Independence and Nation-Building in Latin America: Race and Identity in
the Crucible of War reconceptualizes the history of the break-up of
colonial empires in Spanish and Portuguese America. In doing so, the
authors critically examine competing interpretations and bring to light
the most recent scholarship on social, cultural, and political aspects
of the period.
Did American rebels clearly push for independence, or did others truly
advocate autonomy within weakened monarchical systems? Rather than
glorify rebellions and "patriots," the authors begin by emphasizing
patterns of popular loyalism in the midst of a fracturing Spanish state.
In contrast, a slave-based economy and a relocated imperial court
provided for relative stability in Portuguese Brazil. Chapters pay
attention to the competing claims of a variety of social and political
figures at the time across the variegated regions of Central and South
America and the Caribbean. Furthermore, while elections and the rise of
a new political culture are explored in some depth, questions are raised
over whether or not a new liberal consensus had taken hold. Through
translated primary sources and cogent analysis, the text provides an
update to conventional accounts that focus on politics, the military,
and an older paradigm of Creole-peninsular friction and division.
Previously marginalized actors, from Indigenous peoples to free people
of color, often take center-stage.
This concise and accessible text will appeal to scholars, students, and
all those interested in Latin American History and Revolutionary
History.
