Who Should Rule? Men of Arms, the Republic of Letters, and the Fall of the Spanish Empire

Abstract

This is a book about the emergence of new political actors in the Spanish Atlantic during the crucial period of 1760–1830. The Bourbon reforms radically changed the face of the Spanish empire during the eighteenth century, yet none of them prevented its collapse. By focusing on Spain and Peru at this moment of profound transformation, Mónica Ricketts provides a rich history of the elites who vied for power in the last days of absolutism in a dying empire. From enlightened reformers to authoritarian viceroys and from mestizo officers to liberal revolutionaries, Who Should Rule? retraces the time-honored dispute between arms and letters and argues for its significance in the birth of the modern world in the Spanish Atlantic.Chapters 1 and 2 provide useful background about the Bourbon reforms. The first chapter particularly explores the new dynasty's attempts at building a new political elite that would rule more effectively. The new ruling class had to be transatlantic, and some important educational reforms opened the doors of elite metropolitan institutions to American criollos and, very occasionally, highborn mestizos and indigenous noblemen. Chapter 2 traces the idea of merit in the Spanish Enlightenment's thought and political practice. Merit, Ricketts argues, was at the core of the reformist drive of monarchs such as Philip V and Charles III. But it was simultaneously elaborated by writers such as Benito J. Feijóo, José Eusebio Llano Zapata, and José del Campillo y Cossío and reformist ministers such as the Marquis of la Ensenada, José de Gálvez, Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes, and Pablo de Olavide. The chapter ends with the argument that “the main challenge that Bourbon authorities faced when promoting the ideal of merit was to reconcile new ideas that implied a new social organization with a traditional hierarchy” (p. 56). Peruvian and Spanish newspapers provided a new outlet for publicists and satirists critical toward the royalist government.Chapter 3 explains why two of independent Peru's first presidents, Agustín Gamarra and Andrés de Santa Cruz, were mestizo military men. It explains in detail the legislative body and new value system of the Bourbon military reform. Some of the new arrangements would last until the nineteenth century's end in both Peru and Spain—although they were unable to prevent or promptly defeat Túpac Amaru's all-out revolt. Free blacks, Indians, pardos, mestizos, and poor whites were now allowed and encouraged to join the militias and thus were to partially benefit from the fuero militar and the protoprofessional ideals of equality, merit, transparency, and honor. Yet the fuero militar was also key in pitching lawyers and men of letters against military men, which constitutes one of Ricketts's central narratives.Chapter 4 uncovers Peru's lively public sphere during the last part of the eighteenth century, a wealth of newspapers, pamphlets, fondas, and cafés. Chapter 5 continues this exploration during the Napoleonic Wars and the Cádiz Cortes in Spain, tracing the fierce debates that took place in the burgeoning press culture of Spain, viceregal America, and London's liberal exile community and in the Cádiz Cortes' sessions, which culminated in the first Spanish constitution in 1812. The power struggle between the Consejo de Regencia and the newly summoned cortes was largely a tug-of-war between the military and men of letters. Similarly, some of the fiercest debates in Cádiz pertained to representation, and Ricketts usefully maps the different positions regarding the political rights, citizenship, and social standing of different American groups. José María Blanco White allows Ricketts to connect many of the issues discussed in this section.By focusing on the tenure of one of Peru's last viceroys, José Fernando de Abascal y Sousa (1806–16), chapter 6 narrates the partial collapse of imperial authority in the Andes and the Río de la Plata during the Cádiz liberal era. While the leaders of the upheavals of Charcas, La Paz, Quito, and Buenos Aires were all men of letters from cabildos, royal councils, and universities, Ricketts also tells the story, of long-lasting consequences, of the military class's victory in the struggle for power. The chapter also pays attention to the press and the first electoral processes.The last chapter starts with Rafael del Riego's uprising against Ferdinand VII's absolutist rule. The relevance of pronunciamientos in the 1810s and 1820s attests to the political centrality achieved in Spain by military men in all factions. The wars of independence in Latin America logically gave more power to military officers and caudillos.Some deeper exploration of literacy rates and literary activity among imperial and insurgent soldiers and officers—along the lines of what Ricketts does on pages 195–96—could have helped better understand the public sphere's emergence at a time when army size was growing exponentially. Nonetheless, Ricketts's argument about the divide between military officers and men of letters is convincing. Many scholars will find new avenues for research in the large body of ephemeral literature and public debates, as well as key human actors, uncovered here. Who Should Rule? is a well-researched and solidly argued account of the Spanish empire's last days by following those who strove to reform it, maintain it, or finally get rid of it.