Why didn't the Great Awakening spread to the Spanish Colonies?

Question

Since I have begun paying more attention to early South and Latin American history it made me wonder about the extent of the religious movement in the British Colonies that we call the Great Awakening; particularly why it seems to have been confined to North America when the Spanish colonies also may have been ripe for a Christian religious movement (for those more religiously inclined among its settlers).

I am primarily thinking of the influence that the itinerant preacher George Whitfield might have had, who in my mind would be the best candidate out of any of the preachers of the Great Awakening to go to South America since he traveled extensively, often disregarding parish and parochial borders, on both sides of the Atlantic (unlike Jonathan Edwards who preached mostly in his local region).

Or if the Spanish Colonies were not impacted directly by the Great Awakening then why did they not at least have their own version of it in somewhat analogous fashion? A simplistic suggestion might be that the Great Awakening did not spread to Spanish Colonial soil because the English Colonies were predominantly Protestant and the Spanish Colonies were predominantly Catholic, thus the Spanish Colonies were less likely to be receptive to such a movement.

However, there may be other stronger contributing factors such as political and military reasons, and of course the language barrier not being the least of them. Yet I wonder whether the language barrier could not have been mitigated as well by Spanish speaking preachers who potentially might have shared the motivations of those like George Whitefield to reach masses of people, or perhaps even by employing a Spanish translator. (To use an earlier Protestant example, William Tyndale was actually conversant in Spanish).

Perhaps this is facile to think an originally English, Protestant movement would have any relation to or impact on the Spanish (and Portuguese) Christians, but I wonder why not? The colonies of North and South America were still relatively young and only loosely united amongst themselves, and both were havens for religious communities and peoples seeking a new land. There were a few settlements of French Huguenot and Dutch Protestant settlements in South America as well, and so it was not entirely Catholic, and there were also conscientious Catholics in Spanish America like Bartolomé de las Casas (to use an early example), though I don't know if he was inclined toward preaching.

As for the political and military reasons, the best illustration that I have found of the tensions at that time between the Spanish and the English - during the time period of the Great Awakening - was the "War of Jenkins' Ear". Georgia was a fairly new colony governed by General James Oglethorpe. Interestingly it was in Savannah, Georgia that John and Charles Wesley first came to the British Colonies from over seas (with a group of Protestant Moravians) and only 10 miles south of Savannah was where George Whitefield's orphanage was founded in 1740, all during Oglethorpe's governorship. East and West Florida were Spanish occupied and the tensions of international trade on the seas came to a head between the British and Spanish in the War of Jenkins Ear (1739-1748), which began a year before Whitefield's orphanage was founded in Georgia [Source: War of Jenkins' Ear ]. In 1742 the war came to Georgia:

In 1742, the Spanish launched an attempt to seize the British colony of Georgia. Manuel de Montiano commanded 2,000 troops, who were landed on St Simons Island off the coast. General Oglethorpe rallied the local forces and defeated the Spanish regulars at Bloody Marsh and Gully Hole Creek, forcing them to withdraw. Border clashes between the colonies of Florida and Georgia continued for the next few years, but neither Spain nor Britain undertook offensive operations on the North American mainland. [Source: War of Jenkins' Ear - Invasion of Georgia]

So perhaps it was simply too dangerous for the Great Awakening preachers to have even attempted to reach the Spanish settlements, if they even had the propensity to do so. So what factors do you think are the largest? Language barrier? Protestant versus Catholic? English versus Spanish? Something else?

Answer 1

Perhaps this is facile to think an originally English, Protestant movement would have any relation to or impact on the Spanish Catholic Christians, but I wonder why not? The colonies of North and South America were still relatively young and only loosely united amongst themselves, and both were havens for religious communities and peoples seeking a new land. There were a few settlements of French Huguenot and Dutch Protestant settlements in South America as well, and so it was not entirely Catholic, and there were also conscientious Catholics in Spanish America like Bartolomé de las Casas (to use an early example), though I don't know if he was inclined toward preaching.

The real question is why should it?

• Catholics and Protestants were just generations from burning each other at the stake
• England and Spain were often at war or nearly so
• It was the policy of colonial powers to restrict trade from a colony to other nation's colonies
• The language barrier.
• Catholics tend to make improvements within the Church system rather than through individual activism.

Answer 2

1 On the Spanish american colonies the majority of population was native not Spaniards. Spaniards were the only educated people and much more They were aristocrats and were the ruling class. The American Spanish Viceroy was a captain general. I mean chief of military generals. In contrast, USA that were Europeans.

2 "The Catholicism also accepts liberalism" please, in history, we have great inventors but always weren't accepted by "conservative" politicians. Spain has Nobel prizes please.

3 the biggest colonization of Spanish America by Spaniards was in 1850-1950 before were a minority.

One Thing, the country that received more Spaniards wasn't Mexico, not Venezuela, not any Caribbean Islands, not Chile, not even USA. Was Argentina. 5,2 million Spaniards colonized America. 2 million chose Argentina.

The British empire consist in the colonization of the countries with its population. Spain, in contrast, only were in the head of the government. Were the elite after the conquest. In the final of XVIII. century spain was holding American colonies with 750.000 settlers while British like Canada or Australia were millions of settlers.Not to say that UK colonize the USA starting with 2 million of english settlers.

Spain has too much land controlled by a tiny loyal population. The spanish great colonization of his empire started in the middle of XIX.century. The hold puerto rico and Cuba more time due to we send 600.000 settlers. The same as Rif, Spanish Sahara and Spanish with less group of settlers but we sent them.

UK, in contrast, started his empire when its biggest growth. Just at the end XVII. century and early XVII.century (just after their civil war) but it was in XIX.century when started their great empire having the biggest and the best navy of europe and the pionner of Industrial Revolution.