From the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, independence revolutions and new forms of imperialism triggered debates over national belonging and the extension of or marginalization from the rights of citizenship. This era was marked by a transition from kingdoms, where subjects of diverse ethnicities and birthplaces were united by their fidelity to the same monarch, to republics where citizenship theoretically derived from volitional allegiance. Nevertheless, not all nationals freely chose membership or enjoyed the same rights as their compatriots, and even those who presumably enjoyed birthright citizenship might lose that status or be threatened with expulsion. Moreover, race and gender as well as birthplace and political affiliation shaped the opportunities for naturalization and its attendant rights and obligations. Naturalization is more often studied in relationship to transnational immigration, but the boundaries of inclusion or exclusion in a polity were also affected by shifting claims of sovereignty. In the cases explored in this session changes in status were as much about borders crossing people as people themselves crossing borders.

The papers on this panel analyze these themes of national belonging and citizenship across the Americas and Caribbean, challenging assumptions about the United States as the hemispheric ideal of republicanism and integration of foreigners. During the independence wars in Chile and Peru, as analyzed by Sarah Chambers, nationalists regarded residents who had been born in Spain with suspicion unless they explicitly embraced the liberation movements and labeled compatriots who remained loyal to the Crown as “denaturalized.” Once independence was achieved however, the new government sought reconciliation and welcomed back wealthy émigrés. In striking contrast to later naturalization laws, Spanish men could naturalize through their marriage to local women and their fathering of future citizens. Almost one hundred years later, the Spanish custom of naturalization through local integration was still operative in Cuba during the transition from colony-through protectorate-to republic at the turn of the 20^th century. Dalia Muller explores how Cuban statesmen created a specific naturalization clause to address the case of recently-emancipated, African-born people who could not qualify for birthright citizenship. As the Spanish empire shrank, US imperialism expanded. Sam Erman traces how US borders moved over people, incorporating African Americans, New Mexican Hispanos, American Indians, Puerto Ricans and Samoans into the nation. These groups experienced diminished and foreclosed sovereignties without gaining full citizenship rights.