Abstract
Twenty years after the French Revolution, and following its example, Spain and its Empire entered a revolutionary cycle which was to culminate in the disappearance of Spain as a great power, in the birth of multiple independent states in Spanish America and in the emergence of modern political forms in all the Spanish domains. In the long run this was one of the most important consequences of the French Revolution.
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Notes
The word ‘Liberal‘ was invented in Spain during the Spanish revolution, before reaching the rest of Europe. It designated at that time a revolutionary who fought against the old regime and for a constitutional regime.
Deputies who were appointed to act pending the arrival of elected deputies.
The sources used in this study come essentially from the Archivo de las Cortes españolas (ACM), the Archivo Histórico del Ejército (AHE) and the Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN) in Madrid; from the Archivo General de la Natión (AGN) in Mexico, and from many Andean sources. For a more complete and detailed version of this text, see Caravelle, Cahiers du Monde Hispanique et Luso-Brésilien, No. 60 (Toulouse, 1993), pp. 5–57. We have also developed the problems of this revolutionary era in Marie-Danielle Demélas, L’invention politique. Bolivie, Equateur, Pérou au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1992) and François-Xavier Guerra, Modernidad e Independencias. Ensayos sobre las Revoluciones hispánicas (Madrid, 1992).
Elements on the composition of Juntas are to be found in Angel Martinez de Velasco, La formacién de la Junta central (Pamplona, 1972), chap. III.
In this sense, the argumentation of Miguel Artola is conclusive: the Juntas are de facto revolutionary powers that no precedent could justify. See M. Artola, Los origenes de la Espaha contemporánea (Madrid, 1959) and La Espana de Fernando VII(Madrid, 1968).
They had been suppressed by Philip V after his victory in the war of the Spanish Succession and the principal towns of these kingdoms had been integrated into the Cortes of Castile. Only the Cortes of Navarra survived as a separate entity.
The installation of the Central Junta in the Gazeta de Madrid, no. 129 extraordinary issue, 29 Sept. 1808, and the Gazeta de México, no. 133, 29 Nov. 1808, extraordinary issue.
Martínez de Velasco, La formación de la Junta central, pp. 195–6.
The expression, in French in the text, is from Jovellanos in his letters to Lord Holland.
Real Orden, Sevilla, 22 Jan. 1809, AHN Madrid, Estado D71. The document was published by the authorities of the different regions at various dates according to the various delays caused by the difficulties of communication.
The term ‘colony’ came into current but not official usage in the second half of the 18th century in parallel with the Bourbons’ undertaking to modernise, wanting to make America the foundation for Spain’s prosperity. The very word was loathsome to the Americans. When Americans did sometimes use it, at the beginning of the 19th century, it was in the old sense, as the new founding of a metropolis, never in the modern sense of colonised country.
The Philippines were considered as part of the Indies and in fact they were a far-off dependency of New Spain. Since all the measures alluded to were applied to America, they also applied to the Philippines.
See, for example, Camilo Torres, Representación del cabildo de Santa Fé de Bogotá a la Suprema Junta Central de España, 1809 (Bogotá, 1960).
The city of Guanajuato gave its powers in its name ‘and in representation of all the other suffragan, cabildos of the cities, towns and places contained within its borders ....’ AGN, Historia, vol. 417, exp. II, fol. 289 et seq.
Real Orden of 22 Jan. 1809, AHN, Estado, 54, D71.
The cabildo of Mexico said, after learning that the drawing of lots in New Spain had confirmed who had finally been elected: ‘This ayuntamiento has seen its election approved by the powerful hand of the Almighty with great joy ...’ AGN, Historia, vol. 417, exp. II, fol. 259 et seq. The same reaction was seen in the Andes: the cabildo of La Plata (present day Sucre, in Bolivia) recalled that the election of his deputy ‘had been confirmed by providence...’. ACM, Adas, leg. 3, exp. II.
See for Mexico, AGN, vol. 418, exp. V, VI, VII, X and XIII; for Peru, AHN, Estado, 58, F, 156; for Chile, Miguel Luis Amunátegui, La Crónica de 1810 (Santiago de Chile, 1911), t.1, pp. 346–61.
See AGN, Historia, vol. 418, exp. V.
Julio V. González, Filiatión histórica del gobierno representativo argentino (Buenos Aires, 1937).
The essential part of the sources are in AGN Mexico, Historia, vol. 417.
Powers and orders of the city of Zacatecas, 7 Dec. 1809. AGN, Historia, vol. 417, exp. II, fol. 179 et seq.
On this question, see especially Federico Suárez, El proceso de convocatoria de las Cortes, 1808–1810 (Pamplona, 1982).
Real Orden of 22 Dec. 1809 — published in Mexico by bando of Viceroy Lizana, 14.VIII. 1809, AGN, Historia, vol. 445, exp. I.
These resemblances reflect as much an institutional parenthood shared between France and Spain as the perfect knowledge of the French Revolution that the principal participants of the Spanish revolutions possessed.
Where the absence of press freedom kept the political debate in the narrow framework of elite social circles.
The Spanish step recalls the French preparation of the Estates General and the request, through the council of the King on 5 July 1788, for ‘memoranda, information and elucidations’ on the deportment of the Estates Generals.
The tertulia is the generic name of the new form of sociability. It included salons with a varied participation, literary or scientific societies and, increasingly, political societies. The venues were various: private houses, university establishments, coffee houses.
Decree of 28 Oct. 1809, in Manuel Fernández Martín, Derecho parlamentario español. Colección de Constituciones, disposiciones de carácter constitucional, leyes y decretos electorales para diputados y senadores, y reglamentos de las Cortes que han regido en España en el présente siglo (Madrid, 1885), t. II, p. 594 et seq. The decree provided for the convocation of the Cortes on 1 January 1810 and for them to meet on 1 March the same year.
See, for example, the letter from the cabildo of Guatemala to the Preparatory Commission of the Cortes, 30 Jan. 1810, HN, Madrid, Estado, leg. 20, E.
Decree of the Central Junta of the 29 Jan. 1810 in Fernández Martín, Derecho parlamentario español, t. II, p. 614 et seq.
Manifesto of the Regency Council to the Spanish Americans, 14 Feb. 1810, in Fernández Martín, Derecho parlamentario español, t. II, p. 594 et seq.
See for these debates: Marie-Laure Rieu-Millan, Los diputados americanos en las Cortes de Cádiz (Madrid, 1990); Brian R. Hamnett, La político españolo en una época revolucionaria, 1790–1820 (Mexico, 1985); and Timothy Anna, Spain and the Loss of America (Lincoln, Neb., 1983).
For the town at this time, see the classic work of Ramón Solís, El Cádiz de las Cortes, illustrated edn. (Madrid, 1987).
Within it there was a French colony of some thousands of people: big merchants, but also temporary immigrants, often from the Limousin and engaged in all sorts of small trades.
Adolfo de Castro, Historia de Cádiz y su provincia ( Cádiz, 1858), pp. 685–6.
Adolfo de Castro, Cortes de Cádiz. Complementos de las sesiones verificadas en la Is la de León y en Cádiz. Extractos de las discusiones, datos y noticias, documentos y discursos publicados en periódicos y folietos de la época (Madrid, 1913), t. I, p. 122, Manifesto of 17 July 1810.
The inhabitants of many of the valleys of the Basque country and Navarre enjoyed a collective hidalguia.
This explains the links maintained by the men of Cádiz with certain deputies from overseas. See Rieu-Millan, Los diputados americanos en las Cortes de Cádiz; and María Teresa Berruezo, La participación americana en las Cortes de Cádiz (1810–1814) (Madrid, 1986).
ACM, Credenciales, leg. 5, 16. The convocation decree of the Central Junta of 1 Jan. 1810 provided for the meeting of the Cortes at Mallorca.
The decree is given in Fernández Martín, Derecho parlamentario español, t. II, pp. 600–1.
Only one week after the appearance of the order which organised it. The decree is given in Fernández Martín, Derecho parlamentario español, t. II, pp. 605 et seq.
Only the members of regular orders, state debtors and servants were excluded. The decree clarifies as evidence that ‘pure Indians, and their descendants originating from mixed marriage with the Spanish can be elected deputies, as they are equal vassals [of the King]’.
Conde de Toreno, Historia del levantamiento, guerra y revolución de España (Madrid, 1953), p. 285.
Their statements have been largely preserved, with the nominating vote of all the electors. Only those of the electoral Junta of Santa Fé-Caracas are miss-ing. The others are in ACM, Credentials, 1, 6, in the file on Cádiz.
One can identify the members of this group by the protest they made to the Junta prior to the election, on 18 Sept. 1810, against the inequality of representation of Spanish America. We have drawn the 34 names of the members of this group from this document. ACM, Credentials, 1,6.
One finds among them, for example, the Mexican José María Coutto, who had to leave the country for having made anti-Spanish remarks; for New Granada, José Domingo Caicedo, José Mejía Lequerica, the Count of Punonrostro, or the Venezuelans Palacios and Fermín Clémente Francia who were very close to Bolivar; in Argentina, Carlos Alvear, the future leader of the Argentine revolution.... on the other hand, José Miguel Carrera, a future Chilean radical, figured among those who still voted in the old way.
Figures compiled from Diario de sesiones de las Cortes extraordinarias, No. 25, 19 Oct. 1810, pp. 53–4.
On what was said at that first session we only have the résumé of the interventions which occurred. We do not know the names of all those who spoke. It is only from the 80th sitting, on 15 December 1810, that tachygraphs started to give an account of the total debate. Our reference is to the Diario de sesiones de las Cortes générales y extraordinarias, vol. I, pp. 1–4.
ACM, General, leg. 124, exp. 2, ‘Sobre el modo de hacer las elecciones de procuradores de Cortes en los pueblos’.
The parish, the headquarters of the partido and the capital of the province. The different electoral orders are in Fernández Martín, Derecho parlamentario español, t. II, pp. 570 et seq. See also, for the elections, Pilar Chavarri Sidera, Las elecciones de diputados a las Cortes generales y extraordinarias (1810–1813) (Madrid, 1988).
The Audiencia of Quito, Venezuela, New Granada, Río de la Plata and Mexico.
This is the case, inter alia, for La Plata (Alto Peru) and Maracaibo (ACM, Credentials, exp. 11), Puno and Santa Marta (ACM, leg. 3, exp. 38).
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Demélas-Bohy, M.D., Guerra, F.X. (1996). The Hispanic Revolutions: The Adoption of Modern forms of Representation in Spain and America (1808–1810). In: Posada-Carbó, E. (eds) Elections before Democracy: The History of Elections in Europe and Latin America. Institute of Latin American Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24505-5_3
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