Spanish American Independence

Abstract

For most of Spanish America, the colonial period came to an end between 1810 and 1825 in a regionwide struggle for independence (Graham, 1972; Lynch, 1973; Kinsbruner, 1976; Dominguez, 1980; Liss, 1983). Though that struggle politically transformed the region, replacing colonialism with independence and the monarchical state with nominally republican institutions, it produced far less change in social and economic relations. Destruction and devastation the wars created in profusion, but as Spanish America slowly rebuilt itself, it did so along lines not greatly dissimilar to what had existed before. How was it that violence of such duration and magnitude, provoking significant popular mobilization and taking place in societies riven by powerful internal conflicts and tensions, did not have a greater impact on the social and economic structures of the region? In short, why did the independence struggles, so often labeled revolutions, in fact fail to produce anything remotely approaching a genuine social revolution? This question in turn raises others concerning the causes of independence. By 1810, elites throughout the colonies shared a desire for a greater voice in the administration of American affairs. As a welldeveloped dominant class, the creole elites had reached a level of corporate maturity that produced growing frustration at their colonial status and resentment of Spain's presumption of the right to dictate how the New World would be governed. But despite this chafing under the Spanish yoke, the colonies by no means moved toward the goal of independence with equal speed and determination. Whereas Argentina

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