雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界歷史78 拉丁美洲和加勒比海群島

78
Latin America and the Caribbean Islands
拉丁美洲和加勒比海群島

     WHEN you think about places like Mexico and South America and the Caribbean islands, you may think about wonderful beaches or the celebration of Carnival that is like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. But did you know that the first university in North America opened in Mexico before Jamestown was even thought of? Or do you know the name of Simon Bolívar, a hero in South America, who is known there as well as George Washington is known in the United States?
     Mexico, which is part of North America, along with Central and South America and the island nations of the Caribbean all have long histories just as we do. Most people from the United States don't know those stories and usually don't know very much at all about the other countries in this hemisphere. So I'm going to tell you a little about these neighbors of ours, especially about several of their heroes. When you know these stories, you will know more about our neighbors to the south than most adults do! Try it out on your family. See if I'm right.
     You remember that the Spanish conquered most of the islands of the Caribbean and then Central and South America and Mexico in the years after Columbus first crossed the Atlantic. The Spanish took over lands where many different groups of Native Americans like the Mayas, the Incas, and the Aztecs had been living. They found lots of gold and silver. They made the native people work in the gold and silver mines so that the precious metals could be shipped to Spain to make that nation richer. When other European countries saw the fabulous wealth, they wanted some too. Soon the Spanish had to share the "New World" with other people. Portugal occupied the land that we call Brazil today. England and France claimed the eastern part of North America. England, France, Holland, and even Denmark snatched up some of the islands and a little land along the coast of Central and South America, but Spain continued to control most of the land that we call Latin America today. The Spanish language spoken by the colonists is still the most common language in Latin America, which includes all the lands in the Americas south of the United States. And the Roman Catholic religion, followed by most of the Spanish settlers, is still the largest religion there.
     Most of the early Spanish settlers were men. Many of them married Native American women. Soon there were a lot of people whose parents and grandparents were both European and Native American. These people are called Mestizos. People whose ancestors were only Europeans were called Creoles. In some places land owners brought slaves from Africa to do their work for them. Some people with African ancestors married Creoles or Mestizos. Soon people in Latin America came not only in all sizes and shapes but in all colors as well. The king and queen in Spain sent out officials to rule over all these people. The officials collected taxes, but they didn't let any of the people have much say in how they would be ruled.
     You can imagine that there were a lot of unhappy people in the colonies in Latin America and the Caribbean! The Creoles thought that they should run the government and keep all the gold and silver and other wealth found in America. The Native Americans and the Mestizos both believed that they should have as much power as the Creoles or the officials sent from Europe. And, of course, the slaves didn't like being slaves, and they wanted very much to be free. This was true not only in the Spanish colonies but everywhere throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean.
     Can you guess what happened next?

Colonial Latin America showing Native American civilizations
（殖民地時(shí)期拉丁美洲地圖，圖中顯示出美洲印第安人的文明古國）
     If you guessed revolution, you are right. In fact, a lot of revolutions broke out all over the place. These came not too long after the American Revolution and the French Revolution that you already know about. Each revolution had its own battles and its own heroes. Here are just a few of the stories.
     The first big revolution took place in Haiti. Haiti is an island nation in the Caribbean and was a French colony. When the revolution began in France in 1789, people in Haiti heard all about it. They heard the famous slogan, Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Do you remember what that means? Well, the people in Haiti wanted their share of that liberty, equality, and brotherhood that everyone was talking about. But the Haitians didn't exactly agree on what that meant! The wealthy Creoles who owned most of the land thought it meant that they should be equal to French people in France. Ordinary people in Haiti, some of whom had a mixed racial background (whose ancestors were part French and part African) thought it meant that they should be equal to the wealthy Creoles. Slaves believed that it meant slavery should be abolished and all the former slaves should be full citizens with the same rights as all citizens. Before long, everybody was fighting everybody else.
     One part of this fighting was a slave rebellion that began on the northern part of the island. As so often happens, a strong leader took charge and led his people to victory. This man was Toussaint L'Ouverture. Toussaint, as he is called, had been born a s lave. He is said to have been the grandson of an African king. He could read and write, and he knew all about the revolution in France and the ideals of liberty and equality. He also knew how dreadful it was to be a slave. So he and his followers fought hard until the French government abolished slavery in Haiti, and then he continued to fight until he was put in charge of the government. He ruled well for several years. He asked black people and white people to work together to rebuild the country that had been torn apart by war, and Haiti began to recover. Then Napoleon came to power in France, and Napoleon didn't like this strong ruler named Toussaint. You might say that Napoleon was jealous of Toussaint. Or maybe Napoleon just decided that he wanted to control the island. In any case, Napoleon sent soldiers to Haiti. The general in charge of the French army played a mean trick on Toussaint. He invited Toussaint to be his guest for dinner. Then, when Toussaint came, the French general took him prisoner. Toussaint was sent to a prison all the way across the Atlantic in France. He died there a year later. But all was not lost. Soon a new leader named Jean-Jacques Dessalines took over the fight, and Haiti became an independent country. This is not a story with a completely happy ending though. After independence, a civil war broke out and Haiti had no real peace for many years.
     In Spain's American colonies, there were a lot of unhappy people, too. Like the Haitians, they knew about the revolutions in the United States and in France. And they also had a lot of complaints about the conditions of their own lives. The Creoles were angry because people sent by the king from Spain had all the power, and they had none. All the people living in the Spanish colonies resented paying high taxes to the king of Spain. The Mestizos were angry with Spain just as the Creoles were. Native Americans knew that the Spanish had taken away their land, made them perform forced labor like slaves and killed many of their people. Most of all, these native peoples wanted their land back. Slaves in Latin America, like slaves everywhere, wanted to be free.
     The first revolt against Spanish rule took place in South America, in what is now the nation of Peru. It was led by a man named Tupac Amaru, a Mestizo who was descended from Inca kings. The Spanish troops came and killed him and his followers, and that was the end of that. Latin America would have to wait a while for things to change.
     A little after 1800, things really began to happen. First, in Europe, Napoleon conquered Spain, threw out the king, and made his own brother the new king of Spain. What do you think of that? Well, the people in Latin America saw it as a good excuse to declare independence. After all, their old king was no longer on the throne and clearly, they figured, Napoleon had no right to rule them. So the fighting began.
     First, in Argentina, an army organized and won independence. The leading general, José de San Martín then decided on a dangerous plan. He led his armies across the high Andes mountains into Chile and later on to Peru to fight for independence in those places, too. Look at the map and see where those countries are. About one third of San Martín's soldiers were slaves to whom he had promised freedom for joining his army.
     The best known hero in all Latin American history is Simon Bolívar. Just as I told you at the beginning, he is as famous in South America as George Washington is in the United States. Simon Bolívar was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He was the youngest of four children. His parents were wealthy Creoles who owned several houses, silver and copper mines, large herds of cattle, and large farms where sugar and cocoa were grown. You probably think that Simon must have been a very lucky little boy but, in fact, he was not. Simon's father died before he was three, and his mother died two weeks before his ninth birthday. The children all went to live in different places. Simon went to live with an uncle. This man was cold to Simon, and Simon missed the rest of his family very much.
     When Simon was eleven, his uncle hired a young man to come tutor him. In those days, wealthy boys did not go to school. They had private tutors who came to their homes. Simon's new tutor was also named Simon-Simon Rodriguez. This young teacher taught Simon Bolívar all the new ideas that educated people were talking about. He taught him about the revolutions in the United States and France. He told him to look around him at the sad lives of the Native Americans and the slaves in Venezuela and to see how the Spanish wouldn't let people in their colonies rule themselves. With all this, it's not surprising that Simon Bolívar grew up to be a revolutionary.
     In 1811, Creoles in Venezuela declared their independence from Spain. Just as we had to fight the British after we declared independence, the people of South America had to fight the Spanish to make their independence real. Simon Bolívar became one of the highest ranking officers in the rebel army. The next year, there was a terrible earthquake in Caracas that killed ten thousand of the rebel soldiers. A lot of people would have given up, but Simon Bolívar did not. He formed a new army and fought on. Finally he liberated Venezuela and then Colombia, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Bolívar was chosen president of the newly independent lands. He called this new country Gran Colombia in honor of Christopher Columbus.
     Bolívar hoped to unite all the states of Latin America. But his plans never worked out. The places that broke away from Spanish rule split into the many separate countries of modem Central and South America. One country is named for the famous leader Bolívar. Can you pick it out on the map?

Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean （拉丁美洲和加勒比海國家）
     In most of the new countries, the wealthy people would not share the power with ordinary people, and they also refused to return any land to the Native Americans. Nor would they end slavery as Simon Bolívar wanted them to do. So all of Latin America's problems were not solved after independence. Still, Simon Bolívar is a hero in all the countries of South and Central America. He is known throughout the region as El Libertador-the Liberator.
     Our nearest southern neighbor is Mexico. Take a minute and find Mexico on the map. Mexico used to be called New Spain, and it included such places as Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. Mexicans rebelled against Spain just as the people in South America did. The first uprising was led by a Creole priest named Father Miguel Hidalgo. He led a small group of Native Americans and others who joined him. They wanted to take some of the land from the few very wealthy people who owned it all and give some of it back to the native people from whom it had been taken, and to other poor people as well. The Spanish and the wealthy Creoles all went after him and, of course, they defeated his rebels. After Hidalgo was captured and executed, a Mestizo priest named Father José Maria Morelos led the fight. He, too, was captured and executed. In the end, the Creoles led the fight for independence from Spain, but they kept all the power in the hands of rich people. A general named Agustín de Iturbide actually declared Mexican independence in 1821. Soon after that, he was declared emperor, and the history of modern, independent Mexico had begun.
     You can see from all this that there is a lot of history in the Americas south of the United States. All these new names may seem hard at first but, if you just think of them as people like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, you will understand what important people they are.
     Now, you go try out some of those names on an adult you know and see how little most people from the United States know about our southern neighbors.