Los juegos de la política: Las independencias hispanoamericanas frente a la contrarrevolución

Abstract

In Los juegos de la política, Marcela Ternavasio invites the reader to ponder what would have happened to the Spanish American processes of independence if the Portuguese and Spanish armies had formed an alliance to defeat them. While Luso-Spanish alliance never came to fruition, the question allows the author to dwell on “what happened in the context of what could have happened” (p. 13). Sitting at the intersection of Atlantic politics, war, and diplomacy, Los juegos de la política unearths the history of expectations, fears, and calculation that the move of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil, the restoration of Ferdinand VII to the Spanish throne, and Napoleon's defeat in France generated on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.The book is divided in three parts, each addressing one specific conjuncture and the potential scenarios that this conjuncture enabled. In the first part, Ternavasio compares and contrasts the diplomatic correspondence of different agents of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns to exhume the myriad political calculations that surrounded the fate of the expedition led by General Pablo Morillo. The author shows how the final destination of the expedition (New Granada) emerged from a politization of European diplomacy in which the role of colonial agents in Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires was central. The second part explores the diplomatic negotiations over a double marriage between the Braganzas and the Bourbons and the feverish political realignments and speculation that this possibility elicited. Certainly, dynastic marriages were an established part of European diplomacy, but Ternavasio's analysis reveals the significant role that princesses, Carlota Joaquina specifically, played in forging these alliances (p. 114). Moreover, Ternavasio highlights the role that the Portuguese invasion of the Banda Oriental (present-day Uruguay) played in the international diplomatic arena by influencing the fresh political realignments that the Congress of Vienna had made possible. Finally, the third part traces how the declaration of independence of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata forced a resolution of the Luso-Spanish alliance. The intense negotiations over the type of government that the United Provinces would adopt—a republic or a monarchy—show the significant role that local powers played in the international diplomatic arena. In the end, the book dissects a political game that all players involved would end up losing. In the Banda Oriental, after building one of the most radical political alternatives of the era, the leader José Gervasio Artigas lost his political ascendance and went into exile. Moreover, in the United Provinces, the internal divisions among different regional leaders resulted in the implosion of the central government in 1820. The European powers did not fare well either. The Portuguese royal family had to leave Brazil after a liberal revolution took place in Portugal. Ferdinand VII of Spain faced the revolt of Rafael de Riego, which not only derailed a military expedition to the Río de la Plata but also reinstated a constitutional monarchy under the liberal principles of the Constitution of Cádiz.Ternavasio's methodological choices aid in the reconstruction of a highly convoluted political scenario. The author utilizes the present tense to stress the contingency of each conjuncture and to recover the level of fear, excitement, and scheming that those conjunctures generated among the European nations and the revolutionary elites in Spanish America. Likewise, the author utilizes the metaphor of politics as a game to highlight the capital importance that calculation had in the decisions that the actors made and the actions that they performed. Ternavasio successfully reveals the complicated and convoluted trajectory that absolutist and independence ideas had. In an ever-changing political and military scenario, political players constantly measured their ideological choices against hypothetical alliances that could ultimately secure political and military victory. Ultimately, Ternavasio's methodological choices reveal the profound impact that the Spanish American processes of independence had in international diplomacy. The Congress of Vienna had created a new balance of power within Europe that the revolutionary experiments in Spanish America questioned. As Ternavasio shows, the wars of independence in Spanish America forced the European powers to broaden the geographical scope of political negotiation outside Europe. In doing so, the wars played a significant role in the construction of a global and interdependent concert of nations.This book complements and expands the ideas explored in Ternavasio's previous book, centered on the figure of Carlota Joaquina. Written in agile prose, Los juegos de la política will make a fantastic addition to any graduate-level class on Latin American history. More importantly, it is a fantastic example of the potential benefits that a new diplomatic history of Latin America can offer, not just for Latin American history but for global history as well.