13.2. Bourgeois revolutions in Latin America, USA, Japan

Formation of independent states in Latin America . XIX century. was a century of stormy revolutionary upheavals, bourgeois revolutions, which took a wide variety of odds: uprising, civil war, national liberation movement. The most common cause of bourgeois revolutions is the need to eliminate the feudal system and its remnants. The tasks that the bourgeois revolution was intended to accomplish were determined by the specific causes of a particular country. In some countries, the most important task was to solve the agrarian question, in others - the conquest of national independence, in the third - the national unification of the country. Bourgeois revolutions showed features of a national process designed to create the conditions for the development of the capitalist system and the transfer of power to the bourgeoisie. However, for the solution of problems, there was often a lack of strength, organization and onslaught; therefore, a revolutionary action suffered a partial or complete defeat. And this determined the repetition of bourgeois revolutions, which solved pressing problems in stages, such as in France, where from 1789 to 1871. Four revolutions took place, and only the revolution of 1871 put an end to the monarchical system.

In the first quarter of the XIX century. there was a whole series of revolutions in Europe and Latin America.

The colonization of the countries of Latin America, accompanied by rampant violence and the plundering of their wealth by the metropolises, provoked resistance from the indigenous population of the Indians, mestizos, Creoles. Meanwhile, in the colonies developed, albeit at a slow pace, industry, trade, and the dominant stratum of landowners, traders, and clergymen took shape. Landowners and traders were indignant at the arbitrariness of the colonial officials, taxes and the prohibition to trade with other countries. The peasants who were deprived of their land were day laborers who were heavily taxed. In the colonies, the struggle of the indigenous population, as well as slaves against the colonialists, did not stop. The objectives of the struggle of the participants did not coincide in many respects, but the desire to throw off foreign oppression united them.

In 1810, a mass liberation movement in Mexico began, which ended in 1821 by proclaiming the independence of the state. Argentina was liberated by the revolutionary forces under the command of José San Martin (1778-1850) in 1816. The war of liberation under Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) proclaimed Venezuela’s independence in 1819. In 1822 Brazil was liberated from the Portuguese yoke. 1924 dropped the oppression of Peru.

The result of the liberation wars of the first quarter of the XIX century. in Latin America was the formation of independent states. By their nature, these wars were incomplete bourgeois revolutions, which did not resolve many of the issues before them, including land issues. The landowners retained vast estates and political power. In some countries until the mid 50s. XIX century. slavery continued to exist, and in Brazil until the 1980s. All this hindered the capitalist development of the countries of Latin America, but the national liberation movement was expanding.

US Civil War

US Civil War . The victory of the first bourgeois revolution, which was the warrior of Americans for independence against England at the end of the XVIII century, created the conditions for the capitalist development of the United States. Natural conditions also contributed to rapid economic growth: a mild climate and a wealth of mineral resources. The location of the country across the ocean made it possible to bear relatively small military expenditures on the country's defense. However, in the US, capitalist relations developed unevenly. If in the northern states the bourgeois order and farming were quickly established, capitalist industry grew, in the southern states the slave-owning system prevailed. In the northern states, slavery was abolished as early as the beginning of the 19th century, and in the South in 1860 there were 4 million Ne gr o slaves. The main obstacle to capitalist development throughout the country was slavery.

Planters of the South did extensive farming, constantly needed new lands, and sought to seize fertile land in the West. But the North American bourgeoisie, farmers and displaced people also claimed these lands. Further expansion of the territory of plantation economy ensured the preservation of slavery. Planters traditionally exported agricultural products and raw materials to European countries and imported industrial goods from there. As a result, North American manufacturers lost their source of raw materials and the market for industrial products. These factors led to contradictions between the capitalist North and the slave-owning South. Due to the weakness of the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie of the North, political power belonged to the planters, who nominated their henchmen for presidency. The desire to maintain low duties on industrial goods imported from Europe forced some farmers to also cast their votes to southerner candidates.

However, an increasing number of people opposed slavery in the 50s. the struggle against slavery intensified. The need to abolish slavery became inevitable. In the course of the armed struggle against slavery, the Republican Party was formed in the state of Kansas, uniting the bourgeoisie in its ranks, farmers opposed to slavery. The reason for the war between the North and the South was the election in 1860 to the post of US President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), one of the talented leaders of the Republican Party and a supporter of the abolition of slavery. Planters at their congress decided to separate the slave states from the Union and began preparations for war. In 1861, these states created the Confederation, whose troops revolted in April and seized the forts and arsenals in the south of the country. The outbreak of the Civil War was the result of the aggravation of economic and socio-political contradictions between the two social systems: the wage labor system and the slavery system. By the nature of the war was a bourgeois-democratic revolution, the second revolution in the territory of the United States. Slave-owning planters fought to preserve slavery as a social system, spreading it throughout the country. The main task at the first stage of the war was that the northerners considered the restoration of the Union of all states and the prevention of the expansion of slavery to new regions.

After a series of military failures, the government of A. Lincoln, at the request of the workers, farmers, the bourgeoisie, turned to revolutionary methods of warfare. The army was replenished with thousands of volunteers and blacks who fled to the North, then conscription was introduced. During the war years, 2.7 million people were drafted into the army of the North, and 1.1 million - into the army of the South. Now the northerners waged a war not only to restore the country's unity and prevent the spread of slavery, but also to eliminate the slavery system and free land allotment. i.e. the tasks of the war became revolutionary.

The law on homesteads, passed in 1862, was of great importance for the success of northerners (the land plot law, according to which a US citizen who was 21 years old and did not fight against the North, could receive up to 65 hectares after paying the fee - $ 10). In 1862, a government declaration was signed for the release of slaves. Tens of thousands of former slaves volunteered to join the army. Military initiative passed to the northerners. In 1864, troops under the command of W. Sherman (1820-1891) invaded the rear of the southerners. This march in a number of areas of the South caused a N eg ro uprising and speeches by farmers, workers and artisans against slave owners. The troops of General U. Grant (1822-1885), who in 1864 was appointed commander-in-chief of the army of northerners, surrounded the capital of the Confederation and in April 1865 occupied it. The commander-in-chief of the army of the South, General R. Lee (1807–1870), was forced to surrender with the remnants of the troops. The War of 1861-1865 was brutal and bloody: the northerners lost 360 thousand dead and died from wounds and diseases, and the southerners - 250 thousand

The victory of the northerners in the Civil War ensured the elimination of economic and political disunity of the country, the abolition of slavery, the democratic resolution of the agrarian question in the West of the country, the victory of the farming (American) way of agricultural development in most of the United States, the creation of a single national market and the expansion of the democratic rights of citizens.

The civil war was the first stage of the second bourgeois-democratic revolution, and the years of the Reconstruction of the South (1865-1877) became its second stage. The purpose of the Reconstruction was to carry out bourgeois-democratic reforms in the southern states and limit the power of the former slave owners. All power was temporarily transferred to federal troops. In December 1865, Congress approved the liberation of blacks, and in 1866, the 14th Amendment to the country's Constitution recognized the right to vote for blacks. However, the neg ros did not get land. With the withdrawal of federal troops from the southern states, power again passed to the planters. This was a betrayal of the bourgeoisie of the northern states of their Ne gro allies, it meant the end of Reconstruction.

Despite the restoration of the power of planters. Reconstruction was important in the US historical process. Its main result is the creation of conditions for the development of capitalist relations in the South of the country, the completion of the process of creating a single national market. The years of Reconstruction were the downward stage of the second bourgeois-democratic revolution in the United States.

Japan in the XIX century

Japan in the XIX century. The capitalist structure in Japan began to take shape at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. In the 50's and 60's. in the internal political life of the country there have been profound changes. Under pressure from the United States, Russia and England in 1854, Japan was forced to abandon the policy of self-isolation, open a number of ports for foreign ships. Japan entered the world market. Started in 1867-1868 as the traditional struggle between noble families for power ended with the Meiji bourgeois revolution. The nascent bourgeoisie, the impoverished, patriotic samurai (knights), the peasants, the urban poor took part in this movement. The imperial army, defeating the shogun's army (commander), in May 1868 entered the capital Edo (Tokyo). The government has been deposed. The 15-year-old Mutsuhito (1852-1912) became the Emperor of Japan.

The aggravation of social contradictions, the need for accelerated economic development, the desire to resist the colonial policy of the United States and other countries forced the new Japanese government to embark on reforms. The focus was on the development of industry, commerce, the military sphere and the mastery of advanced western technology. In order to undermine the economic base of the feudal principalities that interfered with national unity, in 1871 the frontiers were liquidated, the country was divided into gubernias and prefectures headed by an official appointed by the center and monotonous management was established throughout the country. Cadres of officials were formed from the former princes and samurai, now lost their independence. It was a new stratum of bureaucracy, although it did not yet have any experience, but it was not mired in corruption and bribery and, therefore, did not hinder the modernization of society.

The reform of 1872 established three estates in Japanese society: the highest nobility, which included the former princes and the court aristocracy; the nobility, which included the former samurai; the estate of the common people, including the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie.

In the years 1872-1873 a rather radical agrarian reform was carried out, establishing private ownership of land. The land was assigned to those who really owned it at the time of the reform, i.e. for wealthy peasants, although some landowners who did not have the opportunity to pay a ransom for land and tax, lost their land. The overwhelming majority of the peasantry secured for themselves insignificant land allotments.

These peasants became tenants, farm laborers or rushed into the cities. The prosperous peasantry and the new landowners, having received the land, were freed from rent in favor of the princes. The corvee and the rent were abolished, and a monetary tax of 3% of the price of land was paid to the state.

Among the important changes for Japanese society were the introduction of universal military service and the organization of the European-style education system. Young Japanese were given the opportunity to receive higher education in all branches of science and technology in Europe and America. There have also been changes in the ideological sphere. Instead of Buddhism, Shinto was declared the state religion , which preserved the cult of an ancient deity - the goddess of the Sun, introduced the cult of Tenno as the embodiment of the highest heavenly forces. This was to say that the deity of celestial bodies settled in Japan is evidence of the superiority of the Japanese over all of humanity.

The implementation of reforms ensured the rapid development of the capitalist mode of production, the banking system.

Reforms of the 6080s showed the need for implementation also in the political field of the relevant reforms, in particular, the creation of a parliamentary system. In 1889, the text of the constitution was published, which endowed the emperor with broad rights, proclaimed democratic freedoms and the rights of citizens, and their realization opened a wide way for the intensive development of capitalism. The first Japanese parliament, which was largely independent and stubborn in making relevant decisions, met in 1890. The constitutional monarchy was created, in which the emperor was vested with a legislative initiative, the right to appoint ministers, convene and dissolve parliament, where the high chamber was composed of members of the imperial family and persons close to the emperor testified to the limited democratic institutions of power and the regularity of such a process.

The pace of economic, social and political modernization, which was fast for a recently backward country, was provided by the labor of peasants and workers who were cruelly exploited by Japanese capital: a 12–14-hour working day, low wages, and political powerlessness. This was typical of the early development of capitalism in any country. However, Japan managed to quickly pass this period thanks to the emergence of the workers and trade union movement and, importantly, the planting in Japanese society of paternalistic traditions and direct contacts of employers with their workers. This led to a weakening of the strike movement of workers. And, of course, the wide use of the achievements of science and technology, the complex of values ​​of their own and those of foreign countries, bore fruit.