On the Independence of Spanish America

I have to say, although this book is a monograph, it actually makes for a really good overview of the basic events leading up to the independence of Latin American countries.

There is little in here that, in terms of basic facts, will be new to scholars of colonial Latin America. However, Jaime E. Rodríguez O. takes an approach that really appeals to me because the way he makes sense of “empire” is very similar to my own. Rodríguez O. finds that it does not make sense to view Latin America as a series of colonies subordinate to Spain. Instead, Spain itself (that is, Aragon, Castile, and Navarre) and Latin America were equally valuable, coming together as one cohesive unit. These units existed under the Monarchy, and might be better conceived of as two “realms” with one leader, both realms being made up of a number of different territories (in Spain, Catalonia, Castile, Andalusia, Galicia, etc.; in America, New Spain, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, etc.).

The text covers the period between the promulgation of the Bourbon Reforms in 1771 and the coming of Venezuelan and Ecuadorian independence in 1830. To Rodríguez O., who disputes the very concept of a “Spanish colonial empire,” the “independence” movements did not seek out independence at all but followed the same trajectory as the other “democratic revolutions” in the Untied States and France (and perhaps Haiti). While the United States and France heavily drew on French Enlightenment thought (and for the US the Scottish and English Enlightenments), Spain and Latin America both drew on a heavily Hispanic philosophical literature. While I skimmed over a lot of the actual works involved, my intuition tells me that a lot of this was inspired by quasi-liberal institutions in Catalonia before the fusion of Castile and Aragon.

Although the Bourbon Reforms caused some chafing in America, they did not in themselves lead people to rise up, although many living in Latin America (namely creoles) did seek autonomy from the Spanish Crown. The important moment in unleashing Pandora’s Box was the dissolution of the Spanish Monarchy during the Napoleonic Wars. Because governance in Spain and Latin America were both based around the institution of the Crown, the sacking of the Bourbon dynasty and its replacement with King Joseph, Napoleon’s brother, produced a power vacuum. As a result, the Cortes of Cádiz was formed in 1810 to act as a legislative and executive body. Of the approximately 300 delegates in the Cortes, about 1/5 of them came from the Americas. However, given the local nature of Spanish and Spanish American identity, there was discomfort about having a representative body made up primarily of Peninsulares legislate and execute the law in America. As a result, numerous Americans pushed for greater autonomy over their own affairs. Although they used the word “independence” (independencia), Rodríguez O. argues that “independence” meant “autonomy,” to them. When there was a true push for independence, leaders of the movement tended to use the term “emancipation” (emancipación).

In Rodríguez O.’s framing, the civil wars that took place in Latin America were not between those favoring independence vs. the status quo, they were between those favoring autonomy and those who wanted all power to be held in the Cortes. With newly found ability to navigate their position under both the Cortes and under the autonomy that came out of civil war, the return of Fernando VII presented a major problem: he wanted all power to once again be held in the Crown. This was impossible to stomach both in the Iberian Peninsula and in America. As a result, the Spanish wrote a new constitution that heavily limited Fernando’s powers—praised by many, but also opposed by many. In fact, Mexican military leaders that favored the status quo during the first phase of the movement toward American independence actually sided with their enemies (who initially wanted autonomy) because they believed the new constitution to be far too radical.

In the end, the anarchy brought about by 1808 dissolved the ties between the Iberian Peninsula and America, fully splitting the two realms and bringing about the independence of virtually every region in Latin America (Puerto Rico and Cuba are notable exceptions). Of course, this did not end the issues that Americans faced—the military-minded caudillos came to face off against those of a more liberal mindset through the rest of the century, ultimately bringing about a really turbulent origin story for every country south of the Rio Grande.

Such a fascinating work and I learned so much. Although this is a library book, I might buy my own copy so I can look back at it when I need to.