Shaking Revolution: Natural Disasters, Political Strife, and Emotional Communities in Venezuela and New Granada, 1812–18

Society’s reactions to natural disasters offer an opportunity to explore people’s different understandings of the world around them. This paper studies an earthquake that shook northern Venezuela on March 26, 1812 and a series of volcanic eruptions in southwest Colombia in 1817. In Venezuela, the earthquake destroyed hundreds of buildings and left thousands of victims, particularly in rebel provinces such as Mérida and Caracas. Royalists quickly noted that it was not a coincidence that the earthquake had happened on Maundy Thursday and that most royalist cities had been spared from God’s wrath. They accused rebels of having brought about divine punishment with their “sinful” ways and their “immoral” political projects. Republicans refuted such allegations explaining that republicanism and independence were not contrary to God’s will. Some even showed a sense of hope as they claimed that natural disasters were merely obstacles put in their paths to make independence even more commendable. In Popayán, authorities and residents responded to the Puracé’s eruptions with rites of repentance to calm God’s anger while also ordering Indigenous people to climb the Puracé to clear its cracks so that the volcano could “breathe.” Fear, grief, guilt, and even hope surfaced with these natural disasters. However, not everyone experienced these emotions with the same intensity nor did they give them the same meaning. The boundaries between different “emotional communities”, to use Barbara Rosenwein’s concept, were partly drawn following political lines. Yet, religious beliefs and scientific knowledge also shaped the sorts of emotions experienced and the ways in which they were conceived. Ultimately, this paper invites us to think about everyday life during turbulent times and to reflect on the ways in which emotions shaped people’s conceptions and understandings of the process eventually leading to independence and republicanism.