r. a. humphreys & john lynch - the emancipation of latin america

ESTUDIOS BIBLIOGR?FICOS

THE EMANCIPATION OF LATIN AMERICA

It could properly be said ten years ago that, with the possible exception of

the establishment of Spanish power in the New World in the first quarter of the

sixteenth century, no subject had so closely and continuously engaged the at

tention of Spanish American historians as the subversion of that power in the

first quarter of the nineteenth century.1 This judgment is still valid today. Even

the most casual inspection of such general bibliographical aids as the Handbook

of Latin American Studies2 and the Indice Hist?fico Espa?ol3 serves to confirm

it; and, naturally enough, a decade which has seen the hundred and fiftieth

anniversary in 1960 of the revolutions of 1810 in Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Chile, as well as of the Grito de Dolores in Mexico, has seen also a flood of

publications to swell the already formidable proportions of the literature relating to Latin America in the age of emancipation. They include specialized biblio

grahies and indices?the Bibliograf?a de Artigas in Uruguay is an outstanding

example;4 catalogues of manuscripts and of contemporary publications5?the

i R. A. Humphreys, "The Historiography of the Spanish American Revolutions," X Congresso Internazionale di Science Storiche, Relazioni (6 Vols., Firenze, 1955) i, 207-23. Reprinted in the Hispanic American Historical Review, xxxvi (1956), 81-93.

2 Harvard University Press, 1936-51; University of Florida Press, 1951. 3 Centro de Estudios Hist?ricos Internacionales, Universidad de Barcelona, 1953. 4 Mar?a Julia Ardao and Aurora Capillas de Castellanos, Bibliograf?a de Ar

tigas (2 vols., Montevideo, 1953-58). See also G. Furlong Cardiff and A. R. Geoghegan, Bibliograf?a de la Revoluci?n de Mayo, 1810-1828 (Buenos Aires, I960), Manuel Se gundo S?nchez, Obras (2 vols., Caracas, 1964), and Sergio Villalobos R., ?ndice de la Colecci?n de historiadores y de documentos relativos a la independencia de Chile (San tiago, 1956).

5 As, for example, Ricardo Donoso, Fuentes documentales para la historia de la

independencia de Am?rica (M?xico, I960), the first of the inventories of European archives to be published by the Comisi?n de Historia of the Instituto Panamericano de Geograf?a e Historia; Carlos E. Casta?eda and J. A. Dabbs, Independent Mexico in Documents: In

dependence, Empire and Republic. A calendar of the Juan E. Hern?ndez y D?valos manu

script collection. The University of Texas Library (Mexico, 1954); Angel Grisanti, El archivo del Libertador. Indice (3 vols., Caracas, 1956); Pedro Grases, Cat?logo de la

exposici?n bibliogr?fica bolivariana organizada en ocasi?n del primer Congreso Interna cional de Sociedades Bolivarianas (Caracas, 1962); G. Valenzuela, Bibliograf?a guate

malteca, y cat?logo general de libros, folletos, peri?dicos, revistas, etc., 182?-1830 (Gua temala, 1961).

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R. A. Humphreys and John Lynch R. H. A. Num. O

former all the more urgently needed, because the archives of Spain and Portugal and of the countries of Latin America are still inadequately catalogued for many

periods, including the independence period; and, besides a host of monographs,,

large and small, an impressive series of documentary publications, ranging from

local homenajes on the one hand to such monumental enterprises on the other

as the Biblioteca de Mayo in Argentina6 and the Biblioteca de la Academia Na

cional de la Historia in Venezuela.7

This more recent documentation, it is true, follows familiar lines and is

not likely to result in any startingly new interpretations. It is, however, extensive,

valuable and interesting. In Mexico, for example, the documents published by the

Archivo General de la Naci?n in its Bolet?n continue to throw light on the political administrative and ecclesiastical history of Mexican independence, and Mexican

as well as Venezuelan history has been enriched by the publication of source

materials drawn from Cuban archives.8 The Academia Colombiana de Historia

has reprinted three early New Granadan periodicals and has published also a

collection of documents illustrating the events of July 1810.9 In Brazil a similar

but more substantial collection has been put together to illustrate the revolution

of 1817,10 and while, in Chile, thirteen volumes of the Colecci?n de Antiguos Peri?dicos Chilenos were published between 1951 and 1964, the A f chivo de don

Bernardo (yWggins reached its twentieth volume in 1964 and the Colecci?n de

Historiadores y Documentos relativos a la Independencia de Chile its fortieth

volume in 1959.

The most impressive body of new documentary publications, however, comes*

from Venezuela and Argentina. The Bolivarian tradition in Venezuela still holds*

its own, as witness the volume of petitions addressed to Bolivar, together with

his decisions upon them, published by the Fundaci?n John Boulton.11 But Vene

zuela has also made available a superb collection of basic source materials for

the study of the independence period and its background, by reprinting on a

vast scale official documents, newspapers, memoirs and other sources, as well4

? Biblioteca de Mayo. Colecci?n de obras y documentos para la historia argentina (8 vols., Buenos Aires, I960).

? 35 vols. (Caracas, 1959-60); vol. 36 (1961). 8

J. L. Franco, ed., Documentos para la historia de M?xico existentes en el Archiva^ Nacional de Cuba (Havana, 1961), and Documentos para la historia de Venezuela exis

tentes en el Archivo Nacional de Cuba (Havana, I960). 9 El periodismo en la Nueva Granada, 1810-1811 , ed. Luis Mart?nez Delgado ancf

Sergio Elias Ortiz (Bogot?, I960); Documentos sobre el 20 de julio de 1810, ed. Enrique Ortega Ricaurte (Bogot?, I960); El Banco de la Rep?blica, Proceso hist?rico del 20 de

julio de 1810: documentos (Bogot?, I960). 10 Biblioteca Nacional, Documentos hist?ricos. Revolu??o de 1817 (7 vols., Rio de

Janeiro, 1953-5). See also Angelo Pereira, D. Joao VI, pr?ncipe e re?. Vol. Hi. A inde

pendencia do Brasil (Lisbon, 1956). il Acotaciones bolivarianas. Decretos marginales del Libertador, 1813-1830 (Caracas,

I960); Vicente Lecuna, Cataloga de errores y calumnias en la historia de Bol?var (3> vols., Caracas, 1956-8); Cartas del Libertador, vol. xii, ed. Manuel P?rez Vila (Caracas,. 1959); Sociedad Bolivariana de Venezuela, Escritos del Libertador, vol. i (Caracas, 1964).

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as a number of scarce secondary works.12 Argentina has been similarly prolific

in making old sources more conveniently accessible and in providing

new texts;

and though the Argentine contribution tends, on the whole, to neglect the deeper

sources of the independence movement and to focus attention on the events of

1810 and succeeding years, it provides an immense corpus of material on the

political, municipal, diplomatic, naval and military history of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata in the revolutionary era.13 Meanwhile, the voices of

protest from those areas of the viceroyalty which rejected Buenos Aires and

eventually accomplished their own independence have not gone unrecorded: from

Uruguay there is a fine edition of documents relating to the junta of 1808 at

Montevideo, and from Bolivia a valuable addition to our knowledge of the rebel

lion of 1809 in Alto Peru, particularly welcome both because of the remoteness

of the original manuscripts and because of the previous neglect of the subject.14

Finally, the history of the independence movement in Brazil, the Rio de la Plata, Chile and Peru has been partially illustrated by the publication in Britain of the

correspondence of the British naval commanders in South American waters be

tween 1807 and 1823.15

This last collection of documents is an example of an apparently specialized

source?in this case admiralty documents?yielding fruitful general results.

But this kind of documentation has had few imitators. In one field, that of

diplomatic history, it was to be expected that there would be a decline in docu

mentary publications, once the great series of British and United States documents

had appeared.16 But the relative lack of documentation of economic, social, local,

and also of family history can only be deplored.17 These are still the neglected

i2 Biblioteca de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, note 7 above. See also Pedro

Grases and Manuel P?rez Vila, eds., Pensamiento pol?tico venezolano del siglo xix (15

vols.,. Caracas, 1960-3), and Las fuerzas armadas de Venezuela (textos para su estudio),

published by the Presidencia de la Rep?blica (Caracas, 1963.) 13 Biblioteca de Mayo. Colecci?n de obras y documentos pata la historia argentina

(8 vols., Buenos Aires, I960); Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Historia Ar

gentina "Doctor Emilio Ravignani," Mayo Documental (8 vols., Buenos Aires, 1962-64); Academia Nacional de la Historia, Memorias del Almirante Brown (Buenos Aires, 1957); Instituto Nacional Sanmartiniano and Museo Hist?rico Nacional, Documentos para la histo

ria del Libertador General San Mart?n (8 vols., Buenos Aires, 1953-60); Carlos A. Luque Colombres, ed., Cabildo de C?rdoba: Actas capitulares (C?rdoba, I960). See also the

documents published in the review Historia, v (i960). 14 Museo Hist?rico Nacional, Documentos relativos a la Junta Montevideana de Go*

bierno de 1808 (3 vols., Montevideo, 1958-60); M. M. Pinto, Carlos Ponce Sangin?s, and Ra?l Alfonso Garc?a, Documentos para la historia de la Revoluci?n de 1809 (4 vols., La Paz, 1953-54).

15 Gerald S. Graham and R. A. Humphreys, The Navy and South America, 1807

1823: Correspondence of the Commanders-in-Chief on the South American Station (London, Navy Records Society, 1962).

16 See however, Ernesto de la Torre Villar, Correspondencia diplom?tica franco mexicana, 1808-1839, vol. i (M?xico, 1957); Crist?bal L. Mendoza, Las primeras mi

siones diplom?ticas de Venezuela (2 vols., Madrid, 1962); Vicente Lecuna, Relaciones

diplom?ticas de Bol?var con Chile y Buenos Aires (2 vols., Caracas, 1954). 17 That which has appeared, however, shows what can be done. See the edition of

Jos? Rafael Revenga, La hacienda p?blica de Venezuela en 1828-1829 (Caracas, 1953);

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R. A. Humphreys and John Lynch R. H. A. Num. 59

aspects of the historiography of the independence period. They demand a major effort on the part of historians. The problems of identifying, classifying and

editing the sources for economic and social history are, no doubt, especially dif

ficult. But the sources are available in national, municipal and private archives,

including business archives, both foreign and domestic, and it is high time that

attention was given to them. The records of the consulados, for example, may well

help to elucidate many problems not only of the independence movement itself

but of its origins.18

The origins of the Latin American revolutions, like the causes of the French

revolution, were long assumed to be known and understood. Modern historio

graphy, however, has increasingly questioned many of the assumptions at one

time taken for granted; the problems of the political, economic, social and intel

lectual antecedents of the revolutions still remain among the most fruitful fields

of investigation; and the picture which is emerging is an increasingly complicated

picture.19

In the first place further attention has been given to the "precursors" of

independence. This welcome and valuable. Its results, however, do little to

affect the view that what have been traditionally called the "antecedents" of

independence were in fact either no more than criticisms of abuses within the

existing regime, or, where they were indeed more radical, were

probably un

representative of cre?le opinion at large.20 Since Fr. Batllori seemed to dispose

Sociedad Econ?mica de Amigos del Pa?s, ed. Pascual Venegas Filardo and Pedro Grases

(2 vols., Caracas, 1958); Jos? Ma. Aurrecoechea, Memoria geo gr?fico-pol?tica del De

partamento de Venezuela (1814) (Caracas, 1959); Ministerio del Trabajo de Colombia, El pensamiento social en la emancipaci?n (Bogot?, I960); Jaime Eyzaguirre, Archivo

epistolar de la familia Eyzaguirre, 1747-1834 (Buenos Aires, I960). is The records of the consulado of Lima are already in the process of publication

for an earlier period by M. Moreyra y Paz Sold?n, El tribunal del consulado de Lima, cuaderno de juntas (Lima, 1956). For Buenos Aires see the basic work of Germ?n O. E.

Tjarks, El consulado de Buenos Aires y sus proyecciones en la historia del R?o de la Plata

(2 vols., Buenos Aires, 1962), which reproduces some of the documents. w See the discussion in Humphreys, op. cit., note 1 above. Sergio Villalobos R.,

Tradici?n y reforma en 1810 (Santiago, 1961), and Jaime Eyzaguirre, Ideario y ruta de la emancipaci?n chilena (Santiago, 1957), rank high among general syntheses for a

particular country. See also the four volumes published by the Academia Nacional de la Historia in Venezuela, El movimiento emancipador de Hispanoam?rica (Caracas, 1961). The independence period is also covered in the following notable works of a more general nature: C. H. Haring, Empire in Brazil. A New World Experiment with Monarchy (Cam bridge, Mass., 1958); Sergio Buarque de Holanda, ed., Historia geral da civiliza?ao bra sileira (Sao Paulo, I960); Jaime Cortes?o and Pedro Calm?n, Brasil (vol. 26 of His toria de Am?rica y de los pueblos americanos, Barcelona, 1956) ; Vicente D. Sierra,

Historia de la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1956). 20 Roberto M. Tisn?s, C. M. F., Movimientos pre-mdependientes gran colombianos

(Bogot?, 1962); Carlos Felice Cardot, Rebeliones, motines y movimientos de masas en el siglo XVIII venezolano, 1730-1781 (Madrid, 1961); L?utico Garc?a, S.J., Francisco de

Miranda y el antiguo r?gimen espa?ol (Caracas, 19?1); Casto Fulgencio L?pez, Juan Bautista Picornell y la conspiraci?n de Gual y Espa?a. Narraci?n documentada de la pre revoluci?n de independencia venezolana (Madrid, 1955); Alberto Miram?n, Dos vidas no

ejemplares (Bogot?, 1962); Guillermo Hern?ndez de Alba, El proceso de Nari?o a la luz de documentos in?ditos (Bogot?, 1958); Pablo E. C?rdenas Acosta, El movimiento comunal de 1781 en el Nuevo Reino de Granada (2 vols., Bogot?, I960).

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of the subject, moreover, few would now number the Jesuits among the "pre

cursors." Indeed, recent studies suggest that the significance of the expulsion

of the Jesuits is to be found not in the activities of exiles in Europe, but in the

families and the property they left behind in America. There the expulsion had

a dual effect. On the one hand it caused bitter resentment among the cre?le

families and friends whom the Spanish American Jesuits left behind, a resent

ment which added to the stock of cre?le discontent and directed it, for the first

time perhaps, against the crown itself. On the other hand, many cre?les increased

their land holdings from the sale of Jesuit property; they thus momentarily

acquired a stake in Bourbon policy while at the same time they enhanced their

means of eventually resisting it.21

These are fields of inquiry which merit further research. The same can

hardly be said, perhaps, of another aspect of the Jesuit question, namely the

alleged influence of Jesuit political philosophy on the ideology of the revolutions

In its original form, the argument that the revolutions for independence were

inspired by the Spanish "constitutional" tradition and the doctrines of "popular

sovereignty" upheld by the Spanish neoscholastics, especially the Jesuit Fran

cisco Su?rez, was a useful point of discussion. It has become increasingly clear,

however, that the discussion has languished from lack of evidence. The suspicion was, always strong that the "constitutional" tradition in Spain had been too long

dead to be resuscitated at this date, and recent contributions to the subject fail

to prove that the political doctrines of the neo-shcolastics survived as a living

force in Spanish America or indeed were even studied as texts in the universities.22

The conclusion seems evident that future research would be better directed

along more traditional lines, starting from the assumption that it was from the

eighteenth-century Enlightenment that the revolutions drew their intellectual

inspiration. Here, too, however, historians proceed with caution and no longer see

a simple causal connection between the Enlightenment and independence.23 It is

21 M. Batllori, S. J., El Abate Viscardo. Historia y mito de la intervenci?n de los

Jesu?tas en la independencia de Hispanoam?rica (Caracas, 1953); E. Fontana, Repercusio nes personales y comunitarias de la expulsi?n de los Jesu?tas en Mendoza (Buenos Aires,

1962); A. F. Pradeau, La expulsi?n de los Jesu?tas de las Provincias de Sonora, Ostimuri

y Sinaloa en 1767 (M?xico, 1959); Ricardo Donoso, "Bosquejo de una historia de la inde

pendencia de la Am?rica Espa?ola", El movimiento emancipador de Hispanoam?rica, iv, 183-227.

22 For examples of those emphasising the continuity of Spanish thought and traditions see G. Furlong, S. J., Los Jesu?tas y la escisi?n del reino de indias (Buenos Aires, I960);

Tulio Halper?n Donghi, Tradici?n pol?tica espa?ola e ideolog?a revolucionaria de Mayo (Buenos Aires, 1961); Miguel Aguilera, Ra?ces lejanas de la Independencia (Bogot?, I960). For a useful corrective see R. Zorraqu?n Bec?, "La doctrina jur?dica de la revo

luci?n de mayo", Revista del Instituto de Historia del Derecho, Buenos Aires, n?m. 11

(I960), 47-68. 23

Cf. A. P. Whitaker, "The Intellectual History of Eighteenth-century Spanish America", X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, Relazioni, I, 187-96, and "The

Enlightenment in Latin America", American Philosophical Society, Proceedings, vol. 102

<1958), pp. 555-9.

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R. A. Humphreys and John Lynch It. H. A. N?m. 5D

pointed out, for example, that in Spanish America, no less than in Spain itself,

m??iy of the manifestations of the Enlightenment9 such as the economic societies

and the periodical press, were Spanish and conservative in nature, and that while

they could serve as vehicles of cre?le reforming opinion they were far from sub

versive.24 And in a masterly essay, which sums up recent research and is a sign

post for ail future enquiry, Professor C. C. Griffin has shown how the ideas of the Enlightenment were important not so much as a causal factor, but as a

source of administrative, economic and educational precepts which could be ap

plied once independence had been won.25

Many of these precepts had already been absorbed by the Spanish crown; and the reforming programme of Charles III has deservedly continued to attract

the attention of historians. It has attracted attention, however, not only as an

aspect of the Bourbon renaissance, but also as a factor in the d?sint?gration

of colonial government. Administrative reform in the Viceroyalty of the R?o de

la Plata ?the introduction of the intendant system? has been proved to have

had a disruptive effect on the administrative structure while it also invigorated the

cabildos, the one institution in which cre?le interests could be expressed.26 Military

reform in New Spain ?the creation of a cre?le militia with extensive privileges? is similarly seen to have weakened the prestige and authority of civilian adminis

tration and to have enhanced the sense of cre?le identity.27 These reforms thus

created conditions which helped to precipitate the collapse of the imperial regime

they were intended to prolong. Such lines of inquiry, of course, need to be

extended to other parts of the empire and to include studies of individual viceroys and institutions before any sure generalisations can be made, but enough has already been done to suggest that the Spanish empire was afflicted by a profound crisis of administration from the 1790's and that Spanish policy itself acted as a

dissolvent of stability.28

24 R. Herr, The Eighteenth-century Revolution in Spain (Princeton, 1958); R. J. Shafer, The Economic Societies in the Spanish World (1763-1821), (Syracuse, N. Y., 1958); A. Nieto V?lez, "Notas sobre el pensamiento de la Illustraci?n en el Mercurio

Peruano", Bolet?n del Instituto Riva-Ag?ero, n?m. 3 (1956-57), 193-207. See also A. Nieto

V?lez, Contribuci?n a la historia del fidelismo en el Per?, 1808-1810 (Lima, I960). 25 Charles C. Griffin, "The Enlightenment and Latin American Independence," in

A. P. Whitaker, ed., Latin America and the Enlightenment (2nd edn., Ithaca, N.Y., 1961), p. 119-43. See also J. T. Lanning, The Eighteenth-century Enlightenment in the Uni

versity of San Carlos de Guatemala (Ithaca, N. Y., 1956); Jacques Houdaille, "French men and Francophiles in New Spain from 1760 to 1810," The Americas, xiii (1956), 1-29;

Jes?s Reyes Heroles, El liberalismo mexicano. Vol. 1. Los or?genes (M?xico, 1957); Rafael G?mez Hoyos, La revoluci?n granadina de 1810. Ideario de una generaci?n y de una ?poca, 1781-1821 (2 vols., Bogot?, 1962).

26 John Lynch, Spanish Colonial Administration, 1782-1810. The intendant system

in the viceroyalty of the R?o de la Plata (London, 1958), and "Intendants and" Cabildos in the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata, 1782-1810," Hispanic American Historical Re

view, xxxv (1955), 337-62. 27 L. N. McAlister, The "Fuero Militai"" in New Spain, 1764-1800 (Gainesville,

1957). 28 For examples of further work in the field see H. Garc?a Chuecos, Relatos y co

mentarios sobre temas de historia venezolana (Caracas, 1957); Lu?s Navarro Garc?a,

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Emero-Junio de 1965 The Emancipation of Latin America

That the empire was meanwhile undergoing a financial crisis has long been

known. But historians have now begun to examine in more detail the history of

resistance to imperial taxation and to scrutinise its relation to cre?le discontent.29

Its relation to Indian discontent, especially in Peru, was direct and obvious, though

attempts to impute motives of independence to Indian risings remain singularly

unconvincing and ignore the apolitical character of the Indians and their need

for cre?le leadership.30 And opposition to the financial policy of the imperial

government was accompanied by a growing sense of economic grievance. While

there has been no major addition to our understanding of the role of economic

forces in the origins of independence, there have been valuable studies of the

commercial reforms of the later Bourbons,31 and interesting interpretations also,

on Marxist lines, which have underlined the role of the economic factor.32 Mean

while, one thing is clear: cre?le opinion was not united on the economic issue.

Conventional accounts tended to assume that a desire for free trade accompanied*

or indeed helped to promote, the desire for political emancipation. Studies of

the industrial sector of the colonial economy, however, suggest that many inter

ests in the colonies demanded not free trade but protection, and that these

interests, already injured by the mildly liberal policy of Charles III, were hardly

likely to welcome yet further extension of commercial freedom.33

Intendencias en Indias (Seville, 1959); Bernard E. Bobb, The Viceregency of Antonio

Maria Bucareli in New Spain, 1771-1779 (Austin, 1962); Jos? Ma. Ots Capdequ?, Las

instituciones del Nuevo Reino de Granada al tiempo de la independencia (Madrid, 1958). 29 Sergio Villalobos R., Tradici?n y reforma e?r- 1810; M. Carmagnani, "La opo

sici?n a los tributes en la segunda mitad del siglo xv?n," Revista Chilena de Historia

y Geograf?a, n?m. 129 (1961), 158-95; Pablo E. C?rdenas Acosta, El movimiento

comunal de 1781 en el Nuevo Reino de Granada (2 vols., Bogot?, I960). 30 See, for example, B. Lewin, La rebeli?n de T?pac Amaru y los or?genes de la

emancipaci?n americana (Buenos Aires, 1957); fer a sounder view see the works of Daniel

Valc?rcel, of which a recent example, a prelude to a revised edition of his La rebeli?n

de T?pac Amaru (Mexico, Buenos Aires, 1947), is "Tupac Amaru, fidelista y precur sor," Revista de Indias, xvii (1957), 241-53.

31 A. Arcila Farias, El siglo ilustrado en Am?rica. Reformas econ?micas del siglo XVIII en Nueva Espa?a (Caracas, 1955), and El real consulado de Caracas (Caracas,

1957); Sergio Villalobos R., "El comercio extranjero a fines de la dominaci?n espa

?ola," Journal of Int er-American Studies, iv (1962), 517-44; Germ?n O. E. Tjarks, op. cit.; Tro y S. Floyd, "The Guatemalan Merchants, the Government, and the Provin

cianos, 1750-1800," Hispanic American Historical Review, xli (1961), 90-110; A. P.

Whitaker, "Causes of Spanish American "Wars of Independence: economic factors,"

Journal of Int er-A?n eric an Studies, ii (i960), 132-39. See also FJlena F. S. de Studer, La trata de Negros en el R?o de la Plata durante el sJiglo XVIII (Buenos Aires, 1958); Pedro Santos Mart?nez, Historia econ?mica de Mendoza durante el virreinato, 1776 1810 (Madrid, 1961).

32 H. Ram?rez Necochea, Antecedentes econ?micos de la independencia de Chile

(Santiago, 1959); Caio Prado J?nior, Evoluqao pol?tica do Brasil e outros estudos (2nd edn., Sao Paulo, 1957).

33 E. O. Acevedo, "Factores econ?micos regionales que produjeron la adhesi?n a

la revoluci?n," Revista de la Junta de Estudios Hist?ricos de Mendoza, segunda epoda, num. 1 (196I), 107-133, also* in El movimiento emancipador de Hispanoam?rica, iii, 211

55; Sergio Villalobos R., Tradici?n y reforma en 1810. Cf. the older work of E. Arcila

Far?as, Econom?a colonial de Venezuela (M?xico, 1946).

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R. A. Humphreys and John Lynch R. H. A. Num. 5$

The political aspirations of the cre?les, their status, their demand for of

fice, their antipathy to peninsulares, these also are problems which need greater elucidation. For here, too, modern scholarship has rendered the subject more

complex than it was once thought to be. It is now understood, for example, that

ore?les were not completely debarred from office. Indeed, there is some evidence

to suggest that from about the middle of the eighteenth century they were being

appointed in increasing numbers, in some parts of the empire at least, not only

to minor offices but also to major positions in the audiencias, the church, and

the army, while in the colonial militia they were in a clear majority. Yet,

paradoxically, as their opportunities increased so did their resentment. The paradox is explained by the fact that as the cre?les tasted administrative power so they

wanted more, and in the last decades of the colonial regime, it is argued, they were

demanding not merely admission to offices but a monopoly of them, to the

complete exclusion of Spaniards. Moreover, they wanted offices in their own

country, not in distant parts of the empire, whither they were

usually posted.

But further questions still remain to be answered. In what proportion were

cre?les represented in the colonial administration? What was the policy of the

Spanish crown with regard to offices in the latter eighteenth century? And was

there a "Spanish reaction" in the last years of the colonial regime?34

It is also clear that independence can no longer be explained solely in terms

of the antagonism between cre?les and Spaniards. It must be seen, too, in the

context of cre?le fear and resentment of the castes and classes below themselves.

Venezuela and Mexico have hitherto provided the most notable examples of

areas in which these fears can be seen at work; and it may well be asked whether,

in both countries, some members of the cre?le elite thought to seize the op

portunity of independence not only to take power from Spain but also to prevent

the masses from taking it. More recently a major study of Guatemala's reluctant

revolutionary, Jos? del Valle, has demonstrated that in Guatemala, certainly,

the independence movement was an aristocratic movement, organized by

men

who wished to preserve their influence and control once Spanish power in America

was disintegrating and once of the liberal cause had triumphed in Spain in 1821.35

And for parts of the Rio de la Plata it has been suggested that political align

ments, even after 1808, cut across the distinction between cre?les and Spaniards

34 See Catalina Sierra, El nacimiento de M?xico (M?xico, I960); Jaime Eyza

guirre, Ideario y ruta de la emancipaci?n chilena; Javier Gonz?lez, "Notas sobre la

'alternativa en las provincias religiosas de Chile indiano," Historia, no. 2 (Santiago,

1963), 178-96. 35 Louis E. Bumgartner, Jos? del Valle of Central America (Durham, N. C, 1963);

see also Andr?s Townsend Ezcurra, Fundaci?n de la Rep?blica, vol. i (Guatemala,

1958). On relations between masters and slaves see Jaime Jaramillo Uribe, "Esclavos y

se?ores en la sociedad colombiana del siglo xvm," Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social

y de la Cultura, i (1963), 3-62; see also I. Leal, "La aristocracia criolla venezolana y el

c?digo negrero de 1789," Revista de Historia, ii (Caracas, 1961), 61-81. On Mexico see

Catalina Sierra, op. cit., and L. N. McAlister, "Social Structure and Social Change in

New Spain," Hispanic American Historical Review, xliii (1963), 349-70.

ft o o u t. o


and took the form of a Spanish-creole solidarity against those who were loweai

in the social hierarchy.36

That motives of class played their part in the independence movement is

undoubted. But the subject needs further elaboration, and inquiry ought to be

extended to other parts of the empire, especially to Peru. There is, however,

another motive which has increasingly engaged the interest of historians, at

least in Chile and Peru, though its importance was first pointed out many years

ago. This is the growth of cre?le self-conciousness or cre?le nationalism?a

phenomenon which can be observed in most parts of Spanish America and even

more, perhaps, in Brazil. Alexander von Humboldt underlined it more than a

century and a half ago. But it is only in the last fifteen or twenty years that

historians have begun to realise its full implications, and, so far, the range of

historical investigation has been confined to a few brief essays and studies.37

These have called attention to the growth of pronounced regional differences

within Spanish America from as early

as the seventeenth century, differences

which were in part an extension of Spanish regionalism in the peninsula itself,

in part a peculiarly American phenomenon accentuated by distance from Europe

and the geographical and economic isolation of the various regions of Spanish America from each other. By the end of the eighteenth century, indeed, for

many cre?les their patria was not Spain but America, or rather their own region

of America, while Spaniards were coming to be regarded as foreigners. And

the awareness of differences between Spain and America was accompanied by an

awareness of the differences between the various parts of America, reflected, for

example, in the growing economic rivalry between Chile and Peru, Lima and

Buenos Aires, Paraguay and the Rio de la Plata, rivalries in which the colonial

authorities were themselves forced to take sides.

Much more research is needed into the formation and development of

this American "conciencia de s?", into its literary, social and economic origins,

and into its slow maturing during the wars of independence and after. It is a

subject which must be approached with caution and a sense of chronology:

national consciousness was not created in a day

or in a single generation. Never

36 E. O. Acevedo, "La revoluci?n de Mayo en Salta," Tercer Congreso Internacional

de Historia de Am?rica, vi (Buenos Aires, 1962), 9-152. 37 See various essays in Seminario de Historia del Instituto Riva-Ag?ero, La cau

sa de la emancipaci?n del Per? (Lima, I960); J. Basadre, La promesa de la vida peruana

y otros ensayos (Lima, 1958); J. A. de la Puente Candamo, La idea de la comunidad

peruana y el testimonio de los precursores (Lima, 1956) ; and a series of articles by j.

Basadre, J. A. de la Puente Candamo, C. Pacheco V?lez, and C. Deustua Pimentel

in the Mercurio Peruano (1954-55). The work of Chilean historians in this field is re

presented by Jaime Eyzaguirre, "Precedentes y conexiones de la revoluci?n chilena," in

El movimiento emancipador de Hispanoam?rica, iii, 269-91; N?stor Meza Villalobos, La actividad pol?tica del Reino de Chile entre 1806 y 1810 (Santiago, n. d.), and La con

ciencia pol?tica chilena durante la monarqu?a, (Santiago, 1958). See also R. A. Hum phreys and John Lynch, The Origins of the Latin American Revolutionsf 1808-1826

(New York, 1965).

189


theless, the fact remains that the revolutions were indigenous movements with

roots deep in the American past, and they must be seen quite as much as the

expressions of American "nationalism" as the products of European influences.

Not all historians, it must be admitted, are prepared to follow this line of

thought, and it may be true that the concept of incipient nationalism hardly

applies to the "newer" parts of the empire, such as the Viceroyalty of the Rio

de la Plata. In any event, many historians prefer to determine the nature of the

revolutions by reference to their immediate antecedents, seeing them essentially

as a reaction to contemporary events in Spain and Europe. And since the beginnings

of the revolutionary movements are of perennial interest, it is not surprising

that they have been the subject of recent "revisionist" interpretations, especially

in Argentina.38 According to these, aspirations for independence did not have a

lengthy history; they were merely the result of the de facto separation from

Spain, once the armies of Napoleon had overrun the peninsula.

This, of course, is a reversion to the opinion of Cornelio Saavedra, who

insisted that the fall of the monarchy and the severance of the traditional links

between America and the peninsula were the true "origin of our revolution".

But the "revisionists" go further. They deny that the events of May 1810 in

Buenos Aires had any revolutionary content whatever: loyalty to Ferdinand VII

was genuine, not a mere mask; all that the cre?le leaders sought was self

government under the crown. A corollary of this has been the argument that the

May revolution was the work of an organized minority, with crucial military

support, but unrepresentative of the "popular will". And in opposition to it there

have been re-statements of the traditional view, which previously found its

mcft serious expression in the works of Ricardo Levene and Ricardo Piccirilli,

that Mariano Moreno and his followers were seeking complete independence of

Spain and enjoyed "popular" support.39 The "revisionists," it may be suggested, are

undoubtedly correct in emphasising the minority character of the May

revolution, at least in its early stages. But they would seem to be on less sure

ground when they deny to it any revolutionary objectives and see it merely as

an extension of the civil war and junta movement in Spain. This is to ignore the

existence of radical and indeed violent revolutionaries, whose loyalty to a captive

king cannot be taken seriously. And it may be thought that in Buenos Aires

few contemporaries would have accepted for long a distinction between in

28 E. O. Acevedo, El ciclo hist?rico de la revoluci?n de mayo (Seville, 1957); Roberto H. Marfany, "El pronunciamiento de Mayo," Historia, iii (Buenos Aires,

1958), 61-126, and "V?speras de Mayo," ibid., v (i960), 87-158; J. Comadr?n Ruiz,

"Algo m?s sobre la Semana de Mayo," ibid., iii (1957), 75-94; Enrique de Gand?a, Historia del 23 de Mayo. Nacimiento de la libertad y de la independencia argentina

(Buenos Aires, I960). 39

Enrique Ruiz-Gui?az?, El Presidente Saavedra y el pueblo soberano de 1810

(Buenos Aires, I960); R. Piccirilli, Rivadavia y su tiempo (2nd edn., 3 vols., Buenos

Aires, I960); Ernesto J. Fitte, "Dignificaci?n de mayo y el encono de un comodoro

ingl?s," Historia, v (i960), 59-113.

190

Enero-Junio ?e 1965 The Emancipation of Latin America

dependence of Spain and independence of the Spanish crown. Generally speaking,

the insurrectionary movement in Spanish America was at first, no doubt, es

sentially a movement for local autonomy. But it is fairly clear that the intention

to break with Spain came at an early stage,40 and in some instances existed

from the beginning.

This is not to deny, of course, that the Spanish American revolutions had a

momentum of their own and possessed different characteristics at different

stages of their development in different parts of America. It has become increas

ingly evident, for example, that the Spanish counter-revolution, where it was

effective, caused the complete alienation of those who experienced it, and made

independence irrevocable.41 But though recent biographical, constitutional, eccle

siastical and military studies, continuing a long historiographical tradition, have

made it possible to plot the course of the revolutions with greater precision, to

determine their objectives at different moments of time, and to understand the

motives of the principal participants,42 this is a field of inquiry which demands

still further investigation. We need to know yet more clearly

not only what the

revolutionary leaders were doing at a particular time, but also what they thought

they were doing; and this calls for a close scrutiny of the evolution of political

thought during the wars of independence, not only that of the major figures

but that also of the minor figures.43 The struggle against Spain, moreover,

engendered internal conflicts of its own, as centralist forces competed for power

with federalist and regional interests. On the whole the history of the revolutions

has been written from a centralist point of view. But recent work has extended

cur knowledge of the periphery areas, so that it is easier to understand, for

40 For example, Sergio Elias Ortiz, G?nesis de la revoluci?n del 20 de julio de 1810 (Bogot?, I960); Jorge Salvador Lara, La documentaci?n sobre los proceres

de la independencia y la cr?tica hist?rica (Quito, 1958); L. Villalba Villalba, ed., El

19 de abril de 1810 (Caracas, 1957). 4i

See, for example, Villalobos, Tradici?n y reforma en 1810; Alfredo Ponce

Ribadeneira, Quito: 1809-1812, seg?n los documentos del Archivo Nacional de Madrid

(Madrid, I960). 42 Manuel P?rez Vila, Vida de Daniel Florencio O'Leary (Caracas, 1957); Cara

CCIOLO Parra P?rez, Marino y la independencia de Venezuela (5 vols., Madrid, 1954-57),

and La monarqu?a en la Gran Colombia (Madrid, 1957); Ricardo Piccirilli, San Mart?n

y la pol?tica de los pueblos (Buenos Aires, 1957); Alberto Palcos, Rivadavia, ejecutor del pensamiento de Mayo (2 vols., La Plata, I960); Mariano Vedia y Mitre, El de?n

Funes. Su vida, su obra, su personalidad (Buenos Aires, 1954); Leoncio Gianello,

Almirante Guillermo Brown (Bueqcs Aires, 1957); Jos? Feliciano de Oli

veira, Jos? Bonifacio e la independencia (Sao Paulo, 1955); Javier Malag?n and C. C.

Griffin, Las Actas de Independencia de Am?rica (Washington, D.C., 1955); Joseph T.

Criscenti, 'Argentine Constitutional History, 1810-1852: a re-examination," Hispanic American Historical Review, xli (1961), 367-412; Guillermo Gallardo, La pol?tica reli

giosa de Rivadavia (Buenos Aires, 1962); El?as Mart?nez, "Los franciscanos y la inde

pendencia de M?xico," Abside, xxiv (I960), p. 129-66; Pedro de Leturia, S.J., Relaciones

entre la Santa Sede e Hispanoam?rica (3 vols., Caracas, Reme, 1959-60). 43

Cf. for example, the Memoria del Primer Congreso Internacional de Sociedades

Bolivarianas, I960 (Caracas, 1962), and L. Uprimny, "El pensamiento filos?fico y po l?tico en el Congreso de C?cuta," Universidad de Antioquia, n?m. 13 (1957).

191

R. A. Humphreys and John Lynch K. H. A. Num. 59

example, the process of disintegration in the R?o de la Plata (through authoritative

studies of the Banda Oriental and of Upper Peru) as well as the nature of

provincialism in Argentina itself.44 And as. historians extend their interests into

the provinces, so they will have to spread their nets beyond the few major leaders of independence to include the second and third ranks as well as the

provincial leaders.45

So far as the external relations of the Latin American states are concerned,

or, rather, so far as their diplomatic history is concerned, there is less to say. The general lines have long been marked out. Our knowledge has recently been

enriched by basic studies of some of the principal actors. British naval policy has been clarified and the diplomatic history of British Honduras has been written.

The diplomacy of Canning in the creation of an independent Brazil, the policy of Britain in the Rio de la Plata, Spanish plans of reconquest in the same area,

the relations between Cuba and Mexico and between Mexico and the United

States, have all been examined or re-examined.46 But we still await the definitive

studies of the role of Great Britain, of the evolution of Spanish policy, and of

the early diplomacy of individual Latin American states. And the time will

surely come when the traditions of diplomatic history established by previous

generations of historians in the United States of America and by Sir Charles

Webster in Great Britain will be revived, to place the Latin American revolutions

yet more securely in their international context.

When this happens, as happen it must, more account will have to be taken

of economic interests, often competing economic interests, in Europe, the United

States and in the Latin American states themselves. It is still true, as it was

44 John Street, Artigas and the Emancipation of Uruguay (Cambridge, 1959);

Charles W. Arnade, The Emergence of the Republic of Bolivia (Gainesville, 1957); Leoncio Gianello, Estanislao L?pez (Santa Fe, 1955); on Mexican federalism see Nettie Lee Benson, La diputaci?n provincial y el federalismo mexicano (Mexico, 1955).

45 The results that can be yielded from a study of urban, regional and family history are to be seen in the following: Richard M. Morse, From Community to Metropolis. A

biography of Sao Paulo, Brazil (Gainesville, 1958); Jo?o Camello de Oliveira Torres, Historia de Minas Gerais (5 vols., Belo Horizonte, 1962); Carlos Studard, "A revolu??o de 1817 no Cear?," Revista do Instituto do Ce ara, Fortaleza, no. 78 (I960), 5-99; Lycurgo de Castro Santos Filho, Urna comumdade rural do Brasil antigo. Aspectos da vida

patriarcal no sertao da Bah?a nos s?culos XVIII e XIX (S?o Paulo, 1956). 46

Julio C?sar Gonzales, "Correa da C?mara y los emigrados 'Carbonarios' en

Buenos Aires, 1822," Bolet?n del Instituto de Historia Argentina "Doctor Emilio Ravi

gnani," second series, i (1956), 119-143; Ricardo Piccirilli, "Rivadavia, la provincia oriental, y la guerra contra el imperio del Brasil (1820-1826)," Revista de la Universidad

Nacional de C?rdoba, n?mero especial, i (1958), 371-407; R. A. Humphreys, The Diplo matic History of British Honduras, 1638-1901 (London, 1961); introduction to Graham

and Humphreys, op. cit.; Caio de Freitas, George Canning e o Brasil. Influencia da di

plomacia inglesa na forma?ao brasileira (2 vols., Sao Paulo, 1958); John Street, "La

influencia brit?nica en la independencia de las provincias del R?o de la Plata," Revista

Hist?rica, ^hi-^?v (15)53-55); J. M. Mariluz Urquijo, Los proyectos espa?oles para reconquistar el R?o de la Plata (1820-1833) (Buenos Aires, 1958); Jos? L. Franco,

Relaciones de Cuba y M?xico durante el per?odo colonial (Habana, 1961); Carlos Bosch

Garc?a, Historia de las relaciones entre M?xico y los Estados Unidos, 1819-1848 (M? xico, 1961).

192


ten years ago, that "the economic history of Spanish America in the age of its

emancipation remains to be written."47 The terrain has been plotted in a further

pioneering study by Professor Charles Griffin.48 But it will take many years of cultivation before it yields its fruit.49 One obvious theme, the opening of the

continent to the trade of the world, has certainly not been ignored. And its

discussion has been more refined. Creole opinion, it has already been observed,50 was not united on the economic issue; and this was true not

merely before the

revolutions began, but afterwards. "Free trade," bringing with it a flood of

foreign, especially British consumer goods, was not an unmixed blessing, nor

was it universally desired. Distinctions must be made. Agricultural interests

wanted free trade for their exports; consequently those "newer," agricultural

countries such as the Rio de la Plata, Chile, and Venezuela, which had already benefited to some extent from the reforms of Charles III, were anxious to open

their ports to world trade and to seek foreign markets for their products. This

they quickly did, with some success. The "older" parts of Spanish America, if

the term may be allowed, the mining countries of Mexico and Peru, found it

less easy to disengage themselves from their colonial past, and to them free trade

came late, in the 1820's. By that time their great assets, the silver mines, had

declined and they had never possessed a large agricultural surplus for export. The extent to which Mexico and Peru suffered from the loss of capital from the

mines and the competition of foreign goods has yet to be worked out, though there can be little doubt that their economies, for these and other reasons, suf

fered serious and prolonged dislocation.51

On the whole we know more about the commerce of the agricultural coun

tries than of the mining countries. The exponents of economic liberalism have

recently been studied in greater detail, and aspects of the new commercial

conditions in some parts of the empire and in Brazil have been more fully

explored.52 The interests of manufacturing and the policy of protection, however,

47 See above, note 1. 48 Charles C. Griffin, Los temas sociales y econ?micos en la ?poca de la indepen

dencia (Caracas, 1962). 49 See, however, the same author's 'Aspectos econ?mico-sociales de la ?poca de la

emancipaci?n hispanoamericana: una bibliograf?a selecta de la historiograf?a reciente,

1949-1959," in El movimiento emancipador de Hispanoam?rica, i, 349-60, for an indica

tion of recent developments in this field. so Ante, p. 43. 51

Cf. Agust?n Cu? C?novas, Historia social y econ?mica de M?xico (Mexico, 1947) ;

and for Peru, Carlos Camprub? Alcazar, El Banco de la Emancipaci?n (Lima, I960). 52 Hip?lito Vieytes, Antecedentes econ?micos de la revoluci?n de mayo. Escritos

publicados en el Seminario de agricultura, industria y comercio (1802-1806), Estudio pre liminar por F?lix Weinberg (Buenos Aires, 1956); Manueil Belgrano, Escritos eco

n?micos, Introducci?n por Gregorio Weinberg (Buenos Aires, 1954); Germ?n O. E.

Tjarks, op. cit.; Olga Pantale?o, 'Aspectos do comercio dos dominios portugueses no per?odo de 1808 a 1821," Revista de Historia, xi (Sao Paulo, 1960), 91-104; Eduardo

Arcila Far?as, El real consulado de Caracas (Caracas, 1957); Roland T. Ely, La eco

nom?a cubana entre las dos Isabeles, 1492-1832 (2nd edn., Habana, I960).

m


have received less attention.53 Clearly, the manufacturer of consumer goods and

the producer of commodities like wine, which duplicated foreign imports, wanted

not free trade but protection, and their demands were not entirely unheard.

Indeed, it can be queried whether we should continue to speak of ''free trade"

in Latin America in this period. For most of the new states free trade meant

little more than freedom from the Spanish monopoly, and freedom of direct

access to the markets of the world. In other respects they were protectionist,

and their tariffs bristled with duties; it was from the customs that the bulk of

their public revenue was drawn. Existing evidence, in fact, suggests that in

many parts of independent America the chief feature of the economic system

was not the development of free trade but the survival of mercantilism, with

the role of metropolis transferred from Spain to the new states.54

If the conditions of commerce and industry still await further elucidation,

so also do the problems of land-ownership and agriculture. What was the fate

of agricultural production during the wars of independence? There are indica

tions that it suffered less from the hazards of war than did livestock and the

mines, though no definite conclusions can yet be drawn. And there are other

questions. Was there any substantial transfer of property as a result of the

wars of independence? Did the cre?le landed aristocracy increase its holdings? How far did agrarian interests dominate the new governments? The answers to

these questions are still nebulous, and what little research there is on the subject

is inconclusive.55 Our knowledge of the rural masses is also imprecise and

suffer from the neglect of the whole field of social history during the inde

pendence period.

While the social history of the period has been neglected, however, it

has not been entirely ignored. New developments in this field are not likely to alter

the general view that the revolutions for independence were essentially political

revolutions in which a Spanish American and Brazilian ruling class took power

from a Spanish and Portuguese one, and that this transfer of power involved little

or no fundamental change in the social structure. But there is now a greater ap

53 See however, Jos? M. Mariluz Urquijo, "Noticias sobre las industrias del

Virreinato del R?o de la Plata en la ?poca del Marqu?s de Aviles, 1799-1801," Revista de

Historia Americana y Argentina, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, i (1956-57), 85-117;

C. B. Kroeber, The Growth of the Shipping Industry in the Rio de la Plata Region, 1194-1860 (Madison, 1957); L. Ospina V?squez, Industria y protecci?n en Colombia,

1810-1830, (Medell?n, 1955). 54 See Robert M. Will, "The introduction of Classical Economics into Chile,"

Hispanic American Historical Review, xliv (1964), 1-21. 55 On Bolivar's scheme to distribute land to officers and troops see J. Salcedo

Bastardo, Visi?n y revisi?n de Bolivar (Caracas, 1957), and, on the failure of agrarian

policy for the Indians in Peru, Thomas R. Ford, Man and Land in Peru (Gainesville,

1955). For partial coverage of the problem in Mexico see Francisco Gonz?lez de

Coss?o, Historia de la tenencia y explotaci?n del campo desde la ?poca precortesta?a hasta

las leyes del 6 de enero de 1915 (2 vols., Mexico, 1957); Manuel Romero de Terreros,

Antiguas haciendas de M?xico (M?xico, 1956); Luis Gonz?lez y Gonz?lez "El

agrarismo liberal," Historia Mexicana, vii (1958), 469-96.

194

Enero-Junio ele 10 65 The Emancipation of Latin America

preciation of the reforming aspirations of some of the leaders of independence

and of their desire to create a new society. The radical social objectives of Hi

dalgo and Morelos, of course, have never been in doubt, and Mexico, whose

revolutionary period began, but did not end, with a movement of violent social

protest, has received more attention than other parts of Spanish America in

this respect.56 But the great leaders in South America, Bolivar and San Martin,

Santander and O'Higgins, were also imbued with ideas of social reform and

anxious to improve society according to the precepts of the eighteenth century, to

abolish slavery and Indian servitude, to promote education, to disentail land or

distribute it to soldiers and Indians. Rivadavia was the classical example of a

reformer with a liberal social policy, and although, like the rest, he promised more than he fulfilled, like the rest he typified the best of contemporary li

beralism.57

Even had this reforming zeal on the part of some of the liberal leaders not

existed, however, some social change in a period of revolution such as this was

bound to occur. The mestizos and the castes, or coloured classes, now had more

opportunity of moving upwards in society, negroes by serving in the revolu

tionary armies, Indians and other by benefiting from the decrees removing their

social disabilities. Many members of the cre?le aristocracy, of course, untouched

by the liberalism of men like Bolivar and anxious to preserve the hierarchical

values to which they were accustomed, resented change of this kind. Mutual

hostility between classes drove them further apart and reached the point when,

in Venezuela for example, the oppressed masses joined the ranks of royalist

generals like Monteverde and Boves and contributed to the collapse of the repub

lican regime. The social basis of the revolution in Venezuela is still imperfectly

understood, but a recent work leaves no doubt about the class hatred imbuing

the masses who followed Boves in the overtly royalist counterrevolution of

1814.58 And although Bolivar and P?ez managed to recover ground with the

peasantry and attempted to give some social content to the revolution, it may

be doubted whether they were ever able to remove the social tension in the

rpublican ranks. In the end it was a new cre?le and mestizo aristocracy which

56 On Hidalgo see Mois?s Gonz?lez Navarro, "La pol?tica social de Hidalgo,"

Anales del Instituto Nacional de Antropolog?a e Historia, vii (Mexico, 1953-1955), 125

38; Hugh M. Hamill, Junior, "Early Psychological Warfare in the Hidalgo Revolt,"

Hispanic American Historical Review, xli (1961), 206-235, and the same author's forth

coming bock en Hidalgo; fer a Russian interpretation see M. S. Alperovich, "Hidalgo

und der Volksaufstand in Mexico" in Lateinamerika zwischen Emanzipation und Imperial

ismus (Berlin, 1961), p. 35-78. On Morelos see Ubaldo Vargas Mart?nez, Morelos,

siervo de la naci?n (Mexico, 1963); and, the first adequate study in English, Wilbert

H. Timmons, Morelos of Mexico. Priest, Soldier, Statesman (El Paso, 1963). See also

Catalina Sierra, op. at. 57

J. Salcedo Bastardo, op. cit.; David Bushnel, The Santander Regime in Gran

Colombia (Newark, Del., 1954); Ricardo Piccirilli, Rivadavia y su tiempo. 58

Juan Uslar Pietri, Historia de la rebeli?n popular de 1814 (Caracas, 1962); see also Federico Brito Figueroa, Ensayos de historia social venezolana (Caracas, I960).

195

R. A. Humphreys and John Lynch R. H. A. Num. 59*

emerged triumphant from this conflict and preserved for its own benefit the

traditional social structure. Elsewhere in South America, in Peru, Chile and the

R?o de la Plata, in spite of a few anxious moments for conservative interests,

:he revolutions ended as they had begun, as political movements led and control

led by the cre?le elite, with some mestizo support. In the course of the wars, it

is true, the composition of this elite was in part modified, as soldiers, merchants,

and adventurers, who profited from the hostilities, managed to turn themselves

into landed proprietors. It would not be remarkable if there were nouveaux riches,.

marrying into the older aristocracy and perhaps in some instances displacing them.

But here evidence give way to speculation, for the subject has not been studied.

Nor has the fate of the masses who failed to profit by the revolutions been

explored in any detail. The slaves in many areas, though not, of course, in Brazil,

were formally emancipated, but emancipation was apt to be a long process, anc?

it is a question how far the economic prospects of the ex-slaves were improved.59

The Indians were now free citizens and released from the payment of tribute.

But they lost also the paternal protection of colonial laws and in some countries,

they were soon also to lose their community lands.

Yet speculation about the social aspects of the revolutions for independence

must not outstrip the evidence, and in one respect there has been a tendency for

it to do so. It is sometimes argued that the revolutions were "bourgeois" revolu

tions.60 But who, it may be asked, were the middle classes in Latin America, anct

where were they to be found? There were some persons, it is true, who were

neither aristocrats nor peasants. In places such as Buenos Aires (which was

certainly not typical of the whole of the Rio de la Plata) there were merchants,,

administrators, and artisans, who formed a recognizable urban society. But did

they form a middle class, with the social and economic objectives of a middle

class? In the colonial period, it must be remembered, transatlantic commerce had

been a virtual monopoly of the Spaniards, while the cre?les had found their

wealth and power in the great landed estate. With independence the role of the

Spaniard was to some extent taken over by the foreign merchant, while the cre?les

continued to bas their wealth on land. The hacienda, not the business house, was

the characteristic feature of independent Latin America, and this was an aristo

cratic institution, sought and held for social rather than economic motives.

59 See Jos? Luk Masini, "La esclavitud negra en la Rep?blica Argentina: ?poca

independiente," Revista de la Junta de Estudios Hist?ricos de Mendoza, segunda ?poca,, i (1961), 135-61.

<fr For an East German interpretation see the works of Manfred Kossok, "Grund

z?ge der sozial-?konomischen Struktur des Vizek?nigreiches Rio de la Plata," Wissens

chaftliche Zeitschrift. Gesellschafts- und Sprachwissenschaftliche, Reihe, vi (Leipzig, 1956

57), 341-85; El virreinato del R?o de la Plata. Su estructura econ?micasocia! (Buenos

Aires, 1959) ; and "Revolution und Bourgeoisie in Lateinamerika. Zum Charakter der Lateinamerikanischen Unabh?ngigkeitsbewegung, 1810-1826," Zeitschrift f?r Geschichtswis

senschaft, ix Jahrgang (Berlin, 1961), 123-43. For a Spanish example see O. Gil Munilla,. "Teor?a de la emancipaci?n," Estudios A?nericanos} ii (Seville, 1950), 329-51.

196

Enero-Junio de 1965 Gran Colombia

The hacienda continued to be the pinnacle of social and increasingly of political power, and it was the ideal to which all groups, including merchants, aspired. And for a long time it perpetuated the dualism in Latin American society, and

accentuated the division between an oligarchy of landed proprietors and their

lesser allies on the one hand and the rural masses on the other. Latin America, of course, eventually had its middle class revolution, but this took place in the

twentieth century, not at the beginning of the nineteenth.

R. A. Humphreys and John Lynch*

University of London

GRAN COLOMBIA

REFERENCIAS RELATIVAS A LA BIBLIOGRAF?A SOBRE EL PERIODO EMANCIPADOR EN LOS PA?SES GRANCOLOMBIANOS (1949-1964)

1. Advertencia preliminar

Antes de entrar en materia, conviene precisar que en el caso presente enten

demos por Periodo Emancipador (referido a las cuatro actuales naciones cuyo te

rritorio integr? el de la antigua Rep?blica de Colombia fundada por Bol?var) el

que se inicia con los movimientos precursores de la independencia durante la

segunda mitad del siglo xvm y se prolonga hasta el a?o 1830, cuando la muerte

del Libertador y la disoluci?n de la Gran Colombia marcan el fin de una etapa hist?rica.

En cuanto a las publicaciones que abarca nuestro informe, se trata de las

aparecidas en Colombia, Ecuador, Panam? y Venezuela (o editadas en otros

lugares por nacionales de estos pa?ses), entre 1950 y 1964, aunque en algunos

casos hemos incluido alguna edici?n con pie de imprenta de 1949, con el prop?sito de incorporar en esta relaci?n la importante colecci?n publicada por el Comit? de

Or?genes de la Emancipaci?n, seccional en Caracas de la Comisi?n de Historia

del Instituto Panamericano de Geograf?a e Historia. Dicho Comit? llev? a cabo

durante el referido a?o una importante labor editorial, cuya supresi?n dejar?a

incompletas estas referencias.

* The authors wish to express their deep obligation to Drs. Pedro Grases, Manuel

P?rez Vila, Jos? Agust?n de la Puente Candamo, Gonzalo Vial, and Mar?a del Carmen

Vel?zquez for their great assistance in the preparation of this report.

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