Preliminary Programme

Through the examination of the biographical trajectories of three major figures of the Latin American independence process, this paper aims to provide an analytical framework to trace the Spanish, British and US influences in the struggle for the adoption of national sovereignty in early-nineteenth century Latin America. Well-travelled, multilingual and politically active men, the study of the lives, works and experiences of Andrés Bello (1781-1865), José Joaquín de Mora (1783-1864) and Vicente Rocafuerte (1783-1847) can shed new light on the Atlantic dimensions of the end of the Spanish empire in continental America. They are the chosen representatives of an outstanding generation of intellectuals who voiced and fought for the cause of national liberation from the Spanish yoke which included better studied leaders such as the Argentine Bernadino Rivadavia (1780-1845) and the Libertador Simón Bolívar (1783-1840). They studied and worked throughout their lives both in America and in Europe and thus became a truly Atlantic phenomenon. This generation of writers, translators and politicians acquired public recognition at an early age due to their political commitment to liberalism and the pro-independence cause. They paid dearly for their ‘misconduct’ and duly spent time exile in London and the US. It was in these English speaking countries where they developed a sense of common identity and led frenetic cultural and political lives with the shared goal of national independence under constitutional rule for the emerging free republics. Many of them would become highly influential figures as both political writers and professional politicians during their lives and would thus positively contribute to the definition of the political and legal frameworks within which postcolonial freedom would be enjoyed in the former Spanish colonies. In this paper the occurrence of the contagion of freedom in the Atlantic world will be first accounted for. Secondly, the paper will focus on a succinct exploration of the individual contributions of Bello, Mora and Rocafuerte to the political, social and religious debates going on in the new republics will be provided. The concluding section will focus on the legacies of their activities in Latin America for the Atlantic understanding of freedom in the Age of Independence. In so doing this paper aims to examine some of the most salient features of historical agency of these key-players within a revised framework of Atlantic studies without neglecting the Southern cone. (Show less)

This paper focuses on the rise and expansion of slave trading merchants, originally based in Havana, who were to have a truly international impact on communications, finance, and trade – chiefly of human beings – throughout the nineteenth century. It does so by focusing on the trading house established by two Basque brothers in the Cuban capital in the early part of the century, and then following the expansion and diversification of their business activities and the creation of a transatlantic commercial network. Their commercial success transformed them into forerunners of the process of globalization that would start in earnest in the second part of the century.
By charting the development of the Zangroniz family business – a scholarly enterprise that will also involve the examination of many of their partners – this paper offers a case study that will allow us to address and answer some broader historiographical and theoretical questions, pertaining to economic history as well as to the modus operandi of transatlantic slave traders. Engaging with the literatures of proto-globalization enterprising and family business, it examines the workings of a merchant house managed from a booming nineteenth-century Atlantic metropolis to shed light on the importance of adopting new strategies of diversification as a route to success in a highly risky and competitive environment.
I have purposely chosen the Zangroniz clan to tackle a number of essential issues to the development of Atlantic commercial networks, mainly because of two main reasons. Firstly, the information existing about them, although by no means abundant, is substantial enough as to map their trajectory in time and space, throughout the century and across continents. Secondly, because they were exceptional, in the sense that they were constantly in the search for new business ventures. This study will thus make possible to observe their expanding operations and networks, their strategies of diversification, and the ways in which they invested in new markets and businesses, often taking significant risks and doing so at the margin of local and international laws. By all means, the generations of Zangroniz examined in this paper, epitomize the figure of the astute and pioneering capitalist of the time, flexible and resilient, and often eager to take advantage of any given chance of self-enrichment. (Show less)

The link between liberalism and abolitionism, which can be clearly established in the French and British contexts, cannot be applied to the Spanish case. This finding keeps us away from the idea of aiming to define an “ideological canon” for Spanish liberalism. Liberalism in the first decades of the nineteenth century far from being a stable and well-defined notion, was a variable bunch of vague and faltering concepts. So it would be a futile exercise to aim to compare the development of Spanish abolitionist discourses with the English and French ones, assuming a teleological approach in which the English and French cases constituted a canon. The research paper will therefore avoid an ahistorical ‘evolutionary approach’, which has been frequently used in the Spanish historiography.
Of particular significance are external factors, especially British influence, in shaping anti-slave trade ideas and discourses. Assuming, however, that being a liberal politician or thinker in Spain, from 1800 to 1868, and defending the continuation of the slave trade was not incompatible. The ideological and political tension between Spanish liberalism and Imperialism is crucial to put forward a more comprehensive thesis about the reasons of the failure of anti-slave trade initiatives from 1811 to the 1860s. (Show less)

The colonial militias that made up the armies of independence and eventually the Peruvian Army could trace their origin to legislation from the eighteenth century based on the reform of the Cuban militias. The notions of service and what could be expected in exchange for it had been set out earlier still with the debates on the monte-pío going as far back as the seventeenth century. This paper will trace the Atlantic origins of the institution as well as how it continued to change and adapt in the Peruvian context through the wars of independence and the creation of the Peruvian State. The colonial legislation on montepios was particularly resilient and it was still being used as the law in Peru until the last quarter of the nineteenth century when plans for its reform were implemented. In this essay I will discuss the corporate notions that underpinned this retirement pension from the military and it changed. To do so I will revise legislation, newspaper articles written about the montepio and the files of men and women who petitioned successfully and unsuccessfully for the montepio. (Show less)