PART THREE

INDEPENDENCE FOR SOME

 

NEWLY INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES

The people of Mexico and South America rose up against Spain’s colonial empire, gaining independence. By now, most of the people of the region we refer to as Latin America were mestizos, a mixture of Indigenous, African, and Spanish ancestry.

In these new republics, enslaved Africans were freed. Only Puerto Rico and other Spanish colonies in the Caribbean had not yet gained independence and the abolition of slavery.

Despite the oppression and suffering brought by colonization, ordinary people struggled to remain strong and hopeful.