others understand them and taught them. We found
among them a large number of books in these their letters, and because they had nothing in
which there was not superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted
to an amazing degree and which caused them sorrow. Of their letters I will give here an A, B, C,
since their ponderousness permits nothing more, for they use one character for all the aspirations
of the letters and, later, they unite with it part of another and thus it goes on ad infinitum, as will
be seen in the following example. le means noose and to hunt with it; to write le with their
characters (we having made them understand that these are two letters), they wrote it with three,
placing for the aspiration of I the vowel e, which it carries in front of it, and in this way they do
not err even though they might use [another] e if, out of curiosity, they so wish. Example:

Afterwards, at the end, they affix the part which is joined. Ha means water, and because the h
has a before it, they put it at the beginning with, and at the end in this fashion:

They also wrote in parts, but in one way or another that I shall not give here nor will I deal with
it except by giving a full account of this people’s affairs. Ma in kati means I don’t want to and
they write it in parts in this fashion:

There follows their A, B, C:

Of the letters which are missing, this language lacks them and has others added from our own for
other things of which it has need, and already they do not use these their characters at all,
especially the young people who have learned ours.

Source: Coe, Michael D. Breaking the Maya Code (Third Edition) (Kindle Locations 1797-1805). Thames & Hudson. Kindle Edition.

Ricardo Flores Magón (1873–1922) was a prominent Mexican activist, journalist, and political reformer, renowned for his fierce opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. In 1900, he founded Regeneración, an influential newspaper that served as a powerful platform for denouncing the regime and championing social justice. His uncompromising activism led to repeated imprisonments under Díaz’s rule. While in exile in the United States, Magón co-founded the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM), advancing anarchist and revolutionary ideals. He remained committed to his cause until his death under suspicious circumstances at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas in 1922. Today, Magón is remembered as a foundational thinker and ideological forerunner of the Mexican Revolution. Consider the following questions when reading the selection below:

• What has been changed by La Revolución?
• What has been gained by workers through La Revolución?
• Who has benefitted from La Revolución?

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That afternoon dies without specific peculiarity. The sun, lazy, did not want to spread his golden hair in all the circumference of the horizon, as if he would be upset from the baseness of men, that because of their smallness they kill each other, because of nothing they suffer, and from nothing they are amused, like poor worms.

Through the dusty highway–and dusty, too–an older man walks. It must have been a long journey, judging by the reflected tired face and his painful walk. He carries a backpack, a shirt, made of bleached cotton, perhaps, and worn out pants. It is a soldier returning home from the Orozco group.

The man walks and walks, walks observing the groups of men and women assiduously, working in their eternal labor, dressed in very humble clothes, with sadness and desperation showing in their sunburned faces. These people work the same, dress the same, have the same look than before the revolution.

The revolutionary stops to contemplate the picture and questions, “Why did we have the
revolution?”

And he continues walking to his village where he will see his loved ones, waiting for him anxiously, for sure, children and wife, after his long absence. The highway is slowly covered by shadows. To his side walks a group of workers marching towards their shacks, with the same looks of weariness, of fatigue, and maybe resentment. The revolutionary turns to the group and asks, “Why did we have the revolution?”

He continues walking towards the village, where he will find his loved ones, where they are
waiting desperately after a long wait, his children and wife.

The barking of dogs denounces the proximity of the village completely submerged in darkness.

The wind weeps between the branches of ash trees burdening the road. Our traveler walks,
walks, and walks, thinking about his loved ones…

The next day the revolutionary has to go back to the furrow, as any other one to make 25 to 50 cents a day; and if Vazquez Gómez has gotten the presidential chair, the poor keep on being poor, keep on being humiliated by the rich and by the authority.

The revolutionary reflects and questions, “Why did we have the revolution?”

Worn out, he returns to his shack, where he had been the night before. A pot of beans is their dinner, with a few tortillas. The dog yawns close to the fire; crickets sing their love in the cracks; children sleep almost naked. “Who won?” asks his wife, who is so happy to be able to stretch and hug her absent husband’s arms, and had not been able to ask the question before. After a few minutes, thinking, the revolutionary answers,

“Well, we did.”

“But you have not even a cent.”

“Well anyhow, we son–we dethroned Madero.”

“But we were left down, as always,” says the woman.

The revolutionary scratches his hair and, not having any other way to answer,and answering as before, he questions, “Why did we have a revolutionary?”

“Why did we have the Revolution?” the woman asks.

And the revolutionary, surprised of this woman thinking like him, could not stand his indignation anymore, backing inside and exclaimed, “The revolution is only for the bold ones, the ones who want to be in the government, the ones who want to live off of the work of others! “

We got furiously obstinate by not listening to the anarchists of Regeneration, who in all ways
have advised us not to follow the employers, to take possession of the land, water, fields, mines, the factories, mills, miner, means of transportation, and that we should commune property to all the population of the Mexican Republic and so, we would consume what we produced. We were told that to struggle to elevate individuals was a criminal offense. We did not listen, because they were poor, from our own class, and as the saying goes, we carry penitence from our own sins. This is what we deserve, for being stupid! Our employers are having a great time right now, while we, the bait, the suckers, the ones who work, sweat, and struggle, show our chests to the enemy; now we are the ones who suffer more than before… Juan sounds the trumpet, announcing a meeting; rubs his eyes…It was a bad dream! Picks up his rifle, and rejoices, knowing the fact he’s joining the lines of the red flag liberators, and yells with sound voice, “Hail to my laud and freedom!”

(From “Regeneración,” number 87, dated April 27, 1912.)

The promise of meaningful land reform stirred hope across Mexico, inspiring countless peasants and rural communities to rally behind La Revolución in pursuit of justice and rightful ownership of the land they toiled on. But after ascending to power, President Francisco Madero failed to fulfill his pledges of agrarian reform, leaving many disillusioned. Feeling betrayed, revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata responded with the bold and uncompromising Plan de Ayala—a fierce manifesto that demanded the redistribution of land and fiercely denounced Madero’s leadership. Consider the following questions as you read the source below:

• How is Francisco Madero portrayed in this plan?
• Who does Zapata recognize as the legitimate leader of Mexico?
• What demands does Zapata make through this plan?

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Liberating Plan of the sons of the State of Morelos, affiliated with the Insurgent Army that defends the fulfillment of the Plan of San Luis, with the reforms which it has believed proper to add in benefit of the Mexican Fatherland. We who undersign, constituted in a revolutionary junta to sustain and carry out the promises which the revolution of November 20, 1910, just past, made to the country, declare solemnly before the face of the civilized world which judges us and before the nation to which we belong and which we call [sic, love], propositions which we have formulated to end the tyranny which oppresses us and redeem the fatherland from the dictatorships which are imposed on us, which [propositions] are determined in the following plan:

1. Taking into consideration that the Mexican people led by Don Francisco I. Madero went to shed their blood to reconquer liberties and recover their rights which had been trampled on, and for a man to take possession of power, violating the sacred princi-ples which he took an oath to defend under the slogan “Effective Suffrage and No Reelection,” outraging thus the faith, the cause, the justice, and the liberties of the people: taking into consideration that that man to whom we refer is Don Francisco I. Madero, the same who initiated the above-cited revolution, who imposed his will and influence as a governing norm on the Provisional Government of the ex-President of the Republic Attorney Francisco L. de Barra [sic], causing with this deed repeated shedding of blood and multiple misfortunes for the fatherland in a manner deceitful and ridiculous, having no intentions other than satisfying his personal ambitions, his boundless instincts as a tyrant, and his profound disrespect for the fulfillment of the preexisting laws emanating from the immortal code of ’57 [Constitution of 1857], written with the revolutionary blood of Ayutla; Taking into account that the so-called Chief of the Liberating Revolution of Mexico, Don Francisco I. Madero, through lack of integrity and the highest weakness, did not carry to a happy end the revolution which gloriously he initiated with the help of God and the people, since he left standing most of the governing powers and corrupted elements of oppression of the dictatorial government of Porfirio Díaz, which are not nor can in any way be the representation of National Sovereignty, and which, for being most bitter adversaries of ours and of the principles which even now we defend, are provoking the discomfort of the country and opening new wounds in the bosom of the fatherland, to give it its own blood to drink; taking also into account that the aforementioned Sr. Francisco I. Madero, present President of the Republic, tries to avoid the fulfillment of the promises which he made to the Nation in the Plan of San Luis Potosí, being [sic, restricting] the above-cited promises to the agreements of Ciudad Juárez, by means of false promises and numerous intrigues against the Nation nullifying, pursuing, jailing, or killing revolutionary elements who helped him to occupy the high post of President of the Republic; Taking into consideration that the so-often-repeated Francisco I. Madero has tried with the brute force of bayonets to shut up and to drown in blood the pueblos who ask, solicit, or demand from him the fulfillment of the promises of the revolution, calling them bandits and rebels, condemning them to a war of extermination without conceding or granting a single one of the guarantees which reason, justice, and the law prescribe; taking equally into consideration that the President of the Republic Francisco I. Madero has made of Effective Suffrage a bloody trick on the people, already against the will of the same people imposing Attorney José M. Pino Suáez in the Vice-Presidency of the Republic, or [imposing as] Governors of the States [men] designated by him, like the so-called General Ambrosio Figueroa, scourge and tyrant of the people of Morelos, or entering into chains and follow the pattern of a new dictatorship more shameful and more terrible than that of Porfirio Díaz, for it has been clear and patent that he has outraged the sovereignty of the States, trampling on the laws without any respect for lives or interests, as has happened in the State of Morelos, and others, leading them to the most horrendous anarchy which contemporary history registers. For these considerations we declare the aforementioned Francisco I. Madero inept at realizing the promises of the revolution of which he was the author, because he has betrayed the principles with which he tricked the will of the people and was able to get into power: incapable of governing, because he has no respect for the law and justice of the pueblos, and a traitor to the fatherland, because he is humiliating in blood and fire, Mexicans who want liberties, so as to please the científicos, landlords, and bosses who enslave us, and from today on we begin to continue the revolution begun by him, until we achieve the overthrow of the dictatorial powers which exist.
2. Recognition is withdrawn from S. Francisco I. Madero as Chief of the Revolution and as President of the Republic, for the reasons which before were expressed, it being attempted to overthrow this official.
3. Recognized as Chief of the Liberating Revolution is the illustrious General Pascual Orozco, the second of the Leader Don Francisco I. Madero, and in case he does not accept this delicate post, recognition as Chief of the Revolution will go to General Don Emiliano Zapata.
4. The Revolutionary Junta of the State of Morelos manifests to the Nation under formal oath: that it makes its own the plan of San Luis Potosí, with the additions which are expressed below in benefit of the oppressed pueblos, and it will make itself the defender of the principles it defends until victory or death.
5. The Revolutionary Junta of the State of Morelos will admit no transactions or compromises until it achieves the overthrow of the dictatorial elements of Porfirio Díaz and Francisco I. Madero, for the nation is tired of false men and traitors who make promises like liberators and who on arriving in power forget them and constitute themselves tyrants.
6. As an additional part of the plan, we invoke, we give notice: that [regarding] the fields, timber, and water which the landlords, científicos, or bosses have usurped, the pueblos or citizens who have the titles corresponding to those properties will immedi-ately enter into possession of that real estate of which they have been despoiled by the bad faith of our oppressors, maintain at any cost with arms in hand the mentioned possession; and the usurpers who consider themselves with a right to them [those properties] will deduce it before the special tribunals which will be established on the triumph of the revolution.
7. In virtue of the fact that the immense majority of Mexican pueblos and citizens are owners of no more than the land they walk on, suffering the horrors of poverty without being able to improve their social condition in any way or to dedicate them-selves to Industry or Agriculture, because lands, timber, and water are monopolized in a few hands, for this cause there will be expropriated the third part of those monopolies from the powerful proprietors of them, with prior indemnization, in order that the pueblos and citizens of Mexico may obtain ejidos, colonies, and foundations for pueblos, or fields for sowing or laboring, and the Mexicans’ lack of prosperity and well-being may improve in all and for all.
8. [Regarding] The landlords, científicos, or bosses who oppose the present plan directly or indirectly, their goods will be nationalized and the two-third parts which [otherwise would] belong to them will go for indemnizations of war, pensions for widows and orphans of the victims who succumb in the struggle for the present plan.
9. In order to execute the procedures regarding the properties aforementioned, the laws of disamortization and nationalization will be applied as they fit, for serving us as norm and example can be those laws put in force by the immortal Juárez on ecclesiastical properties, which punished the despots and conservatives who in every time have tried to impose on us the ignominious yoke of oppression and backwardness.
10. The insurgent military chiefs of the Republic who rose up with arms in hand at the voice of Don Francisco I. Madero to defend the plan of San Luis Potosí, and who oppose with armed force the present plan, will be judged traitors to the cause which they defended and to the fatherland, since at present many of them, to humor the tyrants, for a fistful of coins, or for bribes or connivance, are shedding the blood of their brothers who claim the fulfillment of the promises which Don Francisco I. Madero made to the nation.
11. The expenses of war will be taken in conformity with Article 11 of the Plan of San Luis
    Potosí, and all procedures employed in the revolution we undertake will be in conformity with the same instructions, which the said plan determines.
12. Once triumphant the revolution which we carry into the path of reality, a Junta of the
    principal revolutionary chiefs from the different States will name or designate an interim President of the Republic, who will convoke elections for the organization of the federal powers.
13. The principal revolutionary chiefs of each State will designate in Junta the Governor of the State to which they belong, and this appointed official will convoke elections for the due organization of the public powers, the object being to avoid compulsory appointments which work the misfortune of the pueblos, like the so-well-known appointment of Ambrosio Figueroa in the State of Morelos and others who drive us to the precipice of bloody conflicts sustained by the caprice of the dictator Madero and the circle of científicos and landlords who have influenced him.
14. If President Madero and other dictatorial elements of the present and former regime want to avoid the immense misfortunes which afflict the fatherland, and [if they] possess true sentiments of love for it, let them make immediate renunciation of the posts they occupy and with that they will with something staunch the grave wounds which they have opened in the bosom of the fatherland, since, if they do not do so, on their heads will fall the blood and the anathema of our brothers.
15. Mexicans: consider that the cunning and bad faith of one man is shedding blood in a
    scandalous manner, because he is incapable of governing; consider that his system of
    government is choking the fatherland and trampling with the brute force of bayonets on our institutions; and thus, as we raised up our weapons to elevate him to power, we again raise them up against him for defaulting on his promises to the Mexican people and for having betrayed the revolution initiated by him, we are not personalists, we are partisans of principles and not of men!
    Mexican People, support this plan with arms in hand and you will make the prosperity and wellbeing of the fatherland.
    Ayala, November 25, 1911
    Liberty, Justice and Law
    Signed, General in Chief Emiliano Zapata; Generals Eufemio Zapata, Francisco Mendoza, Jesús Morales, Jesús Navarro, Otilio E. Montaño, José Trinidad Ruiz, Próculo Capistrán; Colonels…; Captains… [This] is a true copy taken from the original. Camp in the Mountains of Puebla, December 11, 1911. Signed General in Chief Emiliano Zapata.

For liberals, the Church in post-independence Latin America was problematic at all levels. Its immense wealth and influence were seen as roadblocks to the creation of a modern, free-market economy. Liberal thinkers also viewed the Church’s control of education as an obstacle to progress, claiming it prevented the state from providing the rational, scientific, and utilitarian education they believed essential for societal advancement. However, defenders of the Church in Mexico presented counterarguments, portraying it as a stabilizing force in the nation’s social and cultural life. These perspectives reveal the complexity of the Church’s role during this period, as well as the ideological battle lines between liberal reformers and religious institutions.

Consider the following as you analyze these sources:

• What does Lucas Aleman’s argument that Catholicism serves as the “only common bond” uniting Mexicans suggest about the role of religion in national identity and stability?
• How does Francisco Bilbao distinguish between the teachings of Jesus and the practices of Catholicism, and what implications does this distinction have for understanding the role of religion in the subordination of women and citizens?
• In what ways does Bilbao argue that the union between the clergy and monarchy perpetuates systems of control and subjugation, and how does this connect to the broader critique of tradition versus free thought?

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Lucas Aleman (1853)

First and foremost is the need to preserve the Catholic religion, because we believe in it and because even if we did not hold it to be divine, we consider it to be the only common bond that links all Mexicans when all the others have been broken; it is the only thing capable of sustaining the Spanish-American race and of delivering it from the great dangers to which it is exposed. We also consider it necessary to maintain the ceremonial splendour of the Church, as well as its temporal properties, and to settle everything relating to ecclesiastical administration with the Pope.

Francisco Bilbao, Chilean Sociability (1844)

America came from Spain and carries her stamp; the Spanish past on American soil brings us to Chile. Let us quickly review the relations that the Catholic Church sanctions with regard to the state, the customs, and the philosophy of the time in which we live. There is no doubt that
Christianity was a major advance in the religious rehabilitation of men; but Catholicism . . . reacted with hostility to the primitive purity of the doctrine of Jesus. Under Catholicism, women are subordinated to their husbands. The result is the slavery of women. Paul, the primary founder of Catholicism, did not follow the moral religion of Jesus Christ. Jesus emancipated women. Paul subordinated them. Jesus was Western in his spirit, that is to say, liberal. Paul was oriental and authoritarian. Jesus founded a democratic religion, Paul an ecclesiastical aristocracy. From there originates the logical consequence of the slavery of women.

When individuals are subordinated to authority, the result is the slavery of citizens. “Obey the
authorities,” says Saint Paul. A diplomatic principle in origin, it began so as to avoid the persecution of pagan authorities and was converted later into an active instrument of subjugation. This also explains the union that has almost always existed between the clergy and the Catholic monarchies. Monarchy is a government of divine or heroic tradition, of privilege or authority; of course it needs the aid of religion. The clergy dominate individual citizens and obstruct free analysis and free thought, which are the enemies of tradition. The clergy, for its part, needs the aid of earthly power for the creation and maintenance of its private interests, for the persecution of heresy. How clearly the logic of the French Revolution appears now. The people, free individuals, free analysis, the present cut loose from the past. Bury the monarchy, the clergy, and the nobility; bury the Catholic synthesis of the past. When thought is chained to the text and intelligence molded by beliefs the result is slavery of the mind. Education, logically, was entrusted to the convents. This also explains the predominance of Aristotle in the Middle Ages. Aristotle was logic then. One could only deduce from given principles.

Simón Bolivar (1783-1830) is considered to be one of the greatest leaders of Latin American
independence movements. Even so, Bolívar faced numerous challenges to consolidate
independence and the aftermath of creating a strong nation-state. Although influenced by
the Enlightenment and the age of Atlantic Revolutions, in the end Bolívar believed that an
authoritarian government was the only way possible to bring success to the newly formed states of Latin America. Consider the following questions as you read the selections below taken from Bolívar’s writings.

• What solutions did Bolívar provide to address these challenges?
• What challenges did post-independence Latin America (Venezuela) face?
• What kept leaders from achieving the goals of independence?
• What caused these challenges?

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The Cartagena Manifesto: Memorial Addressed to the Citizens of New Granada by a
Citizen from Caracas (1812)

The doctrine behind this conduct had its origin in the philanthropic maxims of certain writers
who defend the idea that no one has the right to take the life of a human being, even one who has committed the crime of treason against the State. Shielded by this pious doctrine, each
conspiracy was followed by a pardon, and each pardon by another conspiracy, subsequently
pardoned, because, you know, liberal governments feel obliged to distinguish themselves by the quality of mercy. But this is a criminal mercy that contributed more than anything else to the destruction of the machine we had not yet finished building! This was the source of the
determined opposition to the practice of calling up veteran troops, disciplined and capable of
appearing on the field of battle, fully trained and ready to defend freedom with success and
glory. Instead, countless poorly disciplined militias were established, which had the effect not
only of exhausting the national treasury with exorbitant salaries but also of destroying
agriculture, tearing the farm workers away from their farms, and turning the government into an object of hatred, because it forced them to take up arms and abandon their families. But what most weakened the government of Venezuela was the federalist structure it adopted, embodying the exaggerated notion of the rights of man. By stipulating that each man should rule himself, this idea undermines social pacts and constitutes nations in a state of anarchy. Such was the true state of the confederation. Each province governed itself independently, and following this example, each city claimed equal privilege, citing the practice of the provinces and the theory that all men and all peoples have the right to institute whatever form of government they choose. The federal system, although it is the most perfect and the most suitable for guaranteeing human happiness in society, is, notwithstanding, the form most inimical to the interests of our emerging states. Generally speaking, our fellow citizens are not yet ready to take on the full and independent exercise of their rights, because they lack the political virtues marking the true citizen of a republic. Such virtues are impossible to attain in absolutist governments, where there is no training in the rights or duties of citizenship.

“Letter from Jamaica,” Simón Bolívar (1815)

The role of the inhabitants of the American hemisphere has for centuries been purely passive. Politically they were nonexistent. We have been harassed by a conduct which has not only deprived us of our rights but has kept us in a sort of permanent infancy with regard to public affairs. If we could at least have managed our domestic affairs and our internal administration, we could have acquainted ourselves with the processes and mechanics of public affairs. More than anyone, I desire to see America fashioned into the greatest nation in the world, greatest not so much by virtue of her area and wealth as by her freedom and glory. Although I seek perfection for the government of my country, I cannot persuade myself that the New World can, at the moment, be organized as a great republic. . . . The American states need the care of paternal governments to heal the sores and wounds of despotism and war. It is a grandiose idea to think of consolidating the New World into a single nation, united by pacts into a single bond. It is reasoned that, as these parts have a common origin, language, customs, and religion, they ought to have a single government to permit the newly formed states to unite in a confederation. But this is not possible. Actually, climatic differences, geographic diversity, conflicting interests, and dissimilar characteristics separate America. Undoubtedly, unity is what we need to complete our project of regeneration. However, our division is not surprising, for such is the nature of civil wars, usually fought between two factions: conservatives and reformers. Generally, the former are more numerous, because the rule of custom inclines us to obedience to established powers; the latter are always less numerous but more passionate and enlightened. In this way physical mass is balanced by moral force, so that the conflict is prolonged, and the results are uncertain.

“Address at the Congress of Angostura,” Simón Bolívar (1819)

We are not Europeans; we are not Indians; we are but a mixed species of aborigines and
Spaniards. Americans by birth and Europeans by law, we find ourselves engaged in a dual
conflict: we are disputing with the natives for titles of ownership, and at the same time we are
struggling to maintain ourselves in the country that gave us birth against the opposition of the invaders. Thus our position is most extraordinary and complicated. But there is more. As our role has always been strictly passive and political existence nil, we find that our quest for liberty is now even more difficult of accomplishment; for we, having been placed in a state lower than slavery, had been robbed not only of our freedom but also of the right to exercise an active domestic tyranny. . . . We have been ruled more by deceit than by force, and we have been degraded more by vice than by superstition. Slavery is the daughter of darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction. Ambition and intrigue abuses the credulity and experience of men lacking all political, economic, and civic knowledge; they adopt pure illusion as reality; they take license for liberty, treachery for patriotism, and vengeance for justice. If a people, perverted by their training, succeed in achieving their liberty, they will soon lose it, for it would be of no avail to endeavor to explain to them that happiness consists in the practice of virtue; that the rule of law is more powerful than the rule of tyrants, because, as the laws are more inflexible, everyone should submit to their beneficent austerity; that proper morals, and not force, are the bases of law; and that to practice justice is to practice liberty. Therefore, let the entire system of government be strengthened, and let the balance of power be drawn up in such a manner that it will be permanent and incapable of decay because of its own tenuity. Precisely because no form of government is so weak as the democratic, its framework must be firmer, and its institutions must be studied to determine their degree of stability…unless this is done, we will have to reckon with an ungovernable, tumultuous, and anarchic society, not with a social order where happiness, peace, and justice prevail.

The following source focuses on María de Huancavelica, a free black woman living in
Lima, Peru. Believing her life was coming to an end, she had a public notary draw up a will
specifying how here possessions were to be distributed. Quantitative data has shown that
free black women such as María vastly outnumbered free black men in Lima. As a result of this, women such as María participated in many economic facets of Lima and were able to amass wealth. Documentation such as this will allows historians to gain a glimpse of life, death, and gender in colonial Lima. Consider the following questions as you analyze this source:

• Does the testament indicate that María de Huancavelica committed to Christianity?
• How did María de Huancavelica secure her personal wealth?
• How does María de Huancavelica wish her wealth to be distributed?
• What insights does this testament give of the lives of free black women in colonial Lima?

Complete the Primary Source Analysis Form when finished for your records.

Source: McKnight, Kathryn Joy; Garofalo, Leo J.. Afro-Latino Voices: Narratives from the Early Modern Ibero-Atlantic World, 1550-1812. Hackett Publishing.

Free Black Woman of the Folupa Nation, Lima, 1666] In the name of God, amen, in whose
beginning all things have their just, praiseworthy, and fortunate end: Know, those who read this last will and testament, that I, María de Huancavelica, a free black woman of the Folupa nation, native of Ethiopia in Guinea, resident of the City of Kings [Lima] in Peru, daughter of unknown parents, being sick in bed of an illness that Our Lord God has seen fit to give me and believing as I firmly and truly believe in the mystery of the most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons in one true God, and in all the rest that the Holy Mother Roman Catholic Church believes, confesses, and teaches, under whose faith and belief I have lived and I profess to live and die as a Catholic Christian, and fearful of death, which is consubstantial to all human creatures, I hereby make and declare my last will and testament in the following way and form:

First of all, I entrust my soul to Our Lord God, who created it and redeemed it with the infinite
price of his blood, and my body shall return to the dust from which it was formed. Item. I want
and it is my will that, once Our Lord sees fit to take me from this present life, my body be buried in the Convent of Saint Francis in this city or in the place that my executors deem most appropriate, and that my body be shrouded with the habit of Saint Francis to earn the graces and indulgences that it brings, and a presiding cross, priest, and sacristan from my parish accompany my burial. And with regard to the rest of the retinue and details of my burial, I leave them to the discretion of my executors, and I order that the day of my burial, or if not, the day deemed appropriate by my executors, a funeral Mass be celebrated with my body present that includes offerings of bread and wine, and it must be done as is customary and paid for from my estate. Item. I set aside from my estate two pesos to pay for the customary and obligatory alms. Item. I order ten pesos of eight reales to pay the ransom of captive children in Moorish lands, and it must come from a legitimate part of my estate. Item. I order another ten pesos to be sent to the Holy Sites of Jerusalem where our Holy Redemption took place and to be given to the priest who asks for these alms. Item. I declare that I do not owe anything. I declare it so that there is no doubt. Item. I declare as my assets the following: Item. I declare that the laborer Juan de Villegas Álvarez owes me two thousand pesos of eight reales according to a notarized document that I have among my papers. I declare it so that there may be no doubt. Item. I declare that Antonio Carabalí owes me 350 pesos of eight reales that I lent him for his manumission. I pardon and forgive what I lent him for his freedom so that nothing more is asked of him, and in the same way, I implore my executors not to ask anything more of him because such is my will. Item. I declare that Jacinta of the Folupa nation owes me four hundred pesos of eight reales of the eight hundred pesos that I lent her for her manumission.

I order that the four hundred still owed be collected, and nothing additional. Item. I declare as my slave María, of the Folupa nation, and I order and it is my will that after my death she be
manumitted, and she needs only this clause and my death to obtain her freedom, without
collection of any payment nor the writing of any other document, and this is my will because of how well she has served me. [I declare as my slave] María, of the Mandinga nation, and I order and it is my will that she be freed and my executors give her the deed of manumission upon payment by her or by any other person of three hundred pesos of eight reales, and that she must not be sold for more than the said amount and, in the meantime until she can pay the full amount of three hundred pesos for her freedom, I want her to pay only four pesos of eight reales of wages each month to my executors, and this I order. [I declare as my slave] Ambrosio Folupo, and I order and it is my will that upon his payment of three hundred pesos of eight reales, he be freed and my executors give him the deed of manumission and that he must not be sold for more than the said amount, and, in the meantime, until he can pay the full amount, he will be obligated to pay to my executors four pesos of eight reales of wages each month. [I declare as my slave] Antón Folupo, and I order and it is my will that upon his payment of two hundred fifty pesos of eight reales, he be freed and my executors give him the deed of manumission, and he cannot be sold for an amount above the stated two hundred fifty pesos, and, in the meantime until he can pay the full amount, he will be obligated to pay four pesos of eight reales of wages each month. [I declare as my slave] Susana Folupa, and I order and it is my will that upon her payment of two hundred pesos of eight reales for my burial she be freed and that my executors give her the deed of manumission and that she should not be sold for more. Item. I declare two small double-handled bowls [or cups] of silver, a box from Panamá, a trunk, and the clothing that will be made clear in the inventory. Item. I declare that [I have] a skirt and a shawl of black flannel, a skirt of silk, and a bodice of [illegible] that belongs to Rafaela Zapata and one hundred and five pesos of eight reales that also belong to her. I want my executors to return all these things to her and that she give them either a written receipt or that the transaction be done in front of a notary. Item. I declare that María of the Congo nation is indebted to me in a certain amount of pesos. I order that only fifty pesos of eight reales be collected from her, and I forgive her the rest on the condition that she pray for me to God. Item. I declare that I owe Manuel Espadero, a black man, a total of thirty-five pesos of eight reales, the remainder of some reales that his deceased wife, María Folupa, gave to me. I order that he be paid this amount and also that he be given some bracelets made of coral and a small box, and he must give a receipt for it. And to fulfill and pay for this testament and the bequests and legacies in it, I leave and name as my executors my confessor, the licentiate Juan [Zapata de Henao?], presbyter, and Gracia de la Paz, of the Folupa nation, [and] as the trustee, the said Gracia Folupa. And I grant them power as executors to organize, sell, and resolve my estate at public auction or otherwise, in order to fulfill and pay for this last will and testament and its bequests, and I also grant them all the time they may require to do so even if it exceeds the year that the law concedes. Item. I declare that Miguel Folupo gave to me thirty-three pesos to safeguard. I order that it be paid back to him from my assets. Item. I declare that Simón Folupa gave me twenty pesos to safeguard, and I order that it be paid back to him from my assets. Item. I declare that I bought a black woman, María Folupa, at a price of 350 pesos as certified in writing by Francisco de Acuña, royal notary, from a parda woman named María de Bilbao who assists at the hospital of Saint Bartholomew, and I declare that the said slave belongs to Juliana Folupa, who gave me the money for this transaction, and I declare it for the unburdening of my conscience. Item. I declare that I have in my possession a double-handled bowl [or cup] and a silver spoon belonging to Susana Folupa that she gave me to safeguard. I order that it be returned to her. And I leave and name my soul as heir of whatever assets, debts, rights, and actions might remain from the liquidation of my estate, and it is my wish that this money be used to establish a chaplaincy, which should be founded by the licentiate Juan [Zapata de Henao?], my executor and confessor, whom I leave as its patron and chaplain. And he is allowed to name his successor after he dies, and he can establish the alms to be given for each Mass according to what I have communicated to him, and this chaplaincy must be established after I die, and no judge should interfere because this is my will, and he can establish all the necessary clauses according to his judgment because I do not have any heirs who can inherit my estate. Item. I order that twelve pesos of eight reales be sent to the Hospital of Saint Bartholomew. Item. I order that six pesos of eight reales be sent to the Sweet Name of Jesus against Blasphemies. Item. I order that twelve pesos of eight reales be sent for the rearing of the orphan children on the condition that they accompany my body the day of my burial. Item. I declare that I have in reales a total of nine hundred pesos of eight reales, more or less, and the exact amount will be determined in the inventory. I hereby revoke all former wills and testamentary dispositions of every nature and kind heretofore made by me in word or in writing or in any other way and I do not want them to be valid nor can they be used in or outside court, except for this one that I now declare as my testament, and I want it to be carried out and executed as my last will in the way that best follows the law. And I testify that this testament is done in the City of Kings [Lima] of Peru, the sixth day of the month of January of the year 1666. And the testator, whom, I, the notary, certify that I know, seemed to be in complete possession of her judgment and natural memory, judging from her answer to the questions that I asked her, and this is what she ordered, and she did not sign it because she said that she did not know how to write, and at her request a witness signed it.

The Portuguese focused their early economic efforts in Brazil in the northeast coastland. It was extremely fertile and conducive to the growing of sugarcane. A plantation economy would dominate this region. Individuals appointed to settle early Brazil did so with an iron fist. Once such a person was Duarte Coelho who established the captaincy of Pernambuco. Consider the following questions as your read the selections below:

• What was the population composition like under Coelho’s leadership?
• Who posed a threat to the colonization efforts of Coelho?
• How did Coelho secure his personal wealth?
• What was the outcome for many of the colonizers that migrated to Pernambuco?

Complete the Primary Source Analysis Form when finished for your records.

Gabriel Soares de Souza, On the Exploits of Duarte de Coelho (1587)

The town of Olinda is the capital of the captaincy of Pernambuco, which was settled by Duarte Coelho, a gentleman of whose courage and chivalry I shall not speak here in detail, for the books that deal with India are full of his deeds. After Duarte Coelho returned from India to Portugal to seek a reward for his services, he sought and obtained from His Highness the grant of a captaincy on this coast; this grant began at the mouth of the São Francisco River in the northwest and ran fifty leagues up the coast toward the captaincy of Tamaracá, ending at the Igaruçu River. . . . Since this brave captain was always disposed to perform great feats, he determined to come in person to settle and conquer this, his captaincy. He arrived there with a fleet of ships that he had armed at his own cost, in which he brought his wife and children and many of their kinsmen, and other settlers. With this fleet he made port at the place called Pernambuco, which in the native language means “hidden sea,” because of a rock nearby that is hidden in the sea. Arriving at this port, Duarte Coelho disembarked and fortified himself as well as he could on a high point free of any dominating peaks, where the town is today. There he built a strong tower, which still stands in the town square, and for many years he waged war against the natives and the French who fought at their side. Frequently he was besieged and badly wounded, with the loss of many of his people, but he courageously persisted in his aim, and not only defended himself bravely but attacked his enemies so effectively that they abandoned the neighboring lands. Later his son, of the same name, continued to wage war on them, harassing and capturing these people, called Cayté, until they had abandoned the whole coast and more than fifty leagues in the interior. In these labors Duarte spent many thousands of cruzados that he had acquired in India, and this money was really well spent, for today his son Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho enjoys an income of ten thousand cruzados, which he obtains from the retithe, from his tithe of the fishing catch, and from the quit rent paid him by the sugar-mills (fifty of these have been established in Pernambuco, and they produce so much sugar that the tithes on it yield nineteen thousand cruzados a year). This town of Olinda must have about seven hundred householders, but there are many more within the limits of the town, since from twenty to thirty people live on each of these plantations, aside from the many who live on farms. Hence if it were necessary to assemble these people with arms, they could place in the field more than three thousand fighting men, together with the inhabitants of the town of Cosmos, which must have four hundred mounted men. These people could bring from their estates four or five thousand Negro slaves and many Italians. This captaincy is so prosperous that there are more than a hundred men in it who have an income of from one to five thousand cruzados, and some have incomes of eight to ten thousand cruzados. From this land many men have returned rich to Portugal who came here poor, and every year this captaincy sends forty to fifty ships loaded with sugar and brazilwood; this wood is so profitable to His Majesty that he has lately farmed out the concession for a period of ten years at twenty thousand cruzados a year. It seems to me that such a powerful captaincy, which yields this kingdom such a great store of provisions, should be better fortified, and should not be exposed for a corsair to sack and destroy—which could be prevented with little expense and less labor.