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There were many similarities between the causes of the American Revolution in 1776 and the Latin American Wars of Independence beginning in 1810. The main similarities between the two independence movements are essentially economical, political, and ideological. Both the United States and Latin America wanted to end the rule of a mother country whose mercantilist system impeded the development of a growing colonial economy. “The goal of mercantilism was the creation of a self-sufficient empire from which foreign trade and commerce were excluded; the domination of vital trade routes; and the acquisition of abundant stores of gold and silver by the mother country. Mercantilism was designed to gird a nation for war by recruiting its economic strength and crippling that of its rivals”(Miller 4). The two began to feel the need for self-rule without the interference of allegedly tyrannical governments. Both independence movements were greatly influenced by the revolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment. The causes of the American Revolution and the Latin American Wars of Independence were similar in many aspects. The Latin American and American independence movements were caused in part by similar economic reasons. The Briti