Gordon Wood's The Radicalism Of The American Revolution

In the 19th century, colonies all over Latin America started revolting in an effort to break away from Spanish rule. Though one might assume that an independence movement as Gordon Wood wrote in his book, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, was “a full scale assault on dependency” (Wood 179). By saying this, Wood was trying to convey that social status was no longer determined by race or place of birth but rather by talent or merit. However, this statement does not apply to Mexico and their struggle to gain independence. Mexico's independence movement does not reflected Gordon Wood's statement and exhibited continued dependency through the social aspects of Mexico.
Narrative
Mexico’s independence movements were very different from the other independence movements of …show more content…
a situation in which the economy of a certain group of countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy, to which their own is subjected" (Groglopo).

In Mexico, "dependency perspectives have significantly shaped subsequent analysis of the Mexican Revolution and its impact on internal, as well as external, social relations" (Haynes). Along with many other colonies of the time, Mexico was founded under the principles of mercantilism. Mercantilism is the idea that the country’s wealth is dependent on the amount of gold and silver they are able to accumulate. The relationship thus that a colony and a mother country has is very interdependent. The mother country depends on the colony to continue to provide those precious natural resources so that they can achieve wealth and power. The colony is entirely dependent on the mother country for the importation of other goods that the country itself cannot produce.