Popular Royalists, Empire, and Politics in Southwestern New Granada, 1809 – 1819

Abstract

This article examines the royalist forces that rose in defense of the colonial order in the southwestern region of New Granada, Colombia, a royalist stronghold where slaves and local Indians united with Spanish forces to fight against independence armies. Enslaved blacks and Indians were perceived by royalist elites as valuable allies, and for that reason elites were willing to negotiate and offer concessions to secure their loyalty. I describe the complex negotiations with Indians in terms of tribute payment, and with slaves over freedom, that have been left completely out of an independence narrative that has assumed that Indians and blacks participated as royalists exclusively as cannon fodder or always in disadvantageous terms. My contribution is specifically to provide insight into the ways in which Indians and slaves positioned themselves as political actors in the context of empire, and how their particular political histories determined their negotiation with royalist factions during the independence process, when, for both groups, militia service became an avenue for social mobility and provided new means of protecting and expanding their rights.

El impacto de la revolución de Saint-Domingue y los afrodescendientes libres de Brasil: Esclavitud, libertad, configuración social y perspectiva atlántica (1780-1825)

“…Proponer que afrodescendientes libres comprendieron mejor que los cautivos el mensaje revolucionario no equivale a decir que su grupo social, de manera uniforme, compartía este mismo mensaje. Como la historiografía ha enfatizado, afrodescendientes libres y libertos podían exteriorizar demandas derivadas de su posición social específica que se conciliasen tanto con la perspectiva revolucionaria como con los valores y significados de la sociedad de tipo antiguo, u oligárquico, preexistente 46 . Además, la noción de "igualdad racial" propuesta por Marixa Lasso no es coherente con la propia noción de modernidad a la cual se refiere su análisis.…”

Presentation: Monarchy, Empire, and Popular Politics in the Atlantic Age of Revolutions

“…Namely, people of African descent in the Caribbean received concessions in exchange for their loyalty and in many cases identified with monarchical corporate social structures that recognized their collective interests (Landers, 2010;Ogle, 2009;Thornton, 1993). Likewise, the radical scholarship emerging from Spain, France, and Latin America in the field of the Iberian Revolutions challenges nationalist histories, while constitutionalism has come to the forefront of studies about monarchy and empire, breaking with their definition as antagonistic to revolution, liberalism, and modernity (Adelman, 2010;Bellingeri, 2000;Berruezo, 1986;Breña, 2006;Chust, 1999;Dym, 2005;Echeverri, 2011;2015;2016;Guerra, 2000;Lorente;Portillo, 2011;Morelli, 1997;Paquette, 2013;2015;Portillo, 2006;Rodríguez, 1999;2006). 2 This dossier provides further evidence of the transformation in the study of popular royalism in the last decade, through seven studies of cases covering Europe, the British Atlantic, Brazil, and Spanish America.…”

“…Third, the articles presented here also question the understanding that by defending monarchical regimes the popular royalists were marginal to larger dynamics and processes of revolution, modernization, and state formation in Europe, Africa, North America, and South America. Instead, framing their actions in the context of the deep transformations of the Atlantic political landscape, this dossier illustrates how the field is breaking away from both the teleology of revolution and the assumption about the obsoleteness of monarchical discourses and institutions during the revolutionary age (Echeverri, 2011;2016;Kraay, 2001;Paquette, 2013;Straka, 2000;Schultz, 2001).…”

Troubled Negotiations: The Mapuche and the Chilean State (1818–1830)

“…The starting point for my article therefore diverges from that of much of the recent scholarship on indigenous peoples' participation in the construction of Latin America's postcolonial nation‐states (e.g. Guardino, ; Walker, ; Méndez, ; Echeverrí, ). This rich historiography shows us how indigenous groups bargained and compromised with, as well as resisted, the elites who were directing the state‐making projects.…”

“…This rich historiography shows us how indigenous groups bargained and compromised with, as well as resisted, the elites who were directing the state‐making projects. It encourages us to understand indigenous actions as ‘practical strategic consciousness’ (Echeverrí, : 243), rather than ignorance or naivety (a story too frequently accepted by the traditional historiography). Practical strategic consciousness is exactly what we see in the primary material documenting Mapuche actions during the independence wars, as they bartered with both royalist and patriot forces, and during the early republican period, as they interacted with various components of the recently founded state.…”