The Emancipatory Ideal in Spanish American Independence

This talk will locate Latin American independence within a general framework of emancipatory ideals that characterized the era commonly called the Age of Revolution.  Emancipation is a concept that is more useful, fluid and accurate when treating Latin American independence.  First, it is the term that was used most often by the Spanish American actor-participants themselves, at least into the 1820s.  Second, it more effectively captures the spirit of the age by encompassing not just political independence, but the broader social goals that gave these movements energy.  Creoles emancipated themselves from peninsular control.  Abolitionist arguments encouraged emancipatory actions for (and by) enslaved people especially if they were willing to support the war effort.  In many places, women were briefly emancipated from men’s direct control during the wars, only to find their citizenship rights more circumscribed under the new regimes that followed.  The Inquisition was abolished, thus emancipating writers and pamphleteers to exercise their free speech rights for the first time.  Political rhetoric framed independence as a coming-of-age story in which nascent states had reached adulthood and emancipated themselves from minority status.  This discussion will highlight the emancipatory agenda throughout its discussion of people, places and events.  It will use the concluding section to identify the competing tensions that the end of the colonial era unleashed and explain why its ideals proved difficult to translate to reality as national period began.