Last updateFri, 19 Sep 2014 3pm

England’s American colonies, Spain’s new world possessions: different paths to independence

In three days Mexico will mark one of its most important and its most popularly celebrated patriotic dates, September 16, commemorating the beginning of this nation’s struggle for independence from Spain. For foreign residents and visitors in Mexico, September 16 often prompts the impulse to make comparisons. But they are not alone.

This exercise also attracts the attention of many Mexican citizens, especially today. The most frequent comparison made by a good many Mexican observers is between what happened to the 13 English Colonies once they attained their independence in 1783, and what happened when the much larger, older, more thoroughly established and much wealthier colony of Nueva España (New Spain) won its freedom from Spain 38 years later.


In making such a comparison there is a tendency to focus on the most apparent advantages New Spain originally possessed when compared to the seemingly less culturally sophisticated, much poorer, much smaller and obviously more fragmented 13 Colonies.

But the most apparent differences between the two (New Spain founded its first university in 1553, 54 years before the English colonists even established their first settlement in the New World, for instance,) have not been the most significant ones in the histories of these two, sometimes similar, yet profoundly different societies.

What was to determine the futures of these colonies once they shook free of the rule of European monarchies was the political, economic and cultural instincts they inherited from their parent nations. And these often have not been as easily spotted as such things as relative size, wealth or historical priority. For example, conventional knowledge has it that Spain was growing rich during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries as the New World’s treasure of precious metals was poured into its coffers. Indeed, the years from 1500 to the end of the 1600s are known as Spain’s Siglo de Oro (Golden age). When King Carlos V, who had overseen the thorough colonization of most of the New World, died and his son, Felipe II, took the throne in 1556, the Spanish Empire was the largest on earth, possessed the best navy in the world and was considered superior to England in literature and to Italy in art. Spanish was the language of millions; all educated classes of the “civilized” world learned to speak it. Spanish architecture graced major cities on five continents. Seville would soon become one of the most important ports in the world.

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This is the first of a two-part series.