World History/ World History/ GeographyGeography

World History/ World History/ GeographyGeography

Latin America Class SystemLatin America Class System

Class Systems of Latin America

• Essential Question:– What social classes developed in Latin America?

• Criterion A: Knowledge– Demonstrate subject content knowledge and understanding through

the use of descriptions and explanations, supported by relevant facts and examples, and may show other ways of knowing.

• Task:– Using the book (Pages 464-465), create a

visual representation of the class system in place throughout the colonies.

– Be sure to include descriptions, explanations, and facts surrounding the different classes.

What should be included

• Peninsulares• Creoles• Mestizos• Native Americans• Free Blacks• Slaves• What role does the Roman Catholic

Church play in the class system?

How does all of this lead to independence?

• Example: Haiti– Leader

• Toussaint L’Ouverture• Self-educated former slave,

organized the rebels into a effective fighting force

Background• French ruled Haiti provided huge

profits for a few French families who owned sugar plantations

• Most Natives lived as slaves• When the French revolution began

(in France) the white settlers of Haiti began calling for independence

Slaves want freedom• 1791 slaves rebelled, burned the

sugar cane fields and killed hundreds of slave owners.

• The uprising set off a 13 year civil war, killing many on both sides.

France wants its sugar back

• When Napoleon took power in France he wanted to reclaim the rich sugar plantations, so he sent the French army to Haiti.

• L’Ouverture urged Haitians to fight to the death against the invaders.

L’Ourverture captured• He was captured and sent to prison

in France where he died in 1803.• Meanwhile many of the French

soldiers died of yellow fever and the rest fled in fear of the disease

• Haiti gains independence in 1804, the first in Latin America.

Implications• Haiti’s revolution frightened other

Creoles in Latin America. They wanted independence but not to upset the social order.