This book provides a new interpretation of the process of Spanish American independence (1808-1826); one that emphasizes political processes and cultural continuities, instead of the break with Spain. It is the first book to examine the representative government and popular elections introduced by the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Rodriguez O. argues that independence did not constitute an anticolonial movement, as many scholars assert, but rather formed part of the broader Spanish political revolution. In America, supporters of the government in Spain struggled with local juntas for...

Founded in 1891, the Union Civica Radical, generally known as the Radical Party, is the oldest national political party in Argentina. As the strongest opposition party during the 1890s, a pivotal decade in the birth of Argentina's party system, the Radical Party effected a critical development in Argentine politics: it created a system of open confrontation and political competition. This study offers not merely a revised version of the party's story but also a new perspective on the politics of the nation as a whole.

The Indian nobility of the Andes--largely descended from the Inca monarchs and other pre-conquest lords--occupied a crucial economic and political position in late colonial Andean society, a position widely accepted as legitimate until the Tupac Amaru rebellion. This volume traces the history of this late colonial elite and examines the pre-conquest and colonial foundations of their privilege and authority. It brings to light the organization and the ideology of the Indian nobility in the bishopric of Cusco in the decades before the rebellion, and uses this nobility as a lens through which to...

This book emphasizes that the Spanish empire remained the third most important European state in terms of fiscal income and naval power, and first in size of territorial empire, particularly because of its colonies in Spanish America. The Spanish crown was involved in four wars with Great Britain and two wars with France during the decades 1760-1810. Colonial Mexico financed most of these wars by remitting silver in the form of taxes and loans. The expenditures of the imperial wars were so great that they eventually caused the bankruptcy of both the Spanish American colonies and of the...

Studies in Spanish American regional history have, as yet, made little attempt to incorporate the struggles for independence within the context of provincial society and politics viewed over the broader period that spans the late colonial and early national experience of Latin America. This book attempts a new perspective: it emphasises the provincial milieu and popular participation in its varied forms, often ambiguous and contradictory. The central aim is to examine social conflicts, chiefly in the Mexican provinces of Puebla, Guadalajara, Michoacan, and Guanajuato from the middle of the...

Spanish colonialism exacted a high price from its subjects, promoting economic dependency at the expense of a more vital, diversified economy based on a mix of industry and agriculture. The result was a legacy of underdevelopment, domestic social inequities, and economic subordination to the North Atlantic world. This volume examines how Spanish colonial policies contributed to profound socioeconomic changes, leading to patterns of underdevelopment in the Kingdom of Quito (modern Ecuador) from 1690 to 1830.

This book describes and analyzes economic and political developments in Colombia during the final century of Spanish rule. Its purpose is threefold: first, to provide a general portrait of Colombian society during the late colonial period, showing the character of economic, social, and political life in the territory's principal regions; second, to assess the impact on the region of European imperialist expansion during the eighteenth century; and third, to provide a context for understanding the causes of independence. The book offers the only available survey of Colombian history and...

Conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the State in Mexico became prominent soon after independence in 1821, and during the next three decades national and state governments made various attempts to reduce ecclesiastical influence in the social, economic and political life of the nation. Few of such efforts met with much success, and it was not until 1856 that a major reform was initiated. Legislation was issued which affected all spheres of clerical activity but the most vital and controversial aspect of the reform involved the measures adopted to dispossess the Church of its wealth....

This is a detailed study of British influence in Brazil as a theme within the larger story of modernization. The British were involved at key points in the initial stages of modernization. Their hold upon the import export economy tended to slow down industrialization, and there were other areas in which their presence acted as a brake upon Brazilian modernization. But the British also fostered change. British railways provided primary stimulus to the growth of coffee exports, and since the British did not monopolize coffee production, a large proportion of the profits remained in Brazilian...

Since its first appearance in Brazil in 1949, Victor Nunes Leal's Coronelismo, Enxada e Voto has come to be recognised as a classic analysis of the system.