Atlantic Revolutions, Constitutionalism, and Liberalism During the Spanish-American Independence Movements: An Ambiguous Legacy

Abstract

This article is a historiographic analysis and critique of the central aspects of the study of the Spanish-American independence movements, specifically, its framing within the Atlantic Revolutions, the constitutional explosion during the second decade of the 19^th century, and the role that liberalism played, not only in the Spanish-American context, but also the Spanish liberal revolution (1810-1814) and the Cádiz Constitution of 1812. The main thesis of the article is that the revoluciones hispánicas that took place in the Spanish-speaking world between 1808 and 1824 were clearly different from other revolutionary movements and made an original contribution to the Age of Revolutions, all of which tends to be minimized when considered as the last of the “great” Atlantic Revolutions (that of the Thirteen Colonies, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution).