ABSTRACT
The independence of the Thirteen Colonies, the Haitian Revolution, the Spanish American independence movements, and the political process that gave Brazil its independence in 1822 were revolutionary in different degrees and in different senses. The French Revolution can be considered the most disruptive event in the modern history of Europe. During its ten years of duration, the whole continent suffered its consequences, among them a political explosion of new principles, values, and ideas that radically changed not only the landscape of Europe, but of the entire Western World. The emancipation movement of Saint-Domingue is one of the most complex revolutionary processes that has ever taken place. The United States, Haiti, and ten new countries in Ibero-America saw the light between 1783 and 1828. The achievement of independence in itself was revolutionary, of course, but this new status was eminently political.
