The End of Iberian Rule on the American Continent, 1770–1830

Brian R. Hamnett offers a comprehensive and comparative assessment of the independence era in both Spanish America and Brazil.

Brian R. Hamnett (Author)

9781107174641, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 April 2017

372 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.5 cm, 0.63 kg

'… Brian Hamnett's book is an extraordinary contribution to our knowledge of a generation of politicians, men of letters, military officers, and popular leaders who, for better or for worse, changed the Ibero-American spectrum. Anyone interested in both the ideas and the material culture that enabled and gave legitimacy to these events should consult this work of rare comprehensiveness and consequence.' Juan Luis Ossa, H-LatAm

In this new work, Brian R. Hamnett offers a comprehensive assessment of the independence era in both Spanish America and Brazil by examining the interplay between events in Iberia and in the overseas empires of Spain and Portugal. Most colonists had wanted some form of unity within the Spanish and Portuguese monarchies but European intransigence continually frustrated this aim. Hamnett argues that independence finally came as a result of widespread internal conflict in the two American empires, rather than as a result of a clear separatist ideology or a growing national sentiment. With the collapse of empire, each component territory faced a struggle to survive. The End of Iberian Rule on the American Continent, 1770–1830 is the first book of its kind to give equal consideration to the Spanish and Portuguese dimensions of South America, examining these territories in terms of their divergent component elements.

Part I. One Sole Monarch: 'One Sole Nation' - Advocates, Critics, and Challengers: 1. Negotiation, networks, linkages
2. An alternative vision? Andean perceptions of the Hispanic monarchy
3. The idea of metropolis and empire as one nation
Part II. Salvaging the Greater Nation: Constitutionalism or Absolutism?: 4. Iberian monarchies in crisis: juntas, congresses, constitutions
5. Hispanic America - violence unleashed
6. The first Spanish constitutional experiment: the 'one sole nation' and its opponents (1810–14)
7. The counter-revolution and its opponents (1814–20)
Part III. Shattering the Greater Nation: Fragmentation, Separate Sovereign States, and the Search for Legitimacy: 8. Metropolitan Iberia - focus of disunion (1820–30)
9. The divergence of the American territories (1820–30)
10. Independence - territory, peoples, nations
Final reflections
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK], European history [HBJD]