1. CAUSES OF THE CHILEAN INDEPENDENCE

2. What does it mean to be INDEPENDENT?

3.  1808, Spain's Empire in South America:

4.  In 1825, Spain’s empire:  the empire was all gone except for a small group of islands in the Caribbean.

5.  What happened? How could Spain's New World Empire fall apart so quickly and completely? The answer is long and complicated, but here are some of the causes.

6. Cause 1: The Enlightenment Movement  This was a new way of thinking in Europe.  It developed in the 1700s in Europe  Europeans started to read and talk a lot about monarchic systems (kings in control)  “Enlightened” people did not like kings and queens having power.  They thought people should govern themselves.

8. Cause 2: The Independence of the United States  In 1776 the colonies in North America fought and won their independence from England.  The slogan was “All men are created EQUAL”  The colonies in North America thought “We don’t want to take orders from England, we want to control ourselves!”  The Independence of the United States inspired criollos in Chile to become free

12. Cause 3: The French Revolution  The French people fought and won against the king and queen in 1789.  The French people didn’t like that the king and nobles had all of the power…so they fought to make a republic  A republic is when ALL the people participate in the government

15.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLJ1vuUWprA (Marie Antoinette) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLJ1vuUWprA  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESUzbLWuzY8& feature=related (Royal Party) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESUzbLWuzY8& feature=related

16. Cause 4: The King of Spain prisoner  In 1808, France invaded Spain and the Spanish king Ferdinand VII was taken prisoner.  Napoleon Bonaparte of France took control of the Spanish colonies in America and his brother Joseph Bonaparte became the King of Spain.  The people of the colonies did not like this and started thinking of organizing a Junta de Gobierno while the king of Spain was in prison.  On 18 September 1810, the First National Government Junta was made and the process of autonomy and liberation from Spanish dominion started.

17. Cause 5: No Respect for the Criollos  There were many criollos in the colony, but only Spanish were given important government jobs.  The Spanish treated the criollos like they were inferior  This situation made the criollos angry because they were being ignored.  The criollos started calling “Americans” and not Spaniards.

18. Cause 6: No Free Trade  The colonies were only allowed to trade with Spain or with other Spanish colonies in America (MONOPOLY)  Chile wanted to trade with more places