Revolución, independencia y las nuevas naciones de América (review)

In the build up to the bicentenary of the outbreak of the Spanish American Wars of Independence, the Latin Americanist community has become understandably committed to revising the historiographical interpretations that have prevailed to date, concerning the origins, experience and consequences of the 1810-1826 revolutionary whirlwind that resulted in the independence of continental Spanish America. Conferences, colloquia, symposia, and seminars about different aspects of the Wars of Independence have become frequent, common and numerous in universities on both sides of the Atlantic. The proceedings of these have, in turn, started to appear in print, and Jaime E. Rodríguez's edited volume is but one example of the kind of works that the current fascination with the revolutions of independence has started to bring to the fore. In this case, the book contains the papers that were presented at the conference the editor hosted at the University of California, Irvine, on 23-24 March 2003. The result is an eclectic collection of twenty essays (without counting Rodríguez's Introduction), vaguely linked together by a loose multifaceted concern with the revolutions of independence and a tendency to uphold a revisionist agenda. Having said this, the quality of all twenty essays is outstanding and their findings are indeed noteworthy, suggestive, and thought provoking. In this sense, Rodríguez is to be commended for having brought together such a "dream-team" of scholars.

After Rodríguez provides a succinct narrative of the key events of the Wars of Independence in his Introduction, Timothy Tackett revises the historiographical interpretations of the origins and impact of the French Revolution suggesting the need for a multi-layered and nuanced reading that embraces the events' complexities. Johanna Von Grafenstein explores the divisions that surfaced amongst the slave revolutionaries and gents de couleur during the Haitian Revolution, offering new insights into the impact that revolution had in the region. Mónica Quijada questions the notion of "modernity" and proposes the adoption of a more gradualist and paradoxical periodization that finds both traces of modernity before 1789 as well as traditionalist legacies strengthened thereafter. Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra argues that prior to the Bourbon reforms, Spain's "colonies" were kingdoms in their own right. It was only after Charles III came to the throne that they started to be treated as colonies, causing the kind of resentment that would degenerate into violence in 1810.

José M. Portillo studies the juntas that emerged post-1808, and argues that they were not seeking independence but greater autonomy and devolved powers, in line with traditional peninsular fueros like those given to regions such as Vizcaya (but never to the Spanish American kingdoms). Ivana Frasquet covers the debates in the Cortes of 1820-1821 and shows how Spanish American deputies proposed a series of autonomist initiatives, all of which were ignored. It is interesting to note that one Spanish proposal was to recognize independence and forge a "commonwealth" of Hispanic-American nations. Manuel Miño Grijalva argues that the system of intendencias, and later provincial deputations, did not result in a significant federalization of New Spain since economic networks and growth during this period transformed Mexico City into the obvious unifying center of a centralized order, and would remain this way with independence, regardless of whether a federalist or centralist constitution was adopted.

Víctor Mínguez studies the propaganda used to ensure Ferdinand VII became such a deseado monarch, focusing on the oaths that were sworn and the paintings and medallions that were commissioned. Virginia Guedea traces similarities but also highlights differences between the Spanish and Mexican juntas. One of the conclusions she arrives at is that the juntas became the fora in which the legislators of the 1820s acquired and developed their constitutional-state-building skills. Christon I. Archer concentrates on the nature of the violence and cruelty that characterized the conflict, in particular Félix Calleja's counterinsurgency campaign in Mexico, and...