Republicanism, Uncertainty and Morality in New Granada During the First Half of the Nineteenth century

Resumen En la primera mitad de este ensayo argumentaré que el colapso del régimen monárquico y la institución del sistema republicano a principios del siglo XIX dieron cabida en la región neogranadina a una experiencia del tiempo que los mismos actores caracterizaron de precaria. En la segunda parte examinaré la respuesta intelectual a esa temporalidad precaria a partir de la obra de José Eusebio Caro (1817-53), filósofo, poeta, publicista y político neogranadino, uno de los fundadores históricos del partido conservador (1848), observador astuto -y escéptico- de las "revoluciones políticas y morales" de las repúblicas hispanoamericana y recurso ideológico de primer orden para el periodo llamado la Regeneración colombiana (1886-1930). Abstract In the first half of this article I will argue that the collapse of the monarchy (1810-1819) and the establishment of the republican system in the early nineteenth century gave way in New Granada (present day Colombia) to a new experience of time which contemporary actors characterized as precarious. In the second part I will examine the intellectual response to such precarious temporality by approaching the work of Colombian Jose Eusebio Caro (1817-1853), philosopher, poet, publicist and one of the historic founders of the Conservative Party (1848). Caro was an astute and skeptic observer of the "political and moral revolutions" of the Spanish American republics and became a prime ideological resource for Colombian conservatives in the subsequent period known as the Regeneration (1886-1930).