Liberalism and conservatism in Latin America
Spanish American independence began to exist in 1808 after the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars that eventually engulfed all of Europe. French revolutionaries in the 1790's begin an intellectual awakening called and popularly known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment period opened up the door for ideas of positism (A New Ruling Ideology) in Latin American society. People in Latin American turned to liberal ideologies. Liberalism means the idea of liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty (the idea that the people of each nation,not yet women) had the right to determine who would rule them. Liberalism during the early 1800s in Latin American clashed against conservatist views during that time period. Liberals wanted to see change in the ruling systems of Latin America. They wanted to "step out of the box" of tradition, meaning that liberals wanted to open the boxes of the church system, cultural background inequalities, and slavery. These issues for many years strongly affected the way that Latin American society was conducted. Liberals no longer wanted to see kings in power. The majority of liberals believed in a democratic system of government. This system would create lots of changes and confusion in Latin American communities in the early 1800s.On the other hand conservatism was a pre-existing dominant system that was rooted in Latin America. Conservative governing systems consist of kings and ruling blood lines. Unlike liberalism, conservatism wanted to stay inside the box. They didn't want to step out and try a new ruling system, they felt as though chaos and disorder in Latin American society would break out. Latin American conservatives greatly believed in class stratification. In a nut-shell, conservatives didn't want to see any change in government in Latin America. Caudillos soon came to power in some Latin American societies; such as Argentina and Mexico. Caudillos were neither liberals or conservatives. They were merely pragmatic, believing in a ruling system of what works best. Caudillos used military force and action to hold society together.