The Significance of Independence Spanish empire shrunk after 1810-25.

Portuguese empire also (left more colonies)

Ibero-America, first world region colonized by Europe (other than the Atlantic islands) was also among the first to break from it (after?)

But what did independence mean for Latin America?

The Traditional or patriotic interpretation

Independence the most important event in the history of the countries, the birth of the nation, the threshold that divided the Colonial era from National history

THE history

Most books by Lat. Ame. historians dealt with it

Glorification independence movement became part of the nation-building process, an instrument to create a national identity in a population whose sense of nationality was rather weak.

Identities circa 1820

Majority in Lat Ame, and most other places, identified not with a nation but with their community, region, or ethnic group.

During colonial period race rather than country had been main social identifier

Amerindians, still the majority in nuclear America identified either as Indian vis a vis whites and blacks or more likely as members of a specific ethnic group or local community

Blacks with their African ethnicity (a minority in Spanish America but big in Brazil) or with community or region, and so did mestizos

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Identities circa 1820

Creoles, who led independence, had the closest thing to a national consciousness

But this had been framed by their colonial situation, in opposition to Spaniards

Were they Americans (the most used term during independence period)? Mexicans? Californios, Tejanos, Yucatecans?

What was the nation? New Spain that stretched from Oregon to Panama? The Viceroyalty of the River Plate?

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Foundations for nation-building c. 1820

Perhaps better than in most other places thanks to Iberian colonialisms homogenizing force

Religious unity (no sectarian struggles)

High degree of linguistic unity

But still many challenges: racial divisions; secular/religious divide; regionalism

So history became an instrument of nation building

History as patriotic propaganda (one of the first tools in the nation-construction toolbox)

to transform organic identities into imagined identities

Identities based on locality and face to face interaction

To identities in which you have to imagine that people you do not know, have never met, and do not have any primary connections to are your people

That nationality is taken for granted today and seems obvious or natural, is just an indication of how well we have been indoctrinated

The paraphernalia of nations: Foundational myths and symbols

1-An official Independence Day, that marks the birth of the nation, as if it were an organism

Often an insignificant and purely symbolic day, like Argentina's, Brazil's, U.S.

2-founding fathers (in line with the organic vision of nations and the patriarchalism of patriotism)

3-a national song[s] (preferably bellicose and full of hyper-virile bravado, cannons, blood, killing)

The paraphernalia of nations: Foundational myths and symbols

Fetishized colored cloth (big in Americas?)

Sacralized texts

Coins, bills with sacralized text (e.g. in God we Trust), symbols, and faces

National patron saint or virgin (Guadalupe, Lujan)

Female figure (virgins, mother who sacrificed her sons for the country, even a few warriors)

National patron saints and virgins

Santa Rosa de Lima, Peru (plus Americas, Philippines, Indias

Brazil: Our Lady of Aparecida, dark virgin appeared to 3 fishermen 1717

Cuba: Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, dark skinned, appear to 3 fishermen

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The paraphernalia of nations: Foundational myths and symbols

Tribal marks (id, voting cards, passports)

National animals (& sometimes birds, insects, dogs, mammals, fish, stones, etc.)

Latin Americans were

pioneers in the

Invention of the

symbolic

nation-building kit

Condor: Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia

Coqui. PR

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Revisionist Interpretation of Independence, 1960s +

Mainly in academic history Fueled by: 1-Spread of materialist philosophy (mainly Marxism), which emphasizes economic structures, conditions and interests instead of ideals 2-social history with emphasis on social relations instead of political and military events, and on common folks instead of leaders 3-disenchantment with conditions in Latin America by the rebellious generations that came to age during the 1960s (interpretation of present coloring interpretation of the past)

Revisionists arguments

Little had been accomplished with independence.

For the majority of the people little had changed.

One privileged ruling group (Spaniards) had been replaced by another elite, rather than by the people

Even the idea of Independence was questionable: one master (Spain & Portugal) had been replaced by another (UK in 19th cent.; US in 20th)

Colonialism had been replaced by Neo-Colonialism, in which presumably independent Latin American countries continued to behave as colonies exporting raw commodities and importing manufacturing goods.

Revisionisms contributions & limits

Less romanticized & more accurate than traditional patriotic history

Uncovered continuities hidden by the visions of Independence as total watershed

But too presentist (imposing current concepts on past) & too extreme in dismissal of independence as almost irrelevant

Significance of independence, for good or bad, should not be underestimated even if no drastic social changes took place, even if they were wars of Independence rather than social revolutions a la cubana

What changed Politically:

1-elimination of legitimate political authority. Spanish imperial rule, popular or not, was legitimate, sanctioned and accepted by law, by custom, by tradition, by 3 centuries of continuity.

Now that king was gone who had the right to rule?

How do you determine who should rule?

Brazil, presence of Braganzas (Portuguese royal family) provides legitimacy and continuity to move smoothly from colony to independent empire (although even here there were regional secessionist movements)

But in Spanish America no Bourbon prince. And

monarchical experiment failed for lack of legitimacy So Sp. Am. had to rely on republics based on elected

officials. Plenty of elections. All with gender restriction. Some with o property or literacy restrictions But in general franchise more inclusive than in Europe and

at times than in US (instances of universal male suffrage)

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2-Institutional breakdown

Creoles, kept out of administrative office, had little political experience.

Difficult to hold elections when the whole political and administrative machinery of the empire had been destroyed (the judicial & executive system, taxation system)

So independence brought about not only a vacuum in legitimacy but also an institutional break-down

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3-Militarization of politics

For most of colonial period, military was an insignificant sector.

Bourbons increased its importance during late colonial

period to defend empire from Brits, Portuguese, etc. Wars of independence further increased importance of

armies

And the legitimacy and institutional and legitimacy vacuum that followed independence made military force one of the few ways to settle disputes to determine who would rule.

4-Ruralization of politics

Colonial political power highly concentrated in cities.

But elimination of imperial urban officials & bureaucrats, & incapacity of central governments to keep an official national army (because limited revenue collection) shifted political powers to:

Caudillos, rural landlords or warlords, who rule through through patronage, charisma, and militias that live off the land

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5-Democratization of politics?

Caudillos access to power based not on administrative know-how, formal education, proper breeding and connections, but on fearlessness and capacity to elicit loyalty from rural masses

Greater opportunities and mobility for ambitious people from humble origins

Closer connection between leader and rural masses in terms of culture, habits, world views, basic conservatism, that had been the case for the old educated, urbane, and polished imperial servants or their postcolonial counterparts, the liberal elites (what is wrong with Kansas?)

6-Diminishing power of Church

Continuation of late colonial trend?

In spite of Bourbons restrictions of clerical power, Catholic Church sided with Spain, tradition and loyalty during the wars of independence

This and liberals anticlericalism led to a struggle against it and an erosion of its powers during the 19th century

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7-political decisions made locally

By local populations rather than imperial officials an ocean away

Political participation, not necessarily through elections, increased for the Creoles who had been exclude before.

It also increased for ambitious Indians and other non-white after the legal colonial impediments or restrictions were limited. More than 20 Latin American presidents during the 19th century were of Indian or mestizo origins.

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Economic impact of independence

1-Destruction, particularly in countries where war had been most violent

2-Greater isolation from international markets (despite claims by revisionist historians that the new countries became neo-colonies of Britain). Because local economies were too disrupted and chaotic for the new republics to be profitable colonies of Britain or anyone else.

3-Thus became more self-sufficient not more dependent

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Economic impact of independence

4- a long and arduous effort to create a capitalist economy on the foundations of colonial mercantilism (monopolies, guilds, Church and Indian village lands that could not be sold or bought)

5-half century of stagnation or decline when most of gap with US developed. In 1810 per capita GDP in Latin America was two-thirds of that of the U.S. by 1870 it was less than a third

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Social impact: black slaves

Little direct effect, as in US

slave trade continued until the 1850s.

Some countries (Mexico, Central American countries, Chile) abolished slavery right after independence.

In Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru were it was more important it was only abolished in the 1850s.

And where it was most important (in Cuba and Brazil) only in the 1880s.

But indirectly the political rhetoric of independence, of liberty, political equality, citizenship undermined the ideological underpinnings of slavery (a system that was profitable till the end)

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Social impact: on Amerindians

End of colonial legal restrictions; equality before the law

But legal equality did not translate into social, economic, or cultural equality and justice

Lost protection of Spanish imperial regulations

But political turmoil and economic stagnation provided a sort of protection during aftermath of independence

As long as the white and mestizo government was in disarray they were less likely to impose taxation, conscription, and other political impositions on Indian communities.

Social impact: on Amerindians

As long as there was no commercial incentive, larger landowners were not going to be interested in taking Indian lands and turning them from independent peasants into landless workers. On the contrary, land ownership became more fragmented.

But this protection from market forces was going to wither away with economic recovery after the middle of the century.

Social impact on Amerindians

In Argentina and Chile, where Indian population was semi nomadic, similar to U.S. they continued to be outside of white control also until the second half of the 19th century.

Overall, socially, Latin America experienced in its postcolonial period a slow transition from the caste society of colonial times, where social position regulated and fixed by law to a class society, more open, more competitive and sometimes more exploitative than colonial society.

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