2018 and History

Some Gilets jaunes protesters

2018 is coming to a close and 2019 is soon to arrive. Over this last year we have seen many events occur which find their origin in history, as well as anniversaries of major events which shaped the world that we live in today. Of course, so many things have happened across the year so I cannot go over everything, and as my speciality is limited to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries we naturally cannot cover everything. As a result, we'll cover several key events and anniversaries that has happened across the last year.

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa, and the Legacy of Mandela

In February South African president Jacob Zuma resigned in favour of Cyril Ramaphosa. This became even more important with 2018 also see the passing of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and the one-hundredth birthday of Nelson Mandela. Nelson and Winnie were two of the many individuals who took part in the anti-Apartheid protests across South Africa. In 1948 the National Party under Daniel Malan instituted a policy named Apartheid which legally separated white South Africans from non-whites. This policy was not entirely new - racial discrimination and segregation existed long before the National Party - but now a government was in power wanting to explicitly expand segregation and prejudice. By the 1970s the government had gone as far as to create the 'Homelands' granting 'independence' to black African peoples in order to strip urban black Africans of their citizenship. Many different organisations emerged in order to oppose Apartheid including the African National Congress (ANC) of which Nelson, and later Winnie, became involved in. In June 1964 Nelson Mandela was put on trial and initially sentenced to death, but this was reduced to life imprisonment. Thanks to the ANC in exile Mandela became an international martyr and attention came onto his activist wife Winnie. Anti-Apartheid activism wasn't just limited to the Mandelas and the ANC - a variety of organisations took part ranging from the Pan-African Congress to the Communist Party. Following Mandela's imprisonment a new generation of activists emerged with new organisations, including Ramaphosa and the National Union of Mineworkers (formed 1982). By the late-1980s the Apartheid state was collapsing: a shift in the economy undermined Apartheid; domestic opposition increased; international sanctions destroyed the South African economy; the state's attempts to preserve Apartheid had destroyed its own economy; and Mandela's imprisonment continued to make him a martyr. February 11 1990 Mandela walked hand-in-hand with Winnie, and four years later the first multi-racial election took place which brought an end to Apartheid and brought Mandela to the presidency.

After a century of racial discrimination, and with the Mandela presidency focusing more on reconciliation than social justice, followed by fifty years of Apartheid had continued to leave South Africa's black population impoverished. Nelson's and Winnie's honesty in politics, as well as strong stance on social justice, had inspired a new generation born after the collapse of Apartheid. This issue was compounded by the intense corruption of the successive ANC governments under Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Amidst a corruption scandal Zuma resigned in favour of Cyril Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa has effectively used the legacy of Mandela by positioning himself as the successor to Mandela in order to rebuild the lost trust in the ANC. Time will tell how if this works out in his favour. 

Korea

Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in crossing the DMZ

Throughout this year relations have been changing between North and South Korea. In March the two Koreas in the Seoul Winter Olympics participated as one team and in April the leaders of the two states met and symbolically crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Following the end of the Second World War and the defeat of the Japanese Empire - which had formally ruled Korea since 1910 - the Korean peninsula had been divided along the 38th parallel. In the North a Marxist-Leninist government was implemented by the Soviet Union under Kim Il-sung while in the South a capitalist government was implemented by the United States under Syngman Rhee. Initially it was intended that the two Koreas would be united but Cold War tensions soon prevented this. Meanwhile, Syngman Rhee and Kim Il-sung both moved to solidify their own position - an uprising of Jeju island was brutally crushed by South forces as an example. Both wished to unify the peninsula and war broke out in 1950 as the North invaded the South. Kim's forces found quick success and almost succeeded in conquering the South until a US-led coalition with UN support landed. Initially the plan was meant to push the North back across the 38th parallel but unexpected success emboldened the US who now wanted to directly pushback communism. This made the newly declared People's Republic of China fearful that this would embolden them to push into China so the People's Liberation Army crossed the Yalu River. Chinese forces pushed the UN forces back and three years of stalemate followed costing the lives of 2.5 million Korean civilians. A peace treaty was signed at Panmunjom between all the combatants except for the two Koreas - to this day North and South Korea technically remain in a state of war. Currently the DMZ remains heavily guarded and is one of the most fortified regions in the world.

Since 1953 relations between the two states have not improved. Kim Il-sung and Syngman Rhee ruled in Pyongyang and Seoul respectively in two authoritarian regimes. One a Marxist-Leninist authoritarian regime, the other a capitalist authoritarian regime, meant that unification became a distant memory - even when South Korea became a multi-party democracy in 1987. Relations remained sour between the two states since 1987, especially thanks to continued American presence in the South and the North's testing of nuclear weapons in 2006. A regular occurrence since then is that the North tests weapons causing the South to adopt more recalcitrant positions which in turn causes the North to test more weapons. Earlier this year there seems to be a break in this trend - 2019 might see relations improve, or this thaw come to an end.

100 Years since the end of World War One

Londoners celebrating the end of World War I

This November saw 100 years since the end of the First World War - one of the most brutal and destructive conflicts in human history. The assassination of heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, on June 28 1914 in Sarajevo led to the European powers declaring war on one another - France, Britain, and Russia on one side (the Entente), and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other (the Central Powers). Immediately it became a world war - British and German troops first fought one another in West Africa and their fleets quickly did battle at the Falkland Islands. Britain's Dominions - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa - were brought into the war and Britain's alliance with Japan (as well as Japanese interests in China and the Pacific) brought it into the war. The Ottoman Empire, angered by Britain and France intervening in its affairs, joined the Central Powers as Italy unexpectedly went against its alliance with the Central Powers to join the Entente. By 1917 a stalemate had occurred and support for the war, which was very popular in 1914, had started to waver. The Central Powers even at this stage seemed to be in a position to see victory - revolution broke out in Russia in March bringing down the tsarist regime and in November a second revolution brought Russia out of the war. However, US entry into the war the same year made Germany fearful of American power accompanied by the slow disintegration of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian armies thanks to ethnic divisions. The Ludendorff Offensive aimed to quickly knock out France before US troops and resources to arrive to reinforce the Entente - it almost succeeded but doing so weakened the German lines, cost them their best soldiers, and depleted their resources. Soon enough the Central Powers collapsed and November 11 1918 a ceasefire was declared. After four years of fighting over 16 million were dead, a flu outbreak devastated the world, and soon enough conflict began once again. The war changed the world as we knew it - empires collapsed, the tragedy of the violence caused a demographic change, and new politics emerged. These legacies remain hotly debated today. In Britain the poppy has become a symbol of remembrance and in recent years has become subject to debates on national identity. Activist and World War Two RAF pilot Harry Leslie Smith, who tragically passed this November, wrote on Twitter: 'Instead of wearing a poppy for #Remembrance2018 we should wear our shame because as a human race we've learned nothing since 1918.' Wars are currently destroying Syria, Yemen and Iraq funded by Euro-American governments - we have to ask ourselves, have we learnt anything since 1918?

Meiji - 150 Years On

150 years ago one of the most important events in Japanese history took place. Japan for centuries had been ruled by shoguns - to summarise samurai warlords - with the emperor as a puppet. Then in 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry forcibly opened Japan to foreign affairs leading to a series of treaties - named the Unequal Treaties - which exploited Japan. Young samurai from Choshu and Satsuma were angered by the shogunate's seemingly lack of action and bowing down to foreign demands so in April 1868 they issued the Charter Oath. They vowed to 'restore' the emperor to power and fight back against foreign exploitation. The shogunate was overthrown, the emperor 'restored' (he remained very much a figurehead), and a process of 'modernisation' began. Japanese rulers knew that they had to reform society in order not to be conquered by Europe, but they debated how much society had to be changed. The old samurai order was abolished but should they allow capitalists? They looked to Europe and America for inspiration but how much inspiration should they take from the West? Within a generation Japan had become an industrialised imperial empire but these debates continued. Some have suggested that the bombings of Pearl Harbor, and later Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had their roots in the Meiji Restoration. It in undeniable that the era of the Meiji Reformers greatly shaped the future Japan. Recently, the emperor, Akihito, had announced that he plans to abdicate in 2019 - the first emperor to abdicate in centuries - and Akihito's reign had been involved in dealing with the legacies of pre-war, and wartime, Japan. He has repeatedly criticised the government's refusal to acknowledge war crimes throughout the Japanese Empire as well as readily accepting that he was to be a mortal and a figurehead - something his father Hirohito struggled to come to terms with.

1848-1968-2018

Since November in France we have seen the Gilets jaunes protests which have attracted over 300,000 participants. Emmanuel Macron's proposed fuel tax would have affected ordinary French citizens much more than the big companies who contribute most to climate change - wearing yellow vests protesters met in Paris and soon other grievances came to attention. Thanks to Macron's unpopularity, his approval rating is below 25%, the Gilets jaunes has attracted support from across the political spectrum. These protests have been France's largest since 1968. Across the world in 1968 we saw widespread protests: there was a spike in anti-Apartheid protests across the world; Catholics protested against discrimination in Northern Ireland; the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia broke out against harsh Soviet rule; students in Mexico, West Germany, the US, and UK clashed with police; race riots broke out in the US due to the assassination of Martin Luther King; and there were protests against military rule in Brazil, Pakistan, and Franco's rule in Spain. French students also protested in May 1968 which dwarfed that of the Gilets jaunes. Students and their teachers initially protested against harsh treatment of students by the police which expanded to target consumerism, capitalism, and American imperialism. Soon workers became involved with various wildcat strikes - 11 million workers ended up taking part in the protests. Communists and socialists became heavily involved but there were deep divisions among the left; the protesters adopted Maoist and libertarian socialist thought, although some protested for the imagery and not the ideals. Students jokingly said that Jimi Hendrix was leading their protest and graffiti read 'Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho' (I am a Marxist - Groucho tendency). The 1968 even created fears that there might be another revolution and caused a quick election. Just over a century before that Paris, and Europe, saw a major revolution.

1848 saw a series of revolutions sweep over Europe beginning in Paris which has since been called the 'Springtime of Peoples'. Crop failures deeply affected the poorest and when you're hungry you begin seeing the faults in society. Royal absolutism, power of the nobility, and serfdom created disaffected working, and middle, classes which led to revolution in 1848. In January a failed revolt broke out in Sicily but the most important one broke out in Paris in February. Discontent was growing over Louis Philippe's power, a limited franchise, and economic disparities. Paris was also home to major socialist thinkers including Louis Blanc and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - one of the first and major anarchist thinkers. Revolt broke out in Paris and soon swept across Europe where they got support from different peoples over different ideas. Liberalism, socialism, and nationalism were hotly debated across Europe. It was during the revolts that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto. In the short-term the revolts failed. There were deep rural-urban divides, clashes between national identities, and fearing socialists moderates ended up siding with conservative forces. In France the Second Republic was declared which was soon brought to an end via a coup in 1851 by Louis Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon, who declared himself Napoleon III. However, in the future the reforms that were passed thanks to the revolts, and the impact of the revolts helped bring about what the revolutionaries of 1848 hoped to get themselves.

Karl Marx - 200 Years On

This February we saw 150 years since the publishing of The Communist Manifesto as well as the 200th birthday of Karl Marx in May. Inspired by a variety of writers, most notably Hegel, Marx as a journalist caught the attention of the Prussian government, and later governments of states including France, for his radical socialist views. To briefly summarise Marx's views he was a proponent of dialectical materialism - where two opposing ideas clash which transforms or dissolves them. He also was a proponent of historical materialism - looking at how human societies develop over time and comparing societies based on these developments. Marx and Engels also argued for socialism; they praised capitalism for mechanisation and destroying feudalism but they also viewed it as exploiting workers who they saw as the true wealth producers. The ideas of Marx would go on to inspire thousands through history ranging from political thinkers like Vladimir Lenin and Angela Davis to artists like Pablo Picasso and Hayao Miyazaki. 

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Left to Right: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko

This year we saw the unfortunate passing of two of the major cultural creators of the twentieth century - Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Lee and Ditko were two of the heavyweights at Marvel comics and together the two created Spider-Man and his entire mythos. With Jack Kirby Lee ended up creating most of Marvel's major characters including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Dr Doom, and Ant-Man. Before Lee, Ditko, and Kirby came along comic book heroes were meant to be flawless individuals that young people could look up to and be inspired by - to this day Superman is still referred to as 'the big blue boy scout'. Marvel came along and made heroes real - they had money and family problems, they failed, got mad, had arguments, and struggled with their own power. Marvel was also keen to reflect reality. Published during the height of the Cold War heroes often clashed with Russian opponents given powers by nuclear weaponry. Stan Lee was a keen supporter of the Civil Rights Movement and was keen to reflect that in X-Men, and Black Panther was one of the first black characters to have their own comic line. Lee and Kirby, less so than the shy and retiring Ditko, put their bold personalities on display - 'Stan's Soapbox' discussed everything from future comics to his support for racial equality. Marvel has since become one of the world's major cultural icons.

Brazil and Bolsonaro

In October far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil. Bolsonaro has stated that he would rather have a dead son than a gay son, that Afro-Brazilians were not 'worth procreation', that the dictatorship should have killed instead of tortured, and that 'not an inch' of the Amazon will be protected. In particular, this year he praised Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet - the same year that the relatives of some of his victims got justice when some of Pinochet's murderers were put on trial. Bolsonaro was a paratrooper in the military during the dictatorship. With this post we'll look more at Brazil's dictatorship rather than how Bolsonaro came to power. In 1964 left-leaning president Joao Goulart began nationalising land, however, Brazil's traditional elite were land owners. During the Cold War, especially following Castro's victory in Cuba in 1959, nationalisation policies were viewed with distrust and even Goulart's moderate reforms were seen as a prelude to a socialist takeover. The military, supported by the US, intervened and ousted Goulart beginning a dictatorship which would last until 1985. Unlike the later Pinochet regime Brazilian military generals kept up a facade of democratic politics; there were two legal parties, the pro-military ARENA and the 'opposition' MDB. There was a joke that the only difference between the parties was one said 'Yes' while the other said 'Yes Sir!'. Torture was a tool widely used by the military - the confirmed people to be murdered was much smaller compared to neighbouring dictatorships thanks to this. Former president Dilma Rousseff was just one person to be tortured and imprisoned during the regime's rule. In 1979 the Amnesty Law was passed - individuals could research human rights abuses if supervised. It was thanks to this law that Brasil: Nunca Mais, a book detailing all the human rights abuses, was written and later published shortly after the dictatorship fell. However, at the same time the Amnesty Law allowed human rights abusers to be immune to prosecution if they testified.

In 1985 the military fell but the impact it had lasts in Brazil. It took until 2014 for an investigation to happen about the human rights abuses and with Bolsonaro now elected the future of this investigation is up in the air. Furthermore, the regime most affected the poor and ethnic minorities - indigenous peoples were disproportionally affected by the regime - and it seems the same could continue under Bolsonaro. There is a glimmer of hope. Under the regime a strong counterculture movement emerged among student groups which managed to embrace feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and environmental activism under the nose of the military. Ipanema and Copacabana have become world famous for its thriving LGBT culture, especially the beach, and you may be surprised to hear that this really took root under the military's rule. Under Bolsonaro's fist a thriving counterculture movement could emerge once more to resist him. 

Frankenstein - 200 Years Later

The Monster in the Universal adaptation

On a lighter note to end this post I thought it would be good to end with a cultural icon - Frankenstein. Published in 1818 by a 20-year old Mary Shelley Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus has since become one of the most important novels of all time. As a fan of both the horror and sci-fi genres I owe a lot to Shelley - Frankenstein is one of the first horror novels and laid the groundwork for the sci-fi genre. Locked indoors by bad weather while touring Europe with her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, they played a game of telling stories and she later had a nightmare. She combined the two forming Frankenstein. The story focuses on scientist Victor Frankenstein who aims to copy God by creating life: he sews together corpses and using a brain he brings to life his creation, the Creature. Now brought to life and excluded from society he demands a bride to bring him happiness, and Victor and his Creation have to face their bleak existence. Since 1818 Frankenstein has had several new editions and has been adapted countless times. In 1910 a 12-minute loose adaptation was produced by Thomas Edison and is now readily available on YouTube. The most famous one is perhaps the 1931 Universal adaptation featuring Boris Karloff, pictured above.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. Thank you again for reading and it's time to say bye to 2018 and hello to 2019.

Comics Explained: Spider-Man (Miles Morales)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has brought my favourite version of Spider-Man to the attention of the mainstream public: Miles Morales. Morales didn't first appear in the mainstream Marvel Universe (Earth-616) but instead the 'Ultimate' Universe (Earth-1610) - something we'll explain in a bit. Miles offered a new insight into the teenage hero world being an Afro-Latino teen struggling to find his identity in the shadow of the first Spider-Man. He became so popular that later he was sent to the mainstream universe and has featured heavily in two of Marvel's recent major events - Civil War II and Secret Empire. 

Background

To understand Miles we really need to understand the Ultimate Universe. Comic books for a long time have played around with alternate realities and Marvel had constructed an in-depth system to identify each one - the mainstream one was given the number 616. In the late-1990s comic books were failing and many companies were going bust - which you can read about here - and Marvel was close to collapsing. Marvel wanted to make its comics easier to get into, to attract new readers, but they were also fearful that they would alienate current readers. As a result, the Ultimate comics were made - a separate comic series that would update or reinterpret characters or stories. Even then, it was not clear if Ultimate would save Marvel; Brian Michael Bendis, who was one of the biggest contributors to Ultimate, said 'When I got hired, I literally thought I was going to be writing one of the last — if not the last — Marvel comics'. The Ultimate comics proved popular, although not enough to entirely save Marvel, and would even inspire movies - the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken inspiration from Ultimate just as much as the mainstream universe. After a decade the Ultimate Universe started exhibiting the same problems the mainstream comics had - confusing stories, story-arcs not paying off, and dead characters returning from the grave constantly - as well as many more. Ultimate got the reputation for being 'edgy' for the sake of it as perfectly shown in 2009's Ultimatum - it featured characters dying or killing others in needless ways with the intention to shock the reader. However, Ultimate Spider-Man largely managed to escape this trend, largely thanks to good writers like Brian Michael Bendis.

Bendis in The Death of Spider-Man decided to kill off Peter Parker, something which confused mainstream media which thought that Marvel was killing off the mainstream Parker. This would not be the end of the Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis and Sara Pichelli, (if you look carefully you can see them mentioned in Into the Spider-Verse), decided to create a new Spider-Man - originally Parker was going to die in Ultimatum but Marvel decided last minute to spare him. The 'Obituary' for all those died on the back of the last issue even lists Spider-Man. Bendis and Pichelli decided to make this new Spider-Man Afro-Hispanic leading, particularly the conservative, media to report that Marvel was trying to be politically correct. Miles first appeared Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 and soon got his own comic line, and has since become one of Marvel's favourite heroes.

Origins

Miles' debut in Ultimate Comics Fallout #4

Miles' backstory was later explained in Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 2. Like Peter Parker he was from New York, although he was from Brooklyn, and was the son of a police officer, Jefferson Davis, and a nurse, Rio Morales, and was close to his uncle, Aaron Davis. However, Davis had criminal ties which made his parents not want their son to associate with him. After the Green Goblin was outed as being Norman Osborn and arrested his labs were broken into, but a spider hitched a ride in the thief's bag. Osborn had been trying to replicate the formula which gave Spider-Man his spider powers, and this mutated spider happened to be accidentally stolen by Aaron. When Miles visited Aaron the spider bit him giving him the powers of Spider-Man and a few extra powers - Miles can camouflage and have a 'venom' strike. However, Miles doesn't want to be a superhero - as a 13-year old he felt it was too much responsibility. Also, his father has a distrust of superheroes seeing them as unregulated vigilantes. That is until, after two months of having his powers, he sees Peter Parker dying protecting his family from the Sinister Six under the Green Goblin. 

Inspired by his friend, Ganke, and after talking to Gwen Stacy Miles decided to become Spider-Man but was routinely criticised for taking advantage of the image of the recently dead Parker. The struggling Miles is confronted and arrested by Spider-Woman who took him to Nick Fury. Fury revealed how he knew all about Miles' family and his uncle's criminal history in Ultimate Spider-Man #5, but as he helped Fury defeat Electro he decided to let Miles go with a gift: a black and red Spider-Man suit. As he started to become his own Spider-Man he met someone special: Peter Parker. In 2012's Spider-Men when fighting Mysterio mainstream Parker accidentally was transported to the Ultimate reality where he encounters Miles. The story sees Parker partially training Miles and also Parker dealing seeing the younger, and alive, Gwen Stacy - his girlfriend who was murdered by Green Goblin. At the end as Parker went to his own universe he gave Miles his blessing and later decided to look up his reality's version of Miles only to be shocked - this potential plot was forgotten for five years until Spider-Men II.

Time as Spider-Man

Miles against Electro

Like Parker Miles had to deal with his superhero life clashing with his civilian life. Aaron quickly realised that Miles was the new Spider-Man in Ultimate Spider-Man #8. Like his mainstream counterpart Aaron was the Prowler but unlike his other counterpart he never converted to being a hero. Aaron needed help against the Scorpion so threatened to tell Jefferson that Miles was Spider-Man if he didn't help him. They succeeded and Prowler got hold of a suit used by the Vulture. As the two kept fighting other criminals Miles realised that Aaron was using him as an enforcer to fight more powerful opponents. He decided to confront Aaron in #12 but during an earlier battle Aaron's weapons, Shock Guantlets used by Shocker, had been damaged so during their fight it exploded killing Aaron. This would become one of the biggest character defining moments for Miles - he had to face the fact that his uncle was a villain but also deeply cared for him simultaneously. I will not go through too much of some of the other stories mostly because they are very confusing to talk about unless if I was doing a specific post on them - including a civil war in the US caused by the followers of an insane Mr Fantastic wiping out the US government, and then Captain America becoming president. It took Ultimate a decade to get just as confusing as the mainstream did in four decades.

During this civil war Jefferson had got national fame for his fight against HYDRA which brought media attention to Miles...and Spider-Man. However, Betty Brant incorrectly believed that Jefferson was Spider-Man so using her information the new Venom attacked Jefferson in #19. A battle against time began as Miles and his friends hoped to find Venom before he attacked again. Then in #22 Venom attacked the hospital where Rio worked. During the battle Miles managed to separate the symbiote from its host, (who were both then killed by the police), but unfortunately Rio was mortally wounded. In her dying breath she told him that she was proud of him but he should never tell his father. Declaring 'No More' Miles gave up his Spider-Man identity. A year passed in the Ultimate Universe where Miles refused to take up the mantle of Spider-Man again after being traumatised by his mother's death. Throughout this time he had started a relationship with the Ultimate version of Kate Bishop and had debated telling her of his past. In #25 under the request of SHIELD and Jessica Drew (who is Spider-Woman in Earth-616) convinced him to become Spider-Man once more when the Roxxon Corporation's genetic mutations escape.

Catacylsm

Miles sees the arrival of Galactus

Age of Ultron was far more extreme than the MCU's version of the event. Ultron had basically won and wiped out the world, so Wolverine and Invisible Woman travelled back to the past where Wolverine killed Hank Pym before he could make the first Ultron. This created a dystopian universe thanks to the butterfly effect so they went back in time again to stop them from killing Pym, but also to convince him to put a virus in Ultron which would stop the machine from destroying the world. However, doing so broke the time-space continuum causing beings from different realities to fall into alternate realities. Earth-616's Galactus was sent to the Ultimate reality where it began to destroy New Jersey. Miles and the Ultimates (the alternate version of the Avengers) began saving civilians and trying the fight the unstoppable Galactus. Tony Stark realised that this Galactus was from Earth-616 so he thought that enlisting the aid of 616's Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic) to help them. Then the Ultimate version of Reed Richards arrived to offer help - unlike his mainstream version Ultimate Richards had become a genocidal megalomaniac. Stark decided to send Richards accompanied by Miles, but fearing the world could end he decided to tell his father of his identity. Unfortunately, Jefferson couldn't accept Miles - he just saw the person responsible for the death of Aaron and Rio. Despite being disowned he journeyed to Earth-616 and managed to get Richards of that reality to successfully defeat Galactus. In the aftermath Miles would help found the Young Ultimates and grow closer to Parker's family.

Parker's Return

Parker's return

In Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 when returning to his apartment he was surprised to find his version of Peter Parker, seemingly alive and well, in his apartment. Parker managed to briefly knock out Miles leading him to believe that he was a clone - and he found bad luck once again when Kate Bishop broke up with him after finding out that he was Spider-Man. He also found out that Green Goblin was alive and ended up encountering the villain when he went to warn Mary Jane. Parker showed up and using Miles' venom strike managed to defeat the Goblin. Peter revealed that he had woken up in a lab, returned to New York, and with Mary Jane had dug up his grave to find it was empty: he was no clone. Green Goblin soon broke out of custody, and it turned out that Miles' venom strike had increased his power, and attacked J. Jonah Jameson. Osborn had revealed that the formula which granted the powers which he and Parker had also granted 'immortality' explaining why they were now alive (because comics), before killing Jameson. The two Spider-Men once again teamed up and took down Goblin, and the two would continue as their own versions of Spider-Man. I'm going to skip over Morales' stories a bit - including one where Bishop and her family turned out to be HYDRA sleeper agents working for Dr Doom - to get to how Miles got to the mainstream reality.

Secret Wars

In 2015 Marvel decided to shake up its multiverse with Secret Wars. Two different realities would smash into one another destroying them (the 'incursions'), and for a period of eight hours the two universes existed side-by-side. After the two realities were destroyed the ricochets from the destruction would accelerate the rate of impact until the multiverse was entirely destroyed. However, if one universe was destroyed as they crashed into one another the destruction could be averted. Eventually, Earth-616 and Earth-1610 began to crash into one another so the Reed Richards of both worlds created vessels to survive the apocalypse - 616 Reed put his friends and family inside as 1610 put his followers in his vessel. Miles accidentally entered the 1610 vessel and survived the destruction waking up in Battleworld - a universe created out of the remains of all the destroyed realities. This new reality was ruled by the omnipotent God Emperor Doom who ruthlessly crushed opposition and locked universe ending threats - including zombies from Marvel Zombies and a version of Thanos recreating the Infinity Gauntlet - behind a wall called the Shield. Miles was rescued by 616's Dr Strange who had found the vessel containing the heroes of Earth-616. Miles helped lead a revolt against Doom in the Kingdom of Manhattan, made up of different versions of Manhattan, and went with Peter to find Doom's power. They found a captured Molecule Man, a being able to warp reality and had journeyed with Doom to try and stop the first Incursion but had accidentally started it. Miles gave the starving Molecule Man a hamburger which he had in his suit from just before his reality was destroyed. As the heroes attacked Doom Molecule Man managed to grant Doom's power to Mr Fantastic who reconstructed Earth-616. 

Miles woke up in Earth-616 alongside several other alternate heroes - including the Wolverine from Old Man Logan. As Miles had given Molecule Man the burger he decided to reward Miles - his friends were taken to Earth-616, and his parents and uncle were brought over as well or resurrected. Miles quickly became accustomed to the new reality being mentored by Spider-Man, and through membership of the Avengers he became close friends with the new Nova and Ms Marvel. Meanwhile, Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, their kids, Molecule Man, and a few others started reforming the old realities one-by-one, including the Ultimate one. However, Miles would remain in the 616 reality.

On Earth-616

The aftermath of Civil War II

Since 2015 Miles has been a recurring character in the mainstream comics. For one, he became a major player in the, albeit rushed, Civil War II. An Inhuman arrived on the scene being able to see future crimes before they happened straight out of Minority Report. This divided the superhero community between those who wanted to use it (including Captain Marvel and She-Hulk) and those who believed it punished individuals before they committed a crime (including Captain America and Iron Man). Miles became embroiled in this when the Inhuman had a vision of him killing Captain America on Capitol Hill. After seeing a successful vision played out, where Bruce Banner was killed, Miles became fearful that his emotional issues could lead him into becoming a killer. Captain America supported Miles and the two travelled to D.C. to test fate, but this caused Captain Marvel to arrive to arrest Miles. A fight broke out between Captain America (supported by Iron Man), and Captain Marvel which resulted in Stark being paralysed, and being rescued by Miles. Disenchanted with the adult heroes Miles helped found the Champions with various young heroes.

Miles with the other Champions

Spider-Men II in 2017 finally answered the question: what is the 616 version of Miles like? The 616 version of Miles was much older than his parallel counterpart and never went down a hero route. Instead he worked for the mob and became a close associate with Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Miles had attempted to go straight and settle down but the untimely death of his partner, Barbara Sanchez, brought him back to Fisk. Miles had found out that Barbara was alive in a parallel universe so hired the villain Taskmaster to find her which brought him to the attention of Peter and the younger Miles. After a few battles the older Miles went to the new universe and met up with Barbara whose bar had been wrecked in a battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin - this turned out to be the remade Ultimate Universe. Meanwhile, the reborn Jefferson didn't resent Miles for being Spider-Man, in fact he supported his son, and decided to join SHIELD to look over him. Aaron Davis, still retaining his memories of the Ultimate reality, became the Iron Spider in Spider-Man #234 helping a new Sinister Six obtain SHIELD technology for Latveria (Doom's country). However, in #240 a note to Miles has indicated that Aaron may have abandoned his life of crime. At the start of December 2018 a new title called Miles Morales: Spider-Man has began under Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garron - it has just started as of writing but it should continue to expand Miles' history.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this post. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Paleo Profiles: Gojirasaurus

A hypothetical reconstruction of Gojirasaurus. From © Nobu Tamura, spinops.blogspot.com, 01/01/2008

This week, as of writing, the new trailer for Godzilla: King of Monsters was released so I thought it would be interesting to look at a dinosaur named after the 'King of Dinosaurs'. The Gojirasaurus was one of the first truly large carnivorous dinosaurs, but it may not actually be a real dinosaur at all. 

Discovery and Fossils

A common occurrence in palaeontology is that fossils are often found but are left years, sometimes decades, before being examined. The same happened with Gojirasaurus. This dinosaur was originally named by Adrian Hunt in 1994 as he looked at some fossils from the Triassic naming the animal 'Revueltoraptor lucasi'. However, as this name was coined in his dissertation based on flimsy remains this classification was deemed a nomen nudum. A nomen nudum is used to describe a scientific name given to an organism that hasn't been formally published, and therefore, reviewed by other experts. In 1997 Kenneth Carpenter formally described the bones giving them the name Gojirasaurus quayi - 'Gojira lizard from Quay'. As you can tell Gojirasaurus got its name from the iconic movie dinosaur Godzilla - as a side-note Gojira means 'Gorilla whale' referencing the monster's original design of gorilla-whale hybrid. Gojira is a portmanteau of the Japanese words for gorilla, gorira, and whale, kujira. 

Gojirasaurus is only known from a few poorly preserved bones. Bones only preserve in optimal conditions, including soil acidity and the type of soil, so not all fossils are known from well-preserved remains. With Gojirasaurus we only have a handful of bones and they are not well-preserved to boot. What we know of Gojirasaurus comes from a mix of disarticulated bones, a tooth, four dorsal vertebrae, a pubis, a tibia, a scapula (shoulder bone), ribs, and a chevron (tail bone). It was enough to formally name the animal, and create a holotype and reconstructions. In 2007 a small group of palaeontologists, (Sterling Nesbitt, Randall Irmis and William Parker), decided to look at early carnivorous dinosaur remains and found issues with the Gojirasaurus bones. Here we need to bring in the pseudosuchians; this is a clade closely related to the dinosaurs which consists of modern crocodilians and their extinct relatives. During the Triassic the pseudosuchians were an incredibly diverse group, far more diverse than the dinosaurs. Steve Brusatte's research has shown that for the 30 million years that the two groups co-existed during the Triassic the pseudosuchians overshadowed the dinosaurs. It has been said that several pseudosuchians resembled dinosaurs, like Effagia, but it is more accurate to say that the dinosaurs resembled the pseudosuchians! Analysis of Gojirasaurus' bones found not all of them came from a dinosaur - the vertebrae were found to likely be from a pseudosuchian called Shuvosaurus. Even with well-preserved bones it can be difficult to classify dinosaurs never mind poorly preserved remains. Furthermore, the tibia resembled that of a different dinosaur called Coelophysis. These similarities had long before been used to classify the Gojirasaurus as a coelophysid. The paper was reluctant to classify Gojirasaurus as Coelophysis as the tibia was so much more robust compared to that of Coelophysis. Hence, Gojirasaurus has been declared a dubious genus. For the rest of this post we'll treat Gojirasaurus as a separate genus for the sake of simplicity, but we'll bring in Coelophysis biology to better understand the dubious dinosaur.

Biology

The size of Gojirasaurus, from prehistoric-wildlife.com

One thing that can be certain about Gojirasaurus is that it was a large predator. One thing unifying palaeontologists is that Carpenter's description of the dinosaur's size is correct - it was between 5.5 to 6 metres long. In comparison the Coelophysis bauri, the most common coelophysid from North America and a possible contemporary, was only 3 metres long. It was fitting it got the name Gojira - it was a true giant during the Triassic. During the Late Triassic the dinosaurs started getting big - ancestors to the sauropods (including Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus) like the Plateosaurus could grow to 9 metres (30 foot) in length. Why the dinosaurs came to replace the pseudosuchians we don't have a clear idea yet, but their increase in size could be due to the dinosaurs evolving to fill a vacuum left by them. Gojirasaurus, like all coelophysids, were theropods - a bipedal group of dinosaurs which would include Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus, and modern birds. Theropods would become a diverse group evolving to fill many environmental niches, but at this early stage most had fairly similar adaptations. This included diet and Gojirasaurus had serrated teeth indicating that it was a carnivore. Coelophysids were uniformly lightly built with long, slender tails; fairly long arms; and a long neck. It is fairly likely that Gojirasaurus was also built this way, especially if it turns out to be a species of Coelophysis.

Although now inaccurate the body of Coelophysis from Walking with Dinosaurs would resemble what Gojirasaurus looked like

Now we're getting into more hypothetical territory. In the past palaeontologists just expected to find bones but over the last twenty years, mostly thanks to the discovery of feathered dinosaurs, palaeontologists have been increasingly on the look out for other features. Gojirasaurus may have had a crest - later coelophysids, like Jurassic Park's Dilophosaurus, had crests and some species of Coelophysis had very small crests. We cannot be certain if Gojirasaurus had a crest - especially as we are still unsure if Gojirasaurus is a valid genus. These crests would be used for display so were likely very brightly coloured to attract a mate, or intimidate a rival. There is a chance that Gojirasaurus, and Coelophysis, were feathered; albeit these 'feathers' would be far more basic compared to the feathers of modern birds. It could even be considered more like fluff than 'true' feathers. Increasingly palaeontologists have highlighted how more and more species of dinosaurs were in fact feathered, however, Gojirasaurus was a very early dinosaur. Feathers and feathering have, so-far, only been found on dinosaurs from the Jurassic and Cretaceous, not the Triassic. Feathers had to come from somewhere, but when did somewhere start? As Gojirasaurus lived at the end of the Triassic it likely had a very basic proto-feathering. 

When and Where

A map of Pangea with modern continents 

Gojirasaurus lived 210 million years ago, Coelophysis from 221 to 196 million years ago, during the first period of the Mesozoic era called the Triassic. Dinosaurs appeared sometime between 243 and 233 million years ago making Gojirasaurus one of the first dinosaurs. The fossils were found in the Cooper Canyon Formation in New Mexico - the southern US (especially New Mexico and Texas) is particularly good for Triassic fossils. The New Mexico of the Triassic was very different from the New Mexico of today. Instead of the deserts we would instead find well-watered forests full of conifers occasionally subject to flooding - at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico around 1,000 almost Coelophysis were caught in a flash flood leaving their remains perfectly preserved. The world of the Triassic that Gojirasaurus called home was very different to our world. There was just one continent, a supercontinent, called Pangea and one giant ocean, Panthalassa. Steve Brusatte has described the climate as living in a 'sauna'. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused higher temperatures, something we're experiencing now thanks to human caused climate change, which was exacerbated by the planet's geography. Air currents moved unimpeded from equator to pole as there was just one continent making the poles extremely warm - the poles had the same temperature as modern London or San Francisco. Intense monsoons, called megamonsoons, were created thanks to a scorching land which were so large that they could provincialise the environment. Vast stretches of desert (which had temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius) were divided from hot and humid equatorial regions. New Mexico lay on the equator creating the hot and humid environment that Gojirasaurus existed in.

Gojirasaurus' New Mexico

What would become north Mexico and the southern US would create a vibrant habitat for Late Triassic animals. As we only have these scatty remains of Gojirasaurus it is possible that it was a rare animal - very large carnivores are generally rarer compared to smaller ones due to increased competition. With its large size Gojirasaurus would have been near the top of the food chain, although it would have had to fight to be at the top. The Postosuchus, a large crocodilian cousin which you might recognise from Walking with Dinosaurs, could potentially rival Gojirasaurus as the animal at the top of the food chain. The warm climate created a perfect environment for diverse plants to evolve which in turn allows a diverse range of herbivores to prey upon. Herbivorous early dinosaurs and other reptiles were potential food for the Gojirasaurus although some could fight back. The Desmatosuchus was a very large and armoured reptile with spikes on its side which would leave it protected from predators. We know very little on how social dinosaurs were so we don't know if Gojirasaurus was a pack hunter - it was once believed that Coelophysis flocked together but we now know that they were actually victims of a flash flood. Judging how birds and many reptiles, including crocodiles, care for their young we can imagine that so did Gojirasaurus and other coelophysids. 

Thank you for reading. The sources I have used are as follows:

-Gregory S. Paul, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Second Edition, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016)

-Steve Brusatte, The Rise and the Fall of the Dinosaurs: The Untold Story of a Lost World, (London: Macmillan, 2018)

-'Gojirasaurus', Prehistoric-Wildlife.com, (Accessed 13/12/2018)

-Kenneth Carpenter, 'A Giant Coelophysoid (Ceratosauria) Theropod from the Upper Triassic of New Mexico, USA', Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 205:2, (1997), 189-208

-Sterling J. Nesbitt , Randall B. Irmis & William G. Parker, 'A critical re‐evaluation of the Late Triassic dinosaur taxa of North America', Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 5:2, (2010), 209-243

-Robert Sullivan and Spencer Lucas, 'Eucoelophysis baldwini, a New Theropod Dinosaur from the Upper Triassic of New Mexico, and the Status of the Original Types of Coelophysis', Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 19:1, (1999), 81-90

-'Coelophysis', Prehistoric-Wildlife.com, (Accessed 13/12/2018)

Thank you for reading. If you felt I should add something, disagree with what I have written, or just fancy having your say please leave a comment. For other Paleo Profiles we have a list, and for future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

World History: Latin American Revolutions

Again on World History we're looking at a period of time nicknamed 'the Age of Revolution', and so far we've discussed the America, Haitian, French and Industrial Revolutions. The rest of the Americas during this period also saw revolution - a series of revolts and wars of independence broke out over a thirty year period ending the Spanish, and Portuguese, colonial empires. These revolutions combined Enlightenment ideas, as seen in the American Revolution, with the situation of Latin American society. Before we look at the Revolutions we have to see what society was like in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, as best as we can at least.

Prelude to Independence

Each region of Latin America differed greatly but there are overarching themes which we can discuss. Three themes stand out: royal power, the Church, and blood. As can be expected Latin America was ruled by the crowns of either Spain or Portugal indirectly - officials were sent from Europe, sometimes even from the Americas, to rule in the monarch's name. The Spanish Empire was divided into viceroyalties - Peru, New Spain, Rio de la Plata, and New Grenada - ruled by a viceroy. Religion was important in society. The Church offered a way to rise in society, had great influence over (or controlled) the courts and education, owned land, and even controlled time via church bells. During the colonial period the Jesuits had exerted great control; this was especially prominent in Brazil where they owned their own plantations relying on indigenous labour. During the eighteenth century, as in Europe, the Church clashed with the Crown over influence and the Jesuits were widely expelled from Latin America, even though 75% of Jesuits in Mexico were born there by the time of the expulsion showing that the Jesuits recruited more from the Americas by then. However, there was vibrant blending of of faiths present in American Catholicism. In Mexico the Virgin of Guadalupe shows a synchretism between the Virgin Mary and the indigenous Tonantzin - the Basilica of Guadalupe was also built next to a site where Tonantzin was worshipped - and in Peru depictions of the Holy Trinity blended Catholic imagery with that of Inti. In the quilombos (free slave settlements) of Brazil it was not uncommon to see a merger of Catholicism and various African faiths. Finally, we have blood. Modern perceptions of race started to emerge during the colonial period and limpia de sangre (cleanness of blood) was important. This was an idea borrowed from Europe - following the defeat of the Islamic Moors in 1492 Spain ordered Muslims and Jews to convert or face expulsion, however, they were seen as having 'impure' blood so were seen as never being 'pure' Christians. This fed into the Americas with race - your blood could be 'impure' thanks to indigenous or African ancestry. Spain in particular developed the castas which were a series of over a hundred categories based on your ancestry - the main included white, indigenous, black, 'mestizo' (white-indigenous), 'mulatto' (white-black), 'zambos' (black-indigenous), and 'pardo' (black-white-indigenous). Casta paintings were even created to show the possible combinations. These categories determined your place in society but were traversable - in the 1780s and 1790s wealthy individuals of mixed ancestry could purchase gracias al sacar, basically purchasing whiteness. 

An example of a Casta painting

There were also divisions among individuals in castas. In Brazil it was possible for former slaves to own slaves as an example. Indigenous lords, caciques, could rule over indigenous communities subjected to the mita - a form of enforced labour serving the Spanish crown. There were divisions between white populations - the creoles (those born in the Americas) had a different sense of identity compared to peninsulares (those born in Spain), and peninsulares were normally favoured in society. Things came to ahead in the 1700s thanks to the Bourbon Reforms. Originally enacted in Spain they were implemented in Latin America to improve the economy, administration, and limiting the power of the Church. The Viceroyalties of New Grenada and Rio de la Plata came from these reforms (1717 and 1776 respectively), and the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 as well. Seeing the results of the American Revolution Spain was keen to ensure that the same did not happen so the Bourbon Reforms were also implemented to curtail creole power. The selling of offices to creoles was brought to an end, the Council of the Indies had its power taken away, creoles could no longer sit in the audiencies (high courts), and the corregidores (local and judicial officials) were replaced with French inspired intendants who had to be peninsulares. The sense of difference creoles felt were amplified by the Bourbon Reforms. Even the gracias al sacar was part of this. The Bourbon reformers hoped to limit racial tensions so offered 'whiteness' to a select few to reduce tension, but the creole, and peninsular, elite opposed this policy. This set the stage for independence, but before we discuss the famous revolts I want to discuss an overlooked one in the Andes.

The Andean Revolution

A later painting of Tupac Amaru II

This revolution has had many names: the Andean Revolution, the Andean Uprising, the Tupac Amaru Rebellion, the Tupamarista Uprising. It effectively shows how the Bourbon Reforms and revolt were not limited to a creole population as Latin America's revolutions have traditionally been portrayed as. The mita system in Peru had decimated the indigenous population - forced to work in mines, like the great silver mine at Potosi, it uprooted entire communities and as more died more of the community had to fill the quota. These communities did manage to benefit somewhat from the mine profits until the creation of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata - now silver from Potosi ran through Buenos Aires. This exacerbated the oppression of indigenous and mestizo communities in Peru. One indigenous leader, Tomas Katari, attempted to appeal to the courts, even going to Buenos Aires in 1779 to get support. In 1780 rebellion broke around two figures. The first was around Tomas Katari - local indigenous workers and peasants wanted him to be made a cacique and when he did he dismissed the Spanish-imposed corregidor in Charcas. His plan was to build a utopian and equal society through legal means. Meanwhile, in Cusco a more violent revolution broke out. Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui was an indigenous cacique educated by Jesuits became frustrated by the harsh exploitation of indigenous communities thanks to the mita. With the help of his wife, Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua, he organised a revolt on November 4 1780- as he could trace his ancestry to the old Incan royalty to renamed himself Tupac Amaru II (Tupac Amaru was the last Inca ruler). Combining Christian and Incan imagery he pledged to defend the indigenous peoples and challenge Spanish rule - Tupac even called on creoles to join him, especially at the mine of Oruro. Tupac vowed to battle Europe, corregidors, trade monopolies, and the mita system as his followers expanded it to include unpopular caciques, local chiefs, tax collectors, and landlords. Within a week between 6,000 and 20,000 indigenous peoples joined Tupac and Micaela - 85% came from Canas y Canchis and Quispicanchis whose communities regularly were sent to Potosi. 

Those who fought were diverse and reasons why varied - as the revolution went on Tupac's emphasis on him being a king started to vanish, and Tomas Katari never claimed to be anything but a cacique chosen by his people. Although they did draw support from all communities - including creoles at Oruro - they did struggle to draw support from outside indigenous and mestizo communities. On November 17 at Sangarara around 500 soldiers and civilians hid in a church which accidentally caught fire - it was described as a 'universal slaughter...the bloodthirstiness of the enemy' which was used as a way to portray the rebels as 'Indios contra blancos' and 'Christians against Apostates'. The Bishop of Cusco even excommunicated Tupac! Indigenous communities were also not unified - in the late stage of the Revolution indigenous soldiers were used to crush the rebels. Micaela has largely been forgotten but she was a major leader - she chastised Tupac for not fighting writing 'You are causing me mortal concern' and then deciding that 'I am going forward to attack them [the Spanish]'. Thanks to Tupac, Katari, and Micaela soon all of southern Peru was in revolt but this would soon come to an end. The rebels were largely ill-equipped indigenous and mestizo peasants so they found it difficult to recruit outside these communities, or keep control of the forces. From 1781 the revolt became increasingly indigenous and radicalised - 400 creoles, Spaniards and mestizos were killed in a church in Ayopaia on February 23 1781 and had their blood drank combining Incan and Christian ritual. Katari was ambushed and mutilated in January 1781 by royalist forces which caused the radicalisation of the forces formerly under him. After failing to capture Cusco in January Tupac's forces started to splinter and creoles defected to the Spanish. He, Micaela, and some of their major leaders were captured and brutally executed - Tupac himself in May had to watch Micaela and his children be executed before being publicly and brutally quartered. This did not end the revolt though. 

Micaela Bastidas

After the deaths of Tupac and Katari the revolution moved south - during the revolt the Viceroyalty of Peru included what is now Bolivia which is where the next stage occurred. Compared to the first stages this stage was more bottom-up, nativist, and locally driven. Katari and Tupac were Quechua speaking - these rebels were Aymara. Their 'leader' reflected these points - a merchant called Julian Apaza he adopted the name Tupac Katari in order to create legitimacy and a link with the other leaders, but he resented the privilege of Quechua communities compared to the Aymara. Him and his other leaders, including his wife Bartolina Sisa, even wished to break the power of the Amarus when the Spanish had been defeated. Successfully sieging La Paz with a force of 40,000; their siege was so successful that they were able to suspend their attack for religious rites on Good Friday. Like with their Quechua counterparts in the north the Aymara faced the same issues - ethnic divisions (Quechua commanders actually abandoned Tupac Katari, Bartolina and others), poor equipment, and the force of a Spanish army over a militia. By November 1781 Tupac Katari, Bartolina and other leaders had been captured and executed. Although the revolt continued until 1783 the defeat of the Aymara forces prevented further threats. I included the Andean Revolt in this post, despite it not contributing to independence, as it is an interesting and overlooked revolt which can be contrasted with the other revolts.

Brazil

Brazil victory over Portugal at San Salvador

We'll start with Brazil for the independence movements as it is a very interesting case. Unlike the rest there was no typical independence war - it was a handover of power among the royals. Compared to the Spanish Empire the Portuguese crown had been content to leave Brazil be, attempts to increase Portuguese rule over Brazil in the late-1700s had laid the seeds of independence though. That is until Napoleon invaded Portugal in December 1807. With British aid they managed to flee Lisbon before the French arrived Queen Maria and Prince Regent João set up court in Rio de Janeiro. Immediately João issued a decree opening Brazil up for foreign trade greatly expanding the Brazilian economy: Bahia increased its imports by 50% and exports by 20% within three years, foreign ships in Rio's port rose from 90 in 1808 to 354 in 1820, and in 1815 Bahia got its first steam-driven sugar mill (followed by Pernambuco in 1817). The presence of the crown in Rio invited cultural changes to Brazil as they tried to replicate their old life in Brazil. Even after Napoleon's defeat the royals stayed in Brazil - it took a literal revolt in Portugal in 1820 for the royalty to return to Lisbon in 1821. They set up a tropical kingdom for themselves to rival Portugal - 1808 a naval academy was established, the same year in Salvador a medical school was opened, in 1816 a French-staffed Academy of Fine Arts was established, and a library containing 60,000 volumes was opened in Rio in 1814. In 1815 João decided to rise Brazil from a colony to a kingdom and when Maria died in 1816 he proclaimed himself João VI, 'King of the United Kingdoms of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves'. With the court in Brazil, an economic rise, population increase, and development of cultural institutes Brazilians started developing a sense of their own identity. Rio itself became an epicentre of this - it had turned from a small, viceregal capital to a vibrant, cosmopolitan metropolis. When João left in 1821 his heir, Pedro, remained behind to rule the kingdom in his name. The Cortes (Brazilian parliament) did not like this - when Brazil was a colony they held control which Pedro's presence threatened. Misreading the opinion of Brazilians it ordered Pedro to return to Lisbon and turn Brazil back into a colony. However, Brazilians, especially the new colonial elite, had developed an emerging sense of national identity and a fondness for the young king, so started publishing pamphlets and discussing with the military to ensure Pedro remained. January 9 1822 Pedro stated 'Tell the people that I will stay.' 

Pedro started relying further on a Brazilian, not Portuguese, intellectual inspired by Enlightenment thinkers called Jose Bonifacio the two tried to continue the task of limiting the Cortes and keeping Brazil together. Pedro's wife, Leopoldina, also became a national icon espousing her dedication to Brazil. Soon enough a small but radical press emerged calling for independence. As the Cortes tried to limit Pedro's power in September in national myth he drew his sword at the bank of the Ipranga River crying 'Independence or Death!'. On December 1 1822 he was declared 'Constitutional Emperor and Perpetual Defender of Brazil'. It took a small war of independence but in 1825 the Empire of Brazil came into existence. Brazil's independence is curious, especially compared to its neighbours. It was a transfer of power among elites with little violence and even then it was clear cut - it was clearly Brazilians against Portuguese. Later, this would prove disastrous for Pedro and his descendants - they would be seen as Portuguese, not Brazilian. Today many of Brazil's wealthiest are descended from the elite at the time of independence. The largely peaceful road to independence planted the seeds for Brazilian exceptionalism - Benedict Anderson has wrote how misreading or adapting the past helps creates nationalism. National exceptionalism is part of this. As Brazil's abolition of slavery (something that we'll get onto in a future World History post), transition from empire to republic, and periodic transitions from democracy to dictatorship (and vice versa) were done relatively violence-free this created an idea of exceptionalism. Brazil could achieve great changes without violence.

Mexico

Hidalgo's Church today

Mexico's path to independence is very confusing. Simon Bolivar, who we'll see later, in 1815 wrote 'The events in Mexico have been to varied, complex, rapid, and unfortunate to keep track of the course of the revolution there.' As a result I will only do a brief overview to avoid confusion. One important detail to mention is the rural nature of Mexico in the 1800s - most cities had only existed for a few centuries and originated through military or administrative means. The countryside also saw great wealth divides - the hacienda owners against the peasants - which brought in ethnic issues: slavery was common and indigenous communities were forced to work the land. Administration was weaker than in the cities so a rebellion had greater chance of spreading and conspiracies could better remain undetected. Furthermore, communities lived together so likely suffered the same oppression - these communities didn't exist in the city. Like with Portugal Napoleon's invasion weakened Spanish rule in the Americas. In 1808 a coup in Mexico City inflamed the situation between creoles and peninsulares but it took until 1810 for independence to be on the table with a subaltern uprising. This is remarkably different from the other revolts as the others came from a creole elite. Father Miguel Hidalgo was a creole and had lived among Native Americans and mestizos in his parish of Dolores in the centre of Mexico so naturally he saw the inequalities in society. He joined wealthy creoles in a plan to form a revolutionary junta but when discovered he issued the Grito de Dolores of September 16 1810 - now celebrated as Mexican Independence Day. In the name of King Ferdinand VII, (like in Haiti this didn't necessarily mean royalism), and the Virgin of Guadalupe he called for Mexican independence, land to be returned to Native Americans, that 'All slave owners shall set their slaves free within ten days', 'no other taxes shall be collected from Indians', and that caste taxes were abolished. Quickly he got widespread peasant support (quickly getting 80,000 supporters) and the Mexican Revolution began. Due to the rural nature of Hidalgo's demands, the policing in the city, and killings of both peninsulares and creoles only rural areas flocked to support them. However, his forces were crushed by the royalists at Guadalajara in January 1811, and he was captured and shot in March. His head, and that of his commanders, were displayed at Alhondiga in Guanajuato for a decade.

Hidalgo's role was taken over by another secular priest, Jose Maria Morelos, who was a mestizo from Mihoacan as well. Morelos was a skilled commander helping the peasants take cities like Oaxaca, and he abandoned proclamations of loyalty to Ferdinand. He also went further than Hidalgo aiming for full land redistribution to the peasants and fully integrating mestizos and Native Americans into society. Morales' forces even proclaimed a republic in Chipalcingo on November 6 1813, but his time would be short lived. Captured in 1815 he was executed and the resurgent royalist forces decimated the peasant forces, however, guerrilla warfare continued. Like in the Andes creoles had refused to join due to the emphasis on indigenous identity, rural aspect of the revolt, and opposition to it from the Church's authorities. The revolt limped on under a mestizo called Vicente Guerrero and a creole veteran, Agustin de Iturbide, was sent to wipe him out. That is until a mutiny in Spain in 1820 - Spanish troops mutinied in Cadiz forcing Ferdinand to accept a liberal constitution. A new liberal Spain ordered viceroys to seek accommodation with insurgents which upset the creoles - Spain was again telling America what to do. Iturbide joined Guerrero issuing the Plan of Iguala in February 1821: Mexico would become an independent monarchy with the liberal 1812 Constitution of Cadiz, Catholicism would be the legitimate religion, the Church would keep its lands and privileges, and all (men) but be equal before the law. This conservative plan appealed to creoles and Mexico managed to win its independence, (bringing what would become Chiapas, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala with it). For the next century Mexico would swing between empire and republic, and the rural/urban divide continues today.

Bolivar and San Martin

San Martin (left) and Bolivar (right)

Before we look at the independence of the rest of Spanish Latin America we need to look at Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin. Although I am personally against 'Great Man History' due to the personality cults surrounding them they have to be understood to understand independence and what came of it. Both were creole elites, Bolivar from Venezuela and San Martin from Argentina, were skilled military generals, were educated in Europe (San Martin even fought against Napoleon's forces), and are now seen as the 'Liberators' of South America. However, Bolivar is regularly referred to as 'The Liberator' - in most cities in several South American countries you will see something named after him, as well as the entire country of Bolivia. Since 1830 a hero cult has emerged about Bolivar, something he tried to construct during his life. In his own stories he was a master seducer of women, apparently knocked the hat off of the head of the young Ferdinand playing polo, and was there to witness Napoleon's coronation. All these stories are either exaggerations or total fabrications but it stuck in national identity. Bolivar and San Martin being seen as the Liberators also contrast greatly with what happened in Mexico and Brazil - they were neither a peninsular elite as in Brazil nor were they oppressed subalterns as in Mexico. Bolivar's baptismal gift in 1784 were several plantations with slaves. 

Independence for Spanish South America

Llaneros

We cannot discuss all aspects of the independence struggle in South America so we will instead do a broad overview highlighting certain key parts. A large part of this is because all the independence movements came together but remained independent from one another. Like in Mexico they had the same causes: the Bourbon Reforms and defeat of Ferdinand at Napoleon's hands. In Venezuela creole elites were worried that the non-white population, which greatly outnumbered them, could take power so they moved to preempt it. In March 1811 a congress was elected on a male franchise excluding non-whites but a radical group, called the Patriotic Society of Caracas, under figures like Francisco de Miranda and Simon Bolivar called for independence. In July they got what they wanted. A Spanish force from Puerto Rico arrived in March 1812 and utilised the limitations of the new constitution - white and urban it excluded most of the population. In particular the llaneros, free-ranging horsemen of whom many were mixed race, became alienated, especially as Caracas aimed to place the plains under private ownership. Offering slaves their freedom and allying the llaneros routed Bolivar, crushed the republic, and Miranda was captured and deported to Spain. Meanwhile, New Grenada (which included modern Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador) saw a junta take over under Camilo Torres in Bogota in 1811; Buenos Aires formed a junta in 1810 which was taken over by pro-Jacobin figures who sent Manuel Belgrano out to capture Potosi; San Martin joined the Buenos Aires junta; and in Chile the colony became divided between those advocating independence, royalism, and a compromise. Bolivar later returned to Venezuela with a new set of ideas.

Bolivar's career is full of defeat, exile, victory, and debates concerning the future - we get a clear look into his views in his 1815 letter while briefly exiled in Jamaica. One key trend to emerge is an abandonment of nationalism in favour of a pan-American identity. An excerpt reads 'I would like to see America become the greatest nation on Earth' - not Venezuela but 'America'. He would drum up support against Spanish rule by appealing to a shared 'American' identity and using the language of slavery - in the same letter he wrote 'We are at a level even lower than servitude, and by that very reason hindered from elevating ourselves to the enjoyment of freedom'. It did work - the llaneros who once defeated him in 1812 became some of his greatest allies. In 1813 the 'Guerra a Muerte' (War to the Death) was declared which issued a war, until 1820, which involved the execution, and at times massacres, against peninsulares. At the same time this idea of American identity was amorphous, another issue was declared stating that Spanish who wanted to could become American. At the same time he was willing to allow slaves join the military in reward for freedom - partially to get soldiers - but also to ensure they would be killed. At the same time he was infuriated that Spanish Caribbean colonies, Cuba and Puerto Rico, refused to join the revolution. He also held a pessimistic view towards Americans. He was a great admirer of Britain, even wanting his free America to be protected by Britain, and viewed the British system as best - a limited democracy overseen by a strong figure. In the Jamaica Letter he wrote 'I cannot persuade myself  that the New World is ready at this time to be governed by a grand republic.' Bolivar was also keen to ensure who the figure would be: himself. After independence he would try and proclaim himself 'president for life' and during his life would try and build a cult of personality. In 1822 his clash with San Martin while in Peru may have been down to this.

The Battle of Ayucucho

The term libertadores emerged to describe the creole generals during the Wars of Independence: Bolivar, San Martin, Belgrano, Andres de Santa Cruz, Bernardo O'Higgins etc. Despite an early pushback after 1815 Spain struggled to face the various revolts over its empire. Some of the last areas to remain in Spanish hands were the Andean provinces - we can look back to the Andean Revolution of the 1780s to explain why. The earlier revolt, and the bloodshed involved, had made the creole elite wary of armed rebellion; there were calls for independence but when violence was on the table support dissipated. As a result outside forces had to play a larger part in independence. In July 1821 San Martin entered Lima and proclaimed the independence of Peru and even then faced issues: the elite were angered by his anti-peninsular stance and taxing of creoles, and O'Higgins facing troubles in Chile meant he had to meet up with Bolivar to defeat the last royalists. The disagreement between the two, and San Martin's weaker position, allowed Bolivar to claim the army to route the Spanish from Peru, and San Martin chose to retire to Europe. The royalist forces were defeated by Antonio Jose de Sucre in 1824 at Ayacucho ending the Spanish colonial empire.

Independence for Who?: Women

Now I want to discuss the limits and forgotten aspects of the Latin American Revolutions. Women have largely been forgotten by national histories - as we saw women like Micaela Bastidas and Bartolina Sisas physically led the Andean Revolution. Like in later Mexican Revolutions women also fought and acted as recruiters; a 1811 court case accused a woman of trying to seduce royalist men into joining the rebels. San Martin even acknowledged women's involvement in independence stating that 'The more delicate sex naturally should be more patriotic' and women adopted the language of the revolutionaries, Manuela Saenz was arrested in 1827 in Lima so cited the constitution to defend herself. However, as conservative forces took over, or always existed among those fighting, women's positions were sidelined, ignored, or given to men. San Martin's honouring of women who supported him in Lima was to give their husbands, brothers, and fathers membership of the elite 'Order of the Sun'. As we saw in the American and French Revolutions despite calls for liberty and citizenship only applied to men, and even the propertied men. The strength of a conservative Church and ideas based on limited suffrage meant that women were barred from these ideas. These ideas could be used to help themselves and, as we'll see when we discuss feminism, were used to get rights.

Independence for Who?: Race

As you've probably noticed those who took power were creoles - the only one not based around creole identity was Mexico and even then by independence indigenous, and mestizo, identity had been replaced by creole. Race was very important in Latin America's revolutions - the limited acceptance of non-whites in Venezuela's first republic allowed Spanish forces to utilise their disgruntlement. Bolivar's sister, Maria Antonia, wrote to him in 1825 from Caracas stating the city had become 'uninhabitable because of the excesses and threats domination by the people of color' so he wrote to the vice-president urging him to send 4,000 troops. However, figures, like Bolivar, had moments of realisation about racism in society. Writing about Peru in the Jamaica Letter he said 'Peru...is marked by two elements that are inimical to any just and liberal regime: gold and slaves. The first corrupts everything; the second is inherently corrupt.' The language of being slaves were adopted by the slaves themselves, and pragmatism aided abolition - just like the Spanish local militias offered slaves freedom if they enlisted. A Peruvian slave, Gregorio Layoso, fled from his Spanish owner stating that his was his duty 'as [a] lover of my patria'. Peter Blanchard has also argued 'Was his love genuine?' - did Layoso skilfully use nationalist discourse to win his freedom? Or did he see freedom for Peru as being freedom for all people? Post-independence states would have a dichotomy with race - both praising and disparaging non-white identity. Several Central American states, like Guatemala and Nicaragua, would hold up indigismo to forge a national identity while oppressing indigenous communities, and Bolivar would lament that Gran Colombia didn't have an indigenous past like Peru and Mexico had, but blamed South America's multi-racial ancestry for their inability to form a state. Slavery remained widespread - only Chile abolished slavery during independence (in 1823). Colombia, Venezuela, and Argentina abolished slavery in the 1850s but it took Brazil until 1888 to do so.

Aftermaths

A painting of Bolivar depicting him positively 

As can expected the hopes of revolution soon turned to ash after independence. Gran Colombia collapsed in 1831, just a year after Bolivar's death. Bolivar too was extremely unpopular - to escape an assassination attempt he had to hide under a bridge for a night which may have led him to contract TB in later life. Only after he died did he become universally popular. Brazil and Mexico faced clashes over the morality of monarchism; Pedro and Bonifacio may have been liberal compared to the Cortes but they made it clear that they believed that power should remain in royal hands. As the revolts were elite creole led this set a trend for Latin American history - wealthy landowners still held power in society and the rural-urban, and peasant-landowner clash continues in many regions to this day. Following independence most states had to deal with clashes and debates about identity, power, and democracy which has led to the stereotype that Latin American history is that of despots and dictators. However, it is important to note that liberal, multi-party democracy as seen in Europe, North America, and Australia/New Zealand only emerged as the 'right' political system after 1945 (and even then only consolidated after 1989). 

Conclusion

The Latin American Revolutions did more than just end Spanish rule in, most of, the Americas. It brought in debates of what it is to be a citizen and what it means to form a nation. Using Benedict Anderson we can see the attempts to build a national, or super-national, identity. From this identities about nation emerged across the country: indigismo in various states; peaceful transition in Brazil; Bolivar is regarded a national hero across the political spectrum in five countries; and a rural identity against an urban one continues in many areas. Taking Mexico as an example the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the Zapatistas Uprising in 1994 have taken to heart the rural rising of Miguel Hidalgo. Of course, there were limits for the lower classes, women, and non-whites. These conflicting identities have to be acknowledged in order to understand these revolutions and the creation of the nation.

A mural to Hidalgo in a Zapatista village

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Edwin Williamson, The Penguin History of Latin America, (London: Penguin, 1992)

-Benjamin Keen, Robert Buffington, and Lila Caimari, (eds.), Keen’s Latin American Civilization: History and Society, 1492 to the Present, 8th Edition (Boulder: Westview Press, 2004)

-Paula Muray, (ed.), Women and Gender in Modern Latin America, (New York: Routledge, 2014)

-Peter Blanchard, 'The Language of Liberation: Slave Voices in the Wars of Independence', Hispanic American Historical Review, 82:3, (2002), 499-523

-E. Bradford Burns, A History of Brazil, Third Edition, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993)

-Leslie Bethell, (ed.), The Cambridge History of Latin America Volume III: From Independence to c.1870, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)

-Simon Bolivar, David Bushnell, and Frederick Fornoff, (eds. and trans.), El Libertador: Writings of Simon Bolivar, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)

-John Chasteen, 'Simon Bolivar: Man and Myth', in Samuel Brunk and Ben Fallow, (eds.), Heroes and Hero Cults in Latin America, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006), 21-39

-Eric van Young, 'Islands in the Storm: Quiet Cities and Violent Countrysides in the Mexican Independence Era', Past and Present, 118, (1988), 130-155

The next World History post we will look at the 1848 Revolutions: these revolts swept across Europe bringing ideas of liberalism, socialism, nationalism, and industry to attention. For other World History posts we have a list. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.