La construcción de las naciones latinoamericanas (The Forming of the Latin American Nations, 1820-1870) Director Josefina Zoraida Vázquez (México) Codirector Manuel Miño Grijalva (Ecuador)

Summary

The political consequences of Hispano-American independence were not just the establishment of republican and constitutional governments in place of the Borbon monarchy.  In 1830, the continental territories that had been subject to the Spanish crown were divided into eleven nations.  In 1903, that number rose to eighteen (after the ultimate disintegration of Central America, the independence of the Dominican Republic and Cuba, and the creation of Panama as a result of its splitting off from Colombia).  This result markedly contrasts with the Portuguese-American unit preserved and with the prosperous federal union that the British colonies in America established and which won their independence toward the end of the XVIII Century.

Although Spanish America had a common history of conquests, colonisation and imperial governments, and in spite of the existence of a common language and cultural heritage, it disintegrated, at least among the dominating classes and the more Spaniardised members of the social strata.   In addition to the provinces (the Central American States, Paraguay and Uruguay), two audiences, which were incorporated into larger republics, constitute an exception:  Nueva Galicia in Mexico and Cuzco in Peru.

In fact, after independence most of the Latin American cities or provinces preferred the confederate union as a way of safeguarding their sovereign capacity.  The prominent cities of the territory tried to make a claim to their rights as a former capital of the Kingdom in order to subordinate the other cities, or, in appealing to the more recent political ideas, sustained the dogma of sovereign indivisibility, considered synonymous to anarchy.

The thematic focus of this volume includes political, social, economical and cultural aspects of the development of Brazil and Hispano-America.  It provides the self-perception that many intellectuals and politicians had of Latin America.  At the same time, it reveals their answers to the problems presented by a new political reality.