1822
Brazilian Independence
Prince Pedro, regent of Portugal's largest colony, stood by the Ipiranga River near São Paulo and declared 'Independence or death!' - breaking with his father's Lisbon court. Brazil became an independent empire without the bloodshed that was consuming Spanish America. A prince had led the revolution, which gave it a peculiarly orderly, monarchical character.
Liberia Founded
The American Colonization Society landed freed American slaves on Cape Mesurado in West Africa with a mandate to build a Christian, English-speaking republic. The idea - that Black Americans would be happier elsewhere - was dubious. The settlers built a capital called Monrovia and governed, uneasily, as a colonial elite.
Denmark Vesey Plot
In Charleston, a free Black carpenter and former enslaved man was accused of organizing an elaborate slave uprising that would have burned the city. Vesey and thirty-four others were hanged; the AME church he belonged to was torn down. The plot may have been mostly white paranoia. The reprisal was very real.
Moka Sardili Taken by Ibrahim
Ibrahim Pasha, Muhammad Ali's son, landed on the Morea at the head of an Egyptian army trained by French officers and armed with modern weapons. He proceeded to systematically crush the Greek revolt with a brutality that shocked even contemporary observers. Only European intervention at Navarino five years later saved the Greek cause.
Battle of Pichincha
On the slopes of a volcano above Quito, Antonio Jose de Sucre beat the last Spanish army in the north of South America. Bolivar and Sucre met at Guayaquil; Ecuador joined Gran Colombia. A month later Bolivar and San Martin would have their famous private interview, and the liberator of the south would retire.