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Este artículo se interesa en entender a la primera generación de liberales peruanos y el rol que tuvieron en la creación de las instituciones del Estado. Ellos fueron quienes diseñaron los sistemas electorales, las constituciones y las estructuras judiciales. Desde el primer momento se enfrentaron al poder de los militares que, si bien decían respetar los sistemas representativos, tendían a buscar hacerse del poder y mantenerse en él por la fuerza. Los liberales estuvieron convencidos que podrían imponerse por encima de la fuerza por medio de la ley y vieron en las constituciones y los procesos electorales la forma de hacerlo. Se enfrentaron repetidamente con los militares, y en 1834 la confrontación llegó a tal punto que el pueblo tomó el lado de los liberales en contra de los militares. Esto les permitió redactar la carta más anti-presidencialista del periodo, pero la victoria fue pírrica, un año más tarde una nueva revolución militar los desplazó y esta primera generación liberal nunca logró recuperar el acceso al poder.

In this edition of the magazine From the South we find a series of reflections on Peru framed within the commemoration of the bicentennial. Although only one of them focuses on directly studying the period of independence, and its analysis does not focus on how the separation with Spain was achieved or on the celebrations held in these years of pandemic, it is clear that all of the Papers in this issue contribute to the understanding of Peru in this specific context. 2021 has been a particular year. On the one hand, the country and the entire world are still immersed in the complex and changing reality of the pandemic, while, on the other hand, Peru has lived through an intense and exhausting electoral process that has not managed to put an end to the political instability that It has characterized it for the last five years. En esta edición de la revista Desde el Sur encontramosuna serie de reflexiones sobre el Perú enmarcadas dentro de la conmemoración del bicentenario. Si bien solo una de ellas se enfoca en estudiar de manera directa el periodo de la independencia, y su análisis no se centra en cómo se logró la separación con España ni en las celebraciones realizadas en estos años de pandemia, sí queda claro que todos los trabajos de este número contribuyen a la com prensión del Perú en este contexto específico. El 2021 ha sido un año particular. Por un lado, el país y el mundo entero siguen inmersos en la realidad compleja y cambiante de la pandemia, mientras que, por el otro, el Perú ha vivido un intenso y desgastante proceso electoral que no ha logrado poner fin a la inestabilidad política que lo ha caracterizado los últimos cinco años.&nbsp

In the decades following independence from Spain, ‘civil wars’ ravaged the newly established polities in South America. Former vice-regal capitals inherited a larger portion of the colonial adminis...

The Peruvian parliament was a central institution in the early republic, but so far very little has been written on its history. This is due to the fact that military leaders took control of power for most of the nineteenth century. This article reflects on three main questions: what was the role of the legislative in nineteenth-century Peru? What was its relationship with the executive power? And what part did conflict play in these relationships? Most initial congresses were tasked with writing up constitutions, because institutions had to be created, and there was a strong belief that having a written charter mattered. The strongmen who took power felt the need to obtain legitimacy from both constitutions, and elections, but often did not see eye to eye with congress. This led congress to be closed, particularly when legislators refused to bow down to presidential power.

Conflicts between the Spanish Crown and colonizers created tumultuous conditions in which enemies became allies and the seeds of nationalism were sown amidst treachery and betrayal. This chapter examines the chaotic nineteenth century and how it set the stage for debates that have lasted to the present regarding how Andean nations should be conceptualized and constituted and how to define citizenship.

On 19 March 1812, representatives from across the Hispanic Monarchy put forward a constitution in the Spanish port city of Cádiz. This foundational document was a response to their king’s abdication in favor of Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte, obtained under pressure from invading French troops. The constitution aimed to address what they viewed as a lack of legitimacy because the monarch was captive, as the drafters expected it would be the basis of government in all the corners of the empire, from Madrid to Mexico and Manila. Written under the protection of the British fleet in the last bastion of the Peninsula that remained unoccupied, the constitution instituted a very extensive male suffrage, freedom of the press, national sovereignty, and the abolition of privileges for citizens from all parts of the vast empire. These measures were the reason why the men who debated the constitution were the first ones to be called liberal. The liberalism of the drafters at Cádiz must be considered in the context of the early nineteenth century. When in 1814 Ferdinand VII returned to Spain, he abolished the constitution. But in 1820 a mutiny of troops forced the king to accept it grudgingly. A constitutional monarchy was established lasting until 1823, when the so-called 100,000 sons of Saint Louis crossed from France to reinstate absolutism. This period came to be known as the Liberal Triennium. In 1836 the Progressives reinstated the Cádiz Constitution, albeit briefly when they passed a new charter in 1837. Until quite recently there was very limited scholarship on the Cádiz Constitution in English, and, as Roberto Breña shows, even the literature in Spanish had been mostly limited to the study of the text itself and its impact in the peninsula. In the past decade, Atlantic history and studies on the Enlightenment’s influence on revolution in general have led to renewed interest in the Spanish constitutional experience. The reevaluation of Spanish American independence movements in light of the Cádiz Constitution have also sparked debate among historians. François-Xavier Guerra (1992) and Jaime Rodriguez O. (1998)1 consider that it is impossible to understand the process of independence if attention is not paid to Cádiz and the enacting of the constitution. Guerra goes as far as to state that the election of deputies to Cortes was the revolution2 (1993) Bicentennial celebrations have led to a dramatic increase of publications on the constitution. Its importance, especially in influencing subsequent constitutions, is increasingly acknowledged today in academic circles. In this article I will discuss the calling of the Cortes, the elections that brought representatives from all over the empire to Cádiz, the demands made from far-away provinces, and major issues discussed in the constitutional debates. I conclude by assessing the constitution’s reception, as well as the way in which it influenced the advent of modernity in the Hispanic world and beyond. I begin by discussing the development of constitutional thinking in the late eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century. A revision of the events that led to the Peninsular War and the context in which the constitution was put forward follows. The article then analyzes the process through which the constitution was passed, the intellectual debates that surrounded it, the impact the charter had in the wider Atlantic world, as well as the role it played in the process of independence in Spanish America. Finally, it ends with a review of how liberalism developed in the Hispanic Monarchy and the long-lasting legacy of the Cádiz Constitution.

El artículo muestra la relación existente entre las elecciones llevadas a cabo en el Perú durante los siglos XIX y XX y los conflictos sociales. Se toma a las elecciones como materia de análisis de los conflictos por el poder surgidos en esta época. Tales conflictos mostraban el manejo de las élites con la finalidad de mantenerse en el poder y la tensión por ampliar la participación de la sociedad en los procesos electorales. En muchos casos, las elecciones fueron una canalización de enfrentamientos que, de otro modo, hubieran sido violentos. El texto busca mostrar las diferencias existentes en la sociedad antes que calificar a las elecciones en su aspecto democrático.

This article studies the trajectories of the officers defeated at the battle of Ayacucho who upon their return to Spain had prominent political careers. It follows them before, during and after the Wars of Independence in the Andes in an attempt to discern a certain pattern of relationship between Europe and America during the crucial decade of the 1820s, and beyond. It enquires on the far-reaching consequences of prolonged mobilization on both sides of the Atlantic, and the degree to which the histories of Europe and America were intertwined during this period. The disintegration of empire and the reactions to the Cádiz Constitution led to similar situations with confrontations between liberals, radicals and conservatives as well as the military irrupting onto the political world. It became possible, both in Spain and America, for capable and ambitious men of humble origins to reach the highest echelons of power.

Political patronage was at the very basis of society's functioning in nineteenth-century Latin America, yet we still know very little about its inner dynamics. Recent analyses of national politics have questioned the idea that Latin American elections were restrictive and fraudulent, or that there was no effective citizenship. These studies have widened the understanding of political participation, and have argued persuasively for the agency of those who had been previously reduced to the background. Leading scholars have stressed the importance of early widespread suffrage and electoral mobilization in Latin America, noting that detailed analysis of local power struggles promise to reveal the dynamics of social structures and electoral politics. This new literature has also firmly established that in Latin America the process through which this happened was not linear, as generous voting rights were often restricted over time.

The wars of Spanish-American independence were a series of military campaigns that took place in the Americas between 1809 and 1825, which resulted in the creation of more than a dozen republics in the territories that had previously been part of the Hispanic monarchy. Triggered in the short term by the Napoleonic invasion of the Spanish peninsula in 1808, there were more deep-seated reasons, however, that led to the collapse of an empire that had existed for three hundred years. Classic historiography has stressed the importance of the Bourbon Reforms that brought to the fore the contradictions within the Hispanic monarchy and gave rise to a sense of proto-nationalism. These interpretations have given much importance to the role of the Enlightenment and the fear brought by possible social revolution. Some authors consider that these wars were the result of the Americans’ long-held contempt for Europeans. These views consider that struggle for liberation had begun much earlier, possibly as far back as the 1780s, inspired by the American and French Revolutions. More recent historiography has highlighted the war that engulfed Spain itself between 1808 and 1814 as the crucial event that led to fighting in the Americas. This event is seen as not just the trigger for the events to unfold, unleashing conflicts that had been simmering for much longer, but what shook to the ground the archaic but surprisingly durable composite Hispanic monarchy. This article will discuss the main events that caused the wars, the moments each national historiography has identified as the ones linked to the independence of their particular region, as well as the events themselves. It begins by looking at the historical antecedents, including the Bourbon Reforms, the American, French, and Haitian revolutions, and at the Napoleonic invasion of the Spanish peninsula. It then discusses the creation of juntas in the Americas and how the confrontation between different jurisdictions resulted in war. The article discusses who were the people involved in the wars and the main events that took place.