Before Latin America faced the injustice of colonialism, the Maya civilization including the Yucatec, Quiche, and Kakchiquels thrived in the land of their fathers. When the Spaniards invaded their land, they infiltrated these communities and brought diseases, weapons, and religion to the shores of Latin America, destroying these ancient communities, tearing down their cities, writing and calendar systems, religious and socio-political organizations and replacing it with their own (Cal 2004, 5). Colonialism leaked into this side of the world like a cancer and spread throughout lands, slowly subjecting people to a new way of life, by will or by force, until one day they would tolerate it no more. The people of Latin America united and fought against the Spanish/Portuguese colonial control imposed by multifactorial influences. The American Revolution created a domino effect on the revolutions that occurred during this time, but it was not the sole cause of the Latin American Revolutions. To fully understand the Latin American Revolution, we must identify the factors that influenced the American Revolution, and explore the other causes that led to the independence of the New World.
According to Thomas Paine, "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason, " (Paine, 1776). An American who read these words would be motivated to reflect on the ideologies that upheld their society and the place they called home. In the 18th century, North Americans had established an economy in which a wide range of productive activities took place. European colonists had identified the areas in which resources could be exploited to achieve its full value, and Native Americans adjusted their economic activities to accommodate them.
