6 Wars of Independence

When King Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286, his last heir following not long after, a feud erupted between the two leading contenders to fill the royal vacancy: Robert the Bruce and John de Balliol. In order to decide the rightful ruler, King Edward I of England was asked by the Guardians of Scotland to judge the contest. Edward voted for Balliol to take over but only after convincing the two prospective kings to swear fealty to England. King John de Balliol immediately regretted his oath to Edward when the English king demanded that he send troops to war against France. Balliol refused, and Edward punished the Scots by invading their country, beginning a 32-year war for Scottish independence. Scotland fought back against the English forces but to no avail at first. Balliol was imprisoned, and another man named William Wallace filled his void in years of resistance against English control. Eventually, Scotland asked France for assistance, angering Edward even further. But before he could subdue Scotland into a dutiful territory, Edward I died and left his son in charge of a divided England. With a now weakened opponent, Robert the Bruce rose again from his initial loss for kingship to finally secure Scottish independence at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

In 1808 France invaded Spain in an attempt to take control of the Iberian peninsula. The subsequent war caused an uproar in Spain’s American colonies over neglect. The Spanish government, colonists believed, allowed injustice to the poor and discrimination against Native Americans and mestizos, or people of mixed ancestry. A Roman Catholic priest from the colony named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla called for a revolt against Spain in his famous speech, the “Grito de Dolores.” Hidalgo’s speech was inspirational, and a rebellion swept the entire colony, eventually reaching the capital, Mexico City. But, for some unknown reason, Hidalgo retreated, and the rebellion ended in failure. For years afterward, revolution bubbled in small areas around New Spain. Opposition to the rebels came from American-born Spaniards, called “criollos,” who received amnesty from Spain for surrendering in the rebellion. The two warring factions of Mexican royalists and rebels left the colony at a stalemate. However, in 1820 Spain instituted a liberal government that lessened the role of the Catholic church and the royal nobility, which threatened the power of the royalist elites. In order to maintain their power and the status quo, royalist forces began to fight alongside the rebels, eventually securing the independence of Mexico on September 27, 1821.

After securing independence, Mexico gained control of the region known as Texas. Looking to advance the new country, the Mexican government instituted low tariffs and an open immigration policy to entice American settlers to the territory. However, the deal came with a few conditions: settlers were required to convert to Catholicism and become Mexican citizens, and there was to be no slavery. By 1830 American settlers in Texas far outnumbered Mexican citizens, but they refused to become Mexican citizens themselves. Feeling like the Americans were taking advantage of their generosity, the Mexican government reinstated higher taxes and put a stop to immigration. These restrictions angered the American settlers, who then wanted Texas to be its own republic, and sparked small conflicts between the opposing groups. Antonio López de Santa Anna, the president of Mexico at the time, led Mexican troops into the territory to stop the growing army of settlers, beginning the Texas Revolution. After nearly a year of fighting, Sam Houston, the leader of the Texan military force, launched a surprise attack on Santa Anna’s encamped troops on April 21, 1836. Houston was able to capture Santa Anna and force him to sign the Treaties of Velasco, securing Texan independence.

The French Revolution was hugely inspirational: if French commoners could overthrow their country’s oppressive government, why couldn’t other groups do the same? The slaves and citizens in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now known as Haiti) wondered just that. Saint-Domingue’s slaves had no rights, and the citizens of the colony were angered by trade restrictions in which they had no say. Tensions rose between the colony and its unjust ruler, so the General Assembly of Paris attempted to ease this pressure by granting citizenship to free people of color, an unprecedented move by a colonial power. However, this angered the slave population further, who would then be citizens were they not slaves. A rebellion erupted in 1791, led by former slave Toussaint Louverture, and spread throughout the island and began the Haitian Revolution. To keep the territory under control, France made another bold move: it freed all the slaves in Saint-Domingue, calming tensions for a while. However, ideas of reinstating slavery grew, along with revolts against French control, when Napoleon Bonaparte took over at the helm of France. After years of fighting, the Haitian rebels defeated the last wave of French forces at the Battle of Vertières, and Haiti became the first black-led nation to establish its independence.

Under the control of the British East India Company in 1857, Indian people felt constrained and oppressed. Through various political tactics, British forces would often take control of land from Indian officials. One such trick, a doctrine of lapse, secured land for the British if a native ruler was “incompetent” or died without a male heir. Not only was Indian land stolen, but the culture was threatened as well. Christian missionaries often attempted to convert the largely Hindu and Muslim population. The breaking point came when Indian soldiers, called sepoys, were given bullets by British officials that required their casings to be bitten off. These bullets were greased with lard, and Indian troops believed that the grease could be either pig or cow fat. The use of cow fat goes against doctrines of Hinduism, while the use of pig fat opposes Islamic doctrine. Though the actual composition of the grease is unknown, the perceived insult spurred rebellions by Indian sepoys against their British officers. These rebellions, collectively known as the Sepoy Mutiny, are also referred to as the First Indian War of Independence by some. Mangal Pandey, an Indian soldier, was the first to revolt. The rebels seized the Indian territory of Delhi but were eventually quelled by the British. In response to the rebellion, the British East India Company was replaced with the British Raj, which had even more political and personal control over India.

In March 1947 the first political party to be formed in Madagascar, known as the Mouvement Démocratique de la Rénovation Malgache (Democratic Movement for Malagasy Renewal; MDRM), began staging attacks against French military occupation of the island. Since 1897 the island had been under the strict colonial rule of the French. When the MDRM tried to legally regain power in their country, the French forces denied their claim. In an attempt to regain their home and oust French officials, upward of one million Malagasy resistance fighters attacked sites of French control across the territory. Within months, French military forces were sent from neighboring African countries to push back against the rebellion for independence. Using mostly inhumane tactics, French forces destroyed the homes and villages of Malagasy people, committed mass executions, and tortured civilians and militants alike. It is estimated that up to 100,000 Malagasy people were killed by French retaliation to the uprising, while there were only about 550 French nationalist fatalities. Though they did not win their independence in the uprising of 1947, the Malagasy people were given control of their country and independence by vote in 1960.