Source Collection: Revolutions and Nationalism
Document 1
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Author |
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) |
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Date and location |
1815, Jamaica |
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Source type |
Primary source—letter |
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Description |
Simón Bolívar, a Venezuelan revolutionary, wrote this letter while exiled in Jamaica. It is a reply to a letter sent to Bolívar by someone in Jamaica. In his response, Bolívar speculated about the future of the independence movement. Inspired by the British parliamentary system, Bolívar called for separate branches of government. |
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Citation |
Bolívar, Simón. “Reply of a South American to a Gentleman of This Island [Jamaica].” In Selected Writings of Bolivar, edited by Harold A. Bierck, Jr., translated by Lewis Bertrand, 103–122. New York: The Colonial Press, Inc., 1951. |
Reply of a South American to a Gentleman of this Island [Jamaica] Kingston, Jamaica, September 6, 1815.
My dear Sir:
With…gratitude I read that passage in your letter…: “I hope that the success which then followed Spanish arms may now turn in favor of…the badly oppressed people of South America…Success will crown our efforts, because the destiny of America has been irrevocably decided; the tie that bound her to Spain has been severed. …
[W]e are threatened with the fear of death, dishonor, and every harm; there is nothing we have not suffered at the hands of …Spain. … We have already seen the light, and it is not our desire to be thrust back into darkness. The chains have been broken; we have been freed, and now our enemies seek to enslave us anew. For this reason America fights desperately, and seldom has desperation failed to achieve victory.…
The role of…the American hemisphere has for centuries been purely passive. Politically…nonexistent.…America was denied…its freedom…Under absolutism there are no recognized limits to the exercise of governmental powers. The will of the great …despotic rulers is the supreme law…
…Although I seek perfection for the government of my country, I cannot persuade myself that the New World can…be organized as a great republic.…
…consolidating the New World into a single nation, united by pacts into a single bond…is not possible. Actually, climatic differences, geographic diversity, conflicting interests, and dissimilar characteristics separate America.…
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Glossary Irrevocably : Unable to be taken back or undone. |
Document 2
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Author |
Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) |
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Date and location |
1847, Brussels and London |
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Source type |
Primary source—political pamphlet |
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Description |
This was commissioned by the Communist League, an international political party. It was written the year before the revolutions of 1848 began. The principles outlined by Engels became the basis of the communist philosophy developed by Engels and his friend Karl Marx (1818–1883), particularly in The Communist Manifesto (1848). |
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Citation |
Engels, Friedrich. The Principles of Communism. Costa Rica: Distribooks International Inc., 2020. |
What were the immediate consequences of the industrial revolution and of the division of society into bourgeoisie and proletariat?
[B]ig industry has…merged all local markets into one market….
…wherever big industries displaced manufacture, the bourgeoisie developed in wealth and power to the utmost and made itself the first class.…
The bourgeoisie annihilated…the aristocracy…destroyed the power of the guildmasters…abolish[ed] guilds and handicraft privileges. In their place, it put competition…the only obstacle being a lack of necessary capital.
…everywhere the proletariat develops…with the bourgeoisie…as the bourgeoisie grows in wealth, the proletariat grows in numbers. …
What will this new social order have to be like?
…it will have to take the control of industry and of all branches of production out of the hands of mutually competing individuals, and instead institute a system in which all these branches of production are operated by society as a whole…for the common account, according to a common plan…with the participation of all members of society.
It will…abolish competition and replace it with association.
Private property must…be abolished and in its place must come the common utilization of instruments of production and distribution of all products according to common agreement…[or] the communal ownership of goods.
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Glossary Bourgeoisie: The class of people who own property, businesses, and wealth. |
Document 3
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Author |
Anonymous Indigenous Americans, mestizos, and creoles |
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Date and location |
c. 1770–1781 in the Andes region |
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Source type |
Primary source—political poems |
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Description |
Pasquinades are poems that criticized colonial authorities—sometimes in crude verse and sometimes publicly. These poems were written sometime in the 1770s but before the insurrection of 1781 in the Andes region of South America, in towns like Cochabamba, Arequipa, Cuzco, and La Paz, where unrest was building. The first pasquinade is against the customhouse official Bernardo Gallo—who was ultimately executed by angry insurrectionists sometime after this poem was written. The second calls for the removal of the king of Spain and his ministers. |
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Citation |
Thomson, Sinclair, Rossana (Barragán Romano) Barragán R., Xavier Albó, Seemin Qayum, and Mark Goodale. The Bolivia Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018. |
Pasquinade 1
Pluck this thieving old gallo [rooster], cut up some juicy morsels, and into the river with him. There’s no feigning ignorance or saying his downfall was sudden, as this is the third warning. Such a shame that many will pay for this thieving scoundrel.
the miserable
conniving
corregidor [mayor]
the Devil take this
cursed fellow,
pluck this evil gallo
these gentlemen
are the thieving
royal officials
and after these will follow those who the nineteenth of this month, are [guilty] and those who are not it will turn out badly for whoever does not defend the patria [nation].
Pasquinade 2
Long live God’s law and the purity of Mary! Death to the king of Spain and may Peru come to an end! For he is the cause of such iniquity. If the monarch knows not the insolence of his ministers, the public larceny, and how they prey upon the poor, long live the king and death to all these public thieves since they will not rectify that which is asked of them. This is the second warning and there is no rectification. We will weep with grief since because of two or three miserable thieves among us many innocent lives will be lost and as much blood will run through streets and squares as the streets of La Paz can hold water! The nineteenth of this month, let him beware who does not defend the creoles.
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Glossary Larceny: Theft. |
Document 4
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Author |
Unknown |
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Date and location |
1857, Aotearoa (New Zealand) |
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Source type |
Primary source—newspaper article |
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Description |
This 1857 article excerpt is from the New Zealand publication The Southern Cross. The excerpts below are, according to the article’s European author, transcriptions of speeches given by three Maori leaders at a meeting he attended. |
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Citation |
“The Native Question.” The Southern Cross, 14:1037 (June 5, 1857): 3. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DSC18570605.2.12#print |
…a crisis in native affairs is coming…a great change is approaching…in the relations between the races. The natives…understand what they want…They are resolved upon making an effort to preserve their existence…as a race…[and] a nation…
…the main points [of the speeches] have been…preserved.
Paora:…I see no reason why any nation should not have a king…The Gospel does not say that we are not to have a king. It says, “Honor the king—Love the brotherhood.” Why should the Queen be angry? We shall be in alliance with her…The Governor does not stop murders and fights…A king will be able to do that. Let us have order so that we may grow as the [Europeans] grow. Why should we disappear from the country? New Zealand is ours; I love it.
Takirau: friendship…applies to both sides. Our king will be friendly with the Queen. Their flags will be tied together.…If I asked the Queen to leave her throne I should be wrong; but all I ask is that the dignity which now rests on her should rest on our king.…
Wiremu Te Awaitaia:…I promised the first Governor…and I promised all the rest, that I would stick…to him, and be a subject of the Queen. I intend to keep my promise, for they have kept theirs…Why do you bring that new flag here?…I am content with the old one. It is seen all over the world, and it belongs to me. I get some of its honor!
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Glossary Dignity: A sense of worth and importance. |
Document 5
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Author |
Lola Rodriguez de Tió (1843–1924) |
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Date and location |
1868, Puerto Rico |
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Source type |
Primary source—poem/lyrics |
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Description |
Lola Rodríguez de Tió was a Puerto Rican-born poet who ardently promoted women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, and the independence of Puerto Rico. “The Borinqueña 1868” is a patriotic poem she wrote. Some see the poem as the song lyrics to an Indigenous dance. The poem was also used as lyrics to the music that would later become the Puerto Rican national anthem; however, these lyrics were deemed too subversive and were replaced by lyrics that were seen as less confrontational. |
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Citation |
de Tió, Lola Rodríguez. “The Borinqueña, 1868.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_Rodr%C3%ADguez_de_Ti%C3%B3 |
Arise, Puerto Rican!
The call to arms has sounded!
Awake from this dream,
for it is time to fight!
Doesn’t this patriotic call
set your heart alight?
Come! We will be in tune
with the roar of the cannon.
Come, the Cubans
will soon be free;
the machete will give him his
liberty.
Now the war drum
says with its sound,
that the countryside is the place
of the meeting...
of the meeting.
The Cry of Lares
must be repeated,
and then we will know:
victory or death.
Beautiful Puerto Rico
must follow Cuba;
you have brave sons
who wish to fight.
Now, no longer
can we be unmoved;
now we do not want timidly
to let them subjugate us.
We want
to be free now,
and our machete
has been sharpened.
Why then have we
been so sleepy
and deaf
to the call?
There is no need to fear, Puerto Ricans,
the roar of the cannon;
saving the motherland
is the duty of the heart.
We no longer want despots,
may the tyrant fall now;
the unconquerable women
also will know how to fight.
We want liberty,
and our machetes
will give it to us...
and our machetes
will give it to us...
Come, Puerto Ricans,
come now,
for freedom awaits us
anxiously,
freedom, freedom!
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Glossary Subjugate: To bring people under control by force. |
Document 6
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Author |
Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872) |
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Date and location |
1832, Italy |
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Source type |
Primary source—oath |
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Description |
After uprisings in Italy in 1830–1831 failed, Giuseppe Mazzini rose as the leader of the movement for Italian nationhood. In 1831, he established Young Italy, a political movement for Italian youth, with the aim of creating a united Italian republic. This passage is an excerpt from the oath (a solemn promise made in front of witnesses) that the members were required to take. |
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Citation |
Mazzini, Guiseppe. Joseph Mazzini: His Life, Writings, and Political Principles. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1872. http://www.pitt.edu/~syd/mazz.html |
Young Italy is a brotherhood of Italians who believe in…Progress and Duty…They join this association…to the great aim of reconstituting Italy as one independent sovereign nation of free men and equals. …
In the name of all the martyrs of the holy Italian cause who have fallen beneath foreign and domestic tyranny. . .
I, … believing in the mission entrusted by God to Italy, and the duty of every Italian to strive to attempt its fulfillment; convinced that where God has ordained that a nation shall be, He has given the requisite power to create it; that the people are the depositaries of that power… I give my name…and swear: To dedicate myself wholly and forever to the endeavor with them to constitute Italy one and free, independent, republican nation; to promote by every means in my power—…the education of my Italian brothers towards the aim of Young Italy; towards association.. and to virtue, … to abstain from enrolling myself in any other association…to obey all the instructions…of Young Italy, given me by those who represent with me the union of my Italian brothers; and to keep secret of these instructions, even at the cost of my life; to assist my brothers of the association both by action and counsel…This is I do swear, invoking upon my head the wrath of God, the abhorrence of man, and the infamy of the perjurer, if I ever betray the whole or a part of this my oath.
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Glossary Requisite: Required. |
Document 7
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Author |
Georgina Mary Muir Sebright (1833–1874) and Adelina Paulina Irby (1831–1911) |
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Date and location |
1866, Europe |
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Source type |
Primary source—travelogue |
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Description |
Georgina Muir Mackenzie was an English Balkan sympathizer, writer, and traveler. Adeline Paulina Irby was a British travel writer and suffragette who founded an early girls’ school in Sarajevo and organized relief for thousands of refugees. This book documents their travels in the Balkans and describes the situation of Balkan nationalism. Mackenzie and Irby's book went to a second edition as the Serb Christian population revolted against Ottoman rule starting the year after Mackenzie died. |
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Citation |
Sebright, Georgina Mary Muir and Adelina Paulina Irby. Travels in the Slavonic provinces of Turkey-in-Europe. London: Daldy, Isbister & Co., 1877. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bosnia/afg3177.0001.001/1:48?rgn=div1;view=fulltext |
It seems that of [the Slavonic tribes] descendants remain to the present day the Slavonic Bulgarians, and the Slovenes…both these peoples regard themselves as older tenants of the south Danubian regions than the Croato-Serbs, whose settlement intervenes between them; and their dialects…show more resemblance to the most ancient written form of Slavonic speech than is presented by the Serbian…
In spite of all imperfections and weaknesses, she had shown herself… able to hold her own, and to keep pace with the age. … It was the misfortune of Serbia, that while still in the unsettled and uncentralized condition common to most European states in the middle ages, she should be exposed to a tremendous shock…which she came in for on account of her position right in the line of the [Muslim] wave. … Even when the Turk could not complete his conquests, he forced the assaulted nations to relinquish every object in life except that of a struggle for freedom…during which…their resources were exhausted and their infant civilisation destroyed. …
The Serbians, as a nation, can hardly, however, have been demoralized…they preserved their simple manners, and to this day the family tie is held far more sacred among them and the Bulgarians than among any other races…
A glance at the districts still ruled by Turkey…shows us at the present day [1867] ruins and poverty, lack of communications, lack of cultivation, life and property far from secure, and all classes hating the Government and each other.
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Glossary Relinquish: Give up. |