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CONVEYING THE SPIRIT OF THE SCOTS VIA THE ATLANTIC OCEAN: THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS IN THE AMERICAS

November 2021, 96 Pages
After the Spanish conquest, the southern part of America was called the New World. The 18th century was considered a real turning point in the historical formation of the idea of Europe, and debates about the New World started to shape. Ideas began to be circulated on both sides of the Atlantic. The concept of independence gained momentum with different dynamic intellectual movements. People who lived under colonial powers attempted to make revolutions to be able to cut their ties with the colonizers. Ideas about independence and freedom traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. The Enlightenment was a process, and it was the offspring of numerous intellectuals all over the world, and its ideas influenced several revolutions and upheavals. This thesis explicates that the Scottish/British Enlightenment was a process that influenced not only Europe but also Latin and North America within the scope of establishing independent states after the separation from the Spanish and British Empires. Political leaders did not only fight against the Spanish and British Rule; they also supported their rights and ideas and justified their actions by utilizing the legal and philosophical arguments of the Scottish/British Enlightenment.
Keywords: Enlightenment, Independence, Latin America, North America
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ÖZ

İspanyolların fethinden sonra Amerika’nın güneyine Yeni Dünya denilmeye başlandı. 18. yüzyıl, Avrupa fikrinin tarihsel oluşumunda gerçek bir dönüm noktası olarak kabul edildi ve Yeni Dünya ile ilgili tartışmalar şekillenmeye başladı. Atlantik Okyanusu’nun iki yakasında da yeni fikirlerin dolanmaya başlaması ile birlikte bağımsızlık kavramı birbirinden etkilenen düşünce hareketleriyle ivme kazanmaya başladı. Sömürge iktidarı altında yaşayan insanlar, sömürge imparatorluklardan kurtulmak için harekete geçtiler. Bu tezin temel amacı, İskoç/İngiliz Aydınlanması’nın İspanyol ve Britanya İmparatorluklarından ayrıldıktan sonra bağımsız devletler kurma amacıyla Latin ve Kuzey Amerika’yı da etkileyen bir süreç olduğunu belirtmektir. Bağımsızlık döneminin liderleri sadece İspanyol ve Britanya egemenliğine karşı savaşmakla kalmayıp İskoç/İngiliz Aydınlanma’nın hukuki ve felsefi argümanlarını kullanarak eylemlerini desteklemişlerdir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Aydınlanma, Latin Amerika, Bağımsızlık, Kuzey Amerika
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To my grandfather
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Scottish Enlightenment and its impacts on the Latin American countries during the years of independence became a personal interest of mine, especially coming from the first year of my master’s degree studies. I aimed to analyze the dynamics between Scottish and English philosophers and American revolutionaries. Interestingly, many patriotic leaders were used common narrative and methods in order to achieve their goals for independence, and to define the conditions of their countries.
I want to sincerely thank my advisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bahar Gürsel for leading me to see that the importance of the Atlantic Revolutions both in the field and intellectual spheres, the fights of the pens and the weapons. She did not only improve my perspective, but her dedication to the details influenced me to have a better understanding of the way ahead of me. Without her constant support, this thesis cannot be completed. I want to thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aylin Topal for the knowledge that I gained from her courses which I benefit through every step of my thesis, and I would like to thank Assist. Prof. Dr. Gözde Somel for her precious support and guidance. Last but not least, I would like to thank Assist. Prof. Dr. Luca Zavagno, for his support and trust. Thank all of you for your endless supports and influences.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank my family from the bottom of my heart. Without the constant support of my father, my mother, my brother, and my aunts, I would not be here today. Thank you for always believing and trusting me, your supports always pushed me to improve a better version of me.
There are many people whom my gratitude should be given, however mentioning all of them in one breath is a hard task to do. For everyone who provided me with their perspectives and thoughts, I would like to tell how grateful I am. I want to name a few of them, Tuğçe Dağ, Berzah Kaya, İrem Atasever, Ayşenur Mulla, Yunus Doğan, Burcu Sırmatel, Rüştü Bora Bakrıyanık and Ebru Özgüner. Most importantly, to Fermude Gülsevinç, I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart for her constant support and always pushing me even through the hardest times of my
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life from the beginning of our sisterhood; she convinced me to chase my dreams and I would like to indicate that I will be always at her side. Without her, this thesis could not have been completed.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PLAGIARISM……………………………………………………………………….iii
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….…iv
ÖZ……………………………………………………………………………..……...v
DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………..vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………ix
CHAPTERS
I. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………...1
I.I. Literature Review………………………………………………………….3
I.II. Thesis Outline………………………………………………….………...10
I.III. Methodology………………………………………………………….....12
II. SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT…………………………………………….14
III. AGE OF REVOLUTIONS…………………………………………………..26
III.I. Impact of the Scottish Enlightenment on North America……………….29
III.II The Impact of the Scottish Enlightenment on the
Independence of Latin America……………..……………...………......37
IV. CONCLUSION…………………………………………..…………...…61
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………….......66
APPENDICES
A. PROCLAMACION A LOS PUEBLOS DEL
CONTINENTE COLOMBIANO ALIAS HISPANO-AMERICA….……...….77
B. DESTERRAR DE CHILE LA POBREZA…………………………………87
C. TURKISH SUMMARY/ TÜRKÇE ÖZET…………………………………90
D. TEZ İZİN FORMU/ THESIS PERMISSION FORM…………………...….96
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The Enlightenment is one of the most studied historical movements in the realm of social sciences. However, it is generally regarded as belonging to only European countries, in other words, it is esteemed that the Enlightenment did not influence other countries or areas like Asia and Latin America. However, Sebastian Conrad states that “the Enlightenment’s global impact was not energized solely by the ideas of the Parisian philosophers. Rather, it was the work of historical actors around the world – in places such as Cairo, Calcutta, and Shanghai- who invoked the term, and what they saw as its most important claims, for their own specific purposes” (Conrad, 2012, p. 1001). Therefore, it is essential to understand that the Enlightenment was a process, and was the offspring of numerous intellectuals all over the world. Therefore, the Enlightenment should not be perceived as a process experienced in the same way for all societies. Enlightenment thinkers defended very different arguments from each other, and this situation led to the formation of different veins in Enlightenment thoughts. In this context, although there are some common points of departure, one may assume that the “Continental Enlightenment’, which took its roots from the French Enlightenment, and the “Scottish Enlightenment” possessed different arguments and orientations. The French Enlightenment, led by a group of intellectuals called the French materialists and Encyclopedists, claimed to substitute the absolutism of reason for the absolutism of religion; also, they tend to be against religion and tradition. The Enlightenment thought, which sanctified the mind and society, together with the ideas developed around the Encyclopedia within the French Enlightenment, was influential in the emergence of the liberal understanding that preached total liberation from religion, authoritarian governments, and traditional cultural values. (Hussey, 1942, p.23)
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On the other hand, when one inspects history, it becomes clear that Scotland was one of the main places from where enlightened thoughts started to spread. The Scottish Enlightenment has three areas of particular focus: primarily moral philosophy, then history and then economics. The term “Scottish Enlightenment” refers to the tradition of thought formed by thinkers of Scottish origin who shared certain theoretical goals and assumptions in epistemology, moral philosophy, social and political theory, and constituted an important vein in the Enlightenment thought without prejudice to their differences. Scottish thinkers did not rely on the power and competence of reason/ rationality, but they emphasized factors other than the mind like emotion, experience, tradition, and habit in their individual and social analyses. Starting from the individual, their main purpose was to present a scientific explanation of thoughts, beliefs and morality that constituted the content of the mind with the goal of creating a sociological and historical theory of human interaction. The Scottish Enlightenment followed a different course than the French Enlightenment. The 18th century’s Scottish philosophers were not commonly anti-religious. Unlike the French philosophers, they emphasized the value of tradition for individual and social life. According to the Scottish thinkers, the power of reason was limited in the evolution and functioning of the social order in the formation of social institutions and rules of social relations as in the individual level. Therefore, the complex formations in which people live could not simply be deduced from the conscious design of mind. These are the unintentional, consciously unplanned, undesigned consequences of countless individual actions that had evolved over generations in the historical process.
The Scottish Enlightenment influenced European countries. Besides, the Scottish Enlightenment’s winds crossed the Atlantic Ocean and influenced the American continent. Not only North America but also Latin America was affected by its intellectual thoughts. The main question of this thesis is that the 18th and 19th centuries were regarded as periods of revolutions and independence wars in the American continent. In regard of this, did the Scottish/British Enlightenment influence the revolutions and independence movements in the Americas? If it did, what did intellectuals or leaders of independence movements, who were from the Americas, do
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in accordance with these kinds of enlightened thoughts? How did they react to the changes which took place at that time?
I.I. Literature Review
The 18th century was an era in which scientific progress accelerated, an economic transformation was experienced with the Industrial Revolution, and the political power also changed with revolutions. With the improved scientific knowledge and new ideas about religion and social order, the connection between real life and religion began to dissolve because it was assumed that the understanding of real life could only be reached through positive sciences. In other words, people became aware of their power to think and change things. Different questions about independence, freedom, and equality began to be asked. The 18th century, also called the “Age of Reason,” witnessed the birth of Enlightenment philosophy, which took its foundations from the Renaissance, Reformation, and Cartesian Philosophy. Reason took the place of belief; questioning took the place of acceptance.
It is essential to investigate Scotland’s situation at that time because the impact of the Scottish Enlightenment is one of the central questions for this thesis. Scotland was a country that hosted a cultural surge that affected the Western hemisphere between 1730 and 1780. At that time, Scotland hosted the oldest universities globally, such as Edinburgh University, Aberdeen University, and St. Andrews University. These universities were the places where important Scottish intellectuals worked as professors. Different subjects like astronomy and medicine, and moral studies were taught at these institutions. Furthermore, the Scottish Enlightenment’s importance for this thesis is that it works to understand human nature. It is clear that Scottish Enlightenment intellectuals were influenced by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1704), and Charles-Lois de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de
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Montesquieu (1689-1755)1, who attempted to understand human nature in order to establish a new order based on law.
The 18th and 19th centuries became a stage of continuous development of goods and money between Europe and the Americas. This traffic led to the circulation of new ideas on both sides of the Atlantic. Iwan-Michelangelo D’Aprile provides us with a brief but crucial point to better understand the importance of circulation. He indicates that “[t]hese global crossings, encounters, exchanges, transfers, appropriations, and diffusions are the root of the European Enlightenment, which can itself be defined as an accelerated and enhanced ‘movements of ideas across borders and over time,’ rather than as a fixed set of genuinely European ideas.” (D'Aprile, 2018, p. 349)
The borders, either tangible or intangible, were blurred between both sides of the Atlantic. Indeed, these interactions, which were occurring all around the world and among different societies, created a well-known historical period, the Enlightenment which was the turning point for both Europe and the Americas. The ideas like equality and liberty had influenced the leaders of the Spanish American Wars of Independence as well as the American Revolution and French Revolution. The Americas were more closely associated with the Scottish and English Enlightenment. The influence of the French tradition was weaker. Benjamin Franklin (1806—1790)2 and Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)3 served as diplomats in France, and in a sense, they transferred their French experiences to America. On the other hand, the French influence remained weak due to the fact that the thirteen colonies in the founding period of the United States consisted of people from Britain in a significant proportion, the British political influence and Protestant sects were dominant religion. Another reason why French influence was weaker could be related to the its history as an colony. Northern side of the Americas was originally a British colony. Important political figures’ and
1 Thomas Hobbes and John Locke were well known English political philosophers. Montesquieu was a French political philosopher in the 18th century.
2 Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was considered as a prominent figure of the American Enlightenment.
3 Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and one of the Founding Fathers of United States.
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intellectuals’ language was English. As a result of this, they reached British thoughts and books more easily than the French ones. No various attempt has been made to define the Enlightenment in Latin America, or to put it more precisely, where it came from, when it started and ended, how it spread, and how to trace it in the fields of religion, science, politics and social thought. In other words, little effort has been made to analyze the philosophical commitment of the Enlightenment in Latin American history. (Onís, 1942, pp, ix-xiv)
Regardless of the name of this era, the role of the increasing urbanization in Europe with the Industrial Revolution played an important role at that time. As a result of urbanization, new socialization areas such as libraries, coffee houses, associations, and academies came into existence; in short, spaces, where philosophical discussions could be made freely were created. People discussed all kinds of issues in these places, from art to daily life problems, from politics to science. In his renowned work The Enlightenment: An Interpretation of the Rise of Modern Paganism, historian Peter Gay defines the process of the Enlightenment with these words: “There were many philosophes in the eighteenth century, but there was only one Enlightenment. A loose, informal, wholly unorganized coalition of cultural critics, religious skeptics, and political reformers from Edinburgh to Naples, Paris to Berlin, Boston to Philadelphia, the philosophes made up a clamorous chorus.” (Gay, 1996, p. 3)
He draws shiny and visible lines around the most famous cities from Europe to North America during the 18th century. All these cities had common characteristics. Both Edinburgh and Paris had important intellectual communities in which the citizens could share their ideas. Philosophers and artists knew each other; therefore, they followed new trends and came together to discuss the Enlightenment’s fundamentals. These ideas caused reforms and revolutionary movements in many places in Europe. These revolutions aimed to establish a better and more natural human order and a new order reflecting a radical break with the past. According to Paul Hyland, with the development of enlightened philosophies about law, government, and monarchy, the 18th century witnessed significant social changes, political unrest, and conflicts, the most well-known were which took place in France and America as revolutions (Hyland, Gomez, & Greensides, 2003, p. 328).
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The Scottish Enlightenment is an immensely studied topic in history and political science literature. Many essential pieces of research focus on different aspects of the Scottish Enlightenment. The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment edited by Alexander Broadie and Craig Smith, C.J. Berry’s Social Theory of the Scottish Enlightenment, James Buchan’s Crowded with Genius: The Scottish Enlightenment: Edinburgh’s Moment of the Mind, Peter Gay’s The Enlightenment: An Interpretation the Rise of Modern Paganism, Arthur Herman’s How the Scots Invented the Modern World are some of the sources that are utilized for this thesis in order to understand the Scottish Enlightenment’s various aspects. In the existing literature, there is an ongoing debate about the nature of the Enlightenment. On the one hand, in John Robertson’s The Case for the Enlightenment: Scotland and Naples 1680–1760, the Enlightenment is considered as an undivided historical and social movement. In contrast to this view, there are studies that focus on the differences from each other as emphasized in The Global Eighteenth Century, edited by Felicity Nussbaum.
Moreover, there is considerable debate about the impact of the Scottish philosophy on the American revolutionary thought. Henry May was the first scholar to draw attention to the Scottish influence on eighteenth century thought and emphasized Thomas Reid’s “common sense” philosophy in his work titled The Enlightenment in America (1976). Later, Gary Wills argued that ideas from Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid were the inspiration for the Declaration of Independence in his book Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (1978).
Richard B. Sher and Jeffrey R. Smith’s book Scotland and America in the Age of Enlightenment (1990) focuses on how Scottish clergymen and professors affected America from the pre-revolutionary years to the post-revolution of America. This book consists of different essays on Scottish American relations. These essays show how powerful Scottish intellectual culture was in America by giving examples of Scottish Enlightenment figures. In his other book, The Enlightenment, and the Book: Scottish Authors and their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and America (2006), Richard B. Sher shows the relations between publishers and the 18th century writers. His book gives detailed information about how the Scottish Enlightenment
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gained momentum in Britain, Ireland and America by focusing on the publishing activities. He shows that Scottish Enlightenment works were known by Americans from the colonial period and played a role in the transition process from colony to an independent state.
Scottish Philosophy in America: Library of Scottish Philosophy (2012), edited by James J.S. Foster is another important scholarly work that examines the Scottish Enlightenment influence on the American intellectuals. This works contains ten chapters, which focused on different Scottish intellectuals. He emphases that American intellectuals got closer with Scottish moral sense after the French Revolution.
The Enlightenment in Scotland: National and International Perspectives (2015), edited by Jean François Dunyach and Ann Thomson provides that overview of Enlightenment and different interpretations by focusing on Scotland and impact of Scottish intellectuals in different cultural areas such as Germany, France, Italy and America. These articles add pieces to the mosaic formed by the study of the international reception of the Enlightenment in Scotland and beyond.
The researches that focus on the independence wars in Latin America are very detailed and many in number. L.D. Langley’s The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1750- 1850, W. Klooster’s Revolutions in the Atlantic World: A Comparative History, J. Kinsbruner’s Independence in Spanish America: civil wars, revolutions, and underdevelopment, R. Graham’s Independence in Latin America: Contrast and Comparisons can be given as a few examples that provided discussions about the causes and results of the independence wars which started by the end of the 18th century and continued until the first quarter of the 19th century. The links between Latin American events and revolutions in other parts of the world stand out in discussions of the global histography. Already in structuralist histography, relations with Europe were mentioned and even some historians interpreted the independence of Latin America as a by product of the rise of English industrial capitalism. (Graham, 1994, Costa, 2000, p.1-23). During the Cold War, historians were interested in the Atlantic dimension of the revolutions (Godechot, 1965, Palmer, 1969), and the focus of the interest was on the “unity of destinies” of the North Atlantic, while practically
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the southern part of the Atlantic was not mentioned (Rinke, S., & Schulze, F., 2010, p.155). Nevertheless, recent historiography has broadened the Atlantic perspective to the south (Pietschman, 2002; Bailyn, 2005).
Not only European and American scholars worked on this subject. There are also important Latin American historians that have examined the independence period. One of the selected works is State and Society in Spanish America During the Age of Revolution (2001) , edited by Victor Uribe-Uran. In the book, there are eight essays that focus on thr different aspects of the social and political life during the Age of Revolution in different countries of Latin America. Writers pay their attention to the continuity and change in that region from colonial period to post-colonial period.
Adam Sharman’s book Deconstruction the Enlightenment in Spanish America: Margins of Modernity (2020) is one of the important books that focus on the concepts of the Enlightenment in the pre-independence period of Latin America. He presents more different points of view than the other works that focus on the European Enlightenment’s impact. He states that “[r]ights are European to the core and not European to the core, that they belong to a hugely important body of European thought but precisely exceed any national or continental tradition. Europe may have invented the word rights, but rights know other geographies, other languages, and other peoples” (Sharman, 2020, p. viii). However, in the existing literature, there are fewer comprehensive studies focusing on the impact of the Scottish Enlightenment on the Latin American Independence. The first study mentioned this topic was entitled Latin America and the Enlightenment (1942), edited by Arthur P. Whitaker. This book contains various essays and interprets the Enlightenment with the transatlantic view. Felicity Nussbaum looked at 18th century Enlightenment from multiple perspectives; however, she gave little attention to its impact on the Spanish America. Gabriel Paquette was one of the prominent scholars who gave attention relationship between Enlightenment and Latin America in his works Enlightened Reform in Southern Europe and its Atlantic Colonies, c. 1750-1830 (2009). Paquette focuses on the connections between Spain, Italy, and Portugal with their colonies on the other side of the Atlantic to analyze the Enlightenment ideas' effects. Another important work on the Enlightenment’s impact was written by Alberto Saladino García’s La Filosofía de
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La Ilustración Latinoamericana. Through nine chapters, Alberto Saladino Garcia gives an account of the various aspects that intervened in the shaping of Latin American philosophy in this important historical period of the Enlightenment, which contributed decisively to the liberation and independence of peoples that José Martí’ encompassed with the name of “Our America.” He aims to give answers some questions such as when did the Enlightenment itself begin to be spoken of in Latin American colonial societies? How did it come to be consolidated?
Latin American Revolutions, 1808-1826: Old and New World Origins (1994), edited by John Lynch gives different point that the Enlightenment was not much influencial to the independence movements. According to his thoughts, a new Spanish American identity was created before the independence movements and this identity was against the rule of Spanish Empire.
Nicholas Miller gives another point of view in his article “Philosophical History at the Cusp of Globalization: Scottish Enlightenment Reflections on Colonial Spanish America” and discuss how Scottish intellectuals saw Latin America while it was still colony of Spanish Empire.
As is indicated in the above lines, the 18th and 19th centuries became a stage for different revolutions and independence wars. The southern part of the Americas could not be considered separately from these movements. From 1808 to 1825, upheavals and independence wars began in Latin America in order to break free from Spain. There were four critical causes of the independence of Latin America. These causes were “the Enlightenment, the Bourbon Reforms, the creole-peninsular controversy, and the late colonial revolts and protests” (Kinsbruner , 1994, p. 9). This thesis aims to explore the period of revolutions and independence wars in Latin America and North America during the 18th and 19th centuries by bringing to light the multiple ways how the Enlightenment (in a broader sense) and Scottish Enlightenment’s ideas played an essential role in this period. The theme of legal resistance was present in the minds of British citizens on both sides of Atlantic. It was known that the argument of British and Scottish intellectuals such as John Locke and Francis Hutcheson against political power that turned into tyranny could be changed by the people. North America represents the politics of the Enlightenment in terms of freedom, natural law and rights,
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tolerance, and mechanisms to prevent political power from turning into tyranny. This influence finds its examples in the Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and Bill of Rights. By building mainly on the English and Spanish primary and secondary sources, this thesis will provide a different perspective on the impacts of the Scottish Enlightenment on the revolutionary process of the Americas during the 18th and 19th centuries. Seeking to offer some new perspectives to study the Scottish Enlightenment and Latin American revolutionary movements, it will approach the subject by addressing some central questions.
I.II. Thesis Outline
This study’s primary research question is how and to what extent the Scottish Enlightenment affected the independence movements in the Americas . While the Scottish academic influence on the colleges in the United States and Europe has been widely documented, there are a few studies on its trajectory in Latin America. In this study, Scottish Enlightenment will be discussed in detail while providing Scottish Enlightenment writers’ ideas about liberty, equality, and sovereignty in the second chapter. The second chapter consists of the historical background of the Scottish Enlightenment and the ideas of intellectuals who were essential for this thesis. It will begin by examining what the Scottish Enlightenment was and what its main features were.
The third chapter will start with a short introduction to the Age of Revolutions. In the first subchapter of Chapter Three, the influences of the Scottish Enlightenment on North America in the period of its independence will be analyzed. In this chapter, the historical background of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) will be explained shortly.
The second subchapter aims to analyze the influences of the Enlightenment on the revolutionary movements in Latin America. The relationship between the Enlightenment and Latin America has been less studied than its relationship with the
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establishment of the United States. 4 Therefore, this chapter tries to articulate not very well-known aspect of the interaction between the Old and the New Worlds.
Focus on the variation of enlightenments would be essential for this thesis. The Enlightenment did not belong to only one geography or country. It was a process that was affected by cultural and intellectual accumulation. One of the main characteristics of the Enlightenment was not only dreaming of a better world but also striving to reach that world as soon as possible. The purpose of the intellectual effort of the Enlightenment was to use the accumulated knowledge to liberate humanity and enrich daily life. In some cases, the Enlightenment was divided according to geography, like the French Enlightenment, Spanish Enlightenment, and Scottish Enlightenment. However, all of these different enlightenments shared similar ideas, and reflected them to each other. The exordium of the ideas tried to become a set of shared values, discourses, and traditions. The Latin American Enlightenment emulated the European Enlightenment until 1810 within the control of Spain by viceroys5 and other bureaucrats. (Graham, 2013, p. 24) (Whitaker, 1958, p. 55).
At the end of the thesis, there will be appendices that contain two primary sources in their original language, Spanish, in order to the demonstrate the impact of the Enlightenment. The first one is called “Proclamación a los pueblos del continente colombiano alias hispano-América”. This speech was written by Francisco de Miranda in 1801. It is a speech that was sent to the peoples of the Islands anf the American continent to call rebellion to gain independence. This speech contains criticism of numerous points against Spain, its King and its ruling. The concept of the independence was at the center of the this text. Francisco de Miranda wrote this text in order to justify an rebellion against the Spanish Crown. The second one is “Desterrar de Chile la pobreza” that was an inaugural speech of the establishment of the “La
4 Hideo Tanaka, “The Scottish Enlightenment and Its Influence on the American Enlightenment”, The Kyoto Economic Review, 79(1), pp.16-39, 2010; Daniel Howe, “Why the Scottish Enlightenment was useful to the Framers of the American Constitution”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 31, 1989, pp.572-587.
5 Viceroy was the highest authority as representative of Spanish Rule. At that time, there were four viceroyalties. These were New Spain, Peru, New Granada and Rio de Plata. (Klooster , 2009, p. 117)
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Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País”. This speech was published in the Aurora de Chile, one of the earlier newspapers in the Chile during the 19th century.
I.III. Methodology
The primary sources used in this thesis provide detailed information about the indicated period and demonstrate both what happened and how these events took place in the consciousness of society. Since these works were among the main reference sources at that time, they were influential in the period they were written and published. In addition, these sources continued to influence future generations. These primary sources are speeches, letters, and newspaper articles from Chile to Venezuela. It can be assumed that their impacts were not very big because of the literacy rate. However, these speeches, articles etc. became the important factor in the formation of public opinion about independence.
Within the scope of the analysisof primary sources, in the subsequent chapter, I utilize David Hume’s My Own Life, Essays: Moral, Political, And Literary, A Treatise of Human Nature; Francis Hutcheson’s An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections with Illustrations on the Moral Sense, and On Human Nature to understand what Scottish Enlightenment prominent philosophers thoughts about human nature. Also, in the second chapter, I examine the Declaration of Independence and Federalist Papers No. 9 to understand the Scottish Enlightenment’s influence on the northern side of the Americas. For these documents, I benefited from the United States National Archives and Library of Congress.
On the other hand, this thesis predominantly employs the writings of Simon Bolívar, Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán, Francisco de Miranda in Chapter 3. I analyzed Bolívar’s La carta de Jamaica, Manifiesto de Cartega and Discurso de Angosturo, Viscardo y Guzmán’s Carta Dirigida a los Españoles Americanos; Francisco de Miranda’s Proclama a los pueblos del Continente Colombiano, Camilo Henríquez’s La Proclama de Quirino Lemanchez in order to inspect the influences of the Scottish /British Enlightenment in Latin America. Also, I scrutinize the newspapers Aurora de Chile that had a significant impact at that time in Latin
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America, especially in Chile. Biblioteca National de Chile and Biblioteca Virtual Universal provides these documents. Lastly, I used the Declaration of independence of Venezuela to uncover the Scottish / British Enlightenment’s influence. In this thesis, all the translations belong to me unless the source is not cited in the footnotes.
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CHAPTER II
THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT
The Enlightenment was the trigger of many changes and transformations, especially in historical, cultural, scientific, and religious fields. Its definition in the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy is as follows: “The period of European thought characterized by the emphasis on experience and reason, mistrust of religion and traditional authority, and a gradual emergence of the ideal of liberal, secular and democratic societies.” (Blackburn, 1996, p. 120) Moreover, to look the Enlightenment movement, it is important to distinguish between the different experiences between Catholic and Protestant countries. In Catholic countries such as France, the Enlightenment built itself on an opposition to religion, due to the dominant political, social and individual influence of Catholicism. The only way to leave behind dominant political and social power of the church was a strong anti-clericalism. In Protestant countries, however, the Enlightenment did not necessarily engage in an intense criticism of religion because the center and effective power of the church in Protestant countries was broken. In other words, the tension between the Enlightenment and religion was an issue primarily experienced in Catholic countries. It was the period that emphasized reason and “the individual” rather than tradition. There is “reason” and “trust in reason” at the center of the Enlightenment. The concept and image of “light” is the best guide to understand the Enlightenment, which indicated that the previous ages had existed in darkness and ignorance. That is, metaphorically, a contrast was created between dark and light on the hand, and at the same time between knowledge, reason, and science and ignorance, prejudice, and superstition. Hence, institutions such as slavery, torture, magic, and religious asceticism were regarded as the creations of the night. With the brilliance of the mind and its leadership, the order of the mind was aimed to be established. The ideas of the Enlightenment circulated in
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many regions of the world, and the basic conditions of the world economy changed. The metropolises reacted to the financial needs through reforms to increase their income. This provoked violent reactions in many places, generally aimed at restoring statutory order. Under the influence of new ideas, the increasing freedom of the individual and his/her natural rights were emphasized, thereby questioning the legitimacy of monarchical power became a common action. (Rinke & Schulze, 2010, pp. 161-162)
Generally, when it comes to the Enlightenment, traditional approach emphasizes a single European character that could not be reduced to a single nation, and denoted the inclusive, multinational but single European character that unites all nations. Yet, this is not the only approach that defines the Enlightenment. A new interpretation of the Enlightenment emerged in the 1970s. This approach, unlike the first one, placed the Enlightenment on a national basis, and accordingly, there can be no single, standard, and unchanged Enlightenment because the Enlightenment was experienced with different dynamics in France, England, or Germany. According to Ahmet Cevizci, the Enlightenment started in England and continued with the Scottish Enlightenment; later it spread to continental Europe and the Americas. He also states that English Enlightenment had a very decisive influence on the other enlightenments. (Cevizci, 2007, p. 37) The English Enlightenment tradition is closely linked to the Scottish Enlightenment thought. Unlike the French Enlightenment traditions, Scottish intellectuals developed their ideas by taking values of the English Enlightenment on the basis of religion, tradition, emotion, experience and benevolence which can be called conscientious. Roy Porter clearly emphases English Enlightenment’s specific characteristics by saying that “freethinking, empiricism, utilitarianism.” (Porter, 1981, p. 4) He continues his words as following “reason and experience; law, liberty and justice; happiness, humanity and nature; knowledge is power is progress” (Porter, 1981, p. 7) to emphasize that the English Enlightenment was rooted back to other enlightenments. Especially Scottish Enlightenment’s “Science of Man” idealize these characteristics. While English Enlightenment thinkers tried to show nature of law and nature by building their theories on social contract, Scottish Enlightenment intellectuals “attempted to make a genuinely sociological study of man, society and
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history” as Nicholas Phillipson’s words (Phillipson, 1981, p.21). Also, English empiricism opened the door Scottish intellectuals who believed that knowledge comes with experience. According to many scholars, the English Enlightenment preceded and inspired the American and French Enlightenment. (Himmelfarb, 2008, p. 22) English Enlightenment thinkers gave their attention to experience, senses, and passions. Most of the English Enlightenment philosophers were moral philosophers. Their age was the age of political and religious crises; therefore, they tried to solve the problems of the period and started to search for a new social order. English Enlightenment thinkers also believed in “progress”. Anna Plassart wrote “at the heart of the 18th century cultural and intellectual ferment known as the ‘Scottish Enlightenment’ was the notion of progress. The Scottish philosophers of Glasgow and Edinburgh all interrogated the nature and modalities of the progress of human societies” (Plassart, 2015, p. 24).
The Scottish Enlightenment was a movement that progressed throughout the half of the 18th century. The term “Scottish Enlightenment” was firstly used by Dugald Stewart (1753-1828), who was a Scottish philosopher and mathematician, but it did not attract the attention of scholars until the 20th century. It has been defined chiefly “as part of the larger European Enlightenment, as a specifically Scottish cultural phenomenon.” (Plassart, 2015, p. 4) Scotland was a poor country in the 17th century because of its lack of physical geography in the first place. Scotland experienced a great famine in the 1690s, and this had a very negative impact on Scotland’s economic existence. The Scottish economy depended on primitive feudal agriculture, and the administration in Scotland was weak and oppressive. (Waterman, 1998, pp. 46-47) Improving its agriculture and industry became one of the main aims for the Scottish intellectuals. (Emerson & Spencer, Several Contexts of the Scottish Enlightenment, 2019, p. 10) In this sense, Scottish intellectuals tried to solve their country’s problems and aimed to develop Scotland.
There were very important scientific and educational developments in Scotland in the 18th.century when the Enlightenment was under the influence of Europe. Especially famous universities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews shined as the institutions of the age that would be considered advanced. When we examine
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the important centers of the period, it is realized that the universities in Scotland, some of which were Edinburgh University, Aberdeen University and Glasgow University, replaced the halls of the French Enlightenment and those universities were associated with the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers. The well-known intellectuals of the Scottish Enlightenment were Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), David Hume (1711-1776), Adam Smith (1723-1790), Thomas Reid (1710-1796), Adam Ferguson (1723-1816), and Lord Kames (1696-1792)6
18th century Scotland was witnessing a transformation. This transformation was a process in which commercial capitalism started to develop from an agricultural economy and accordingly passed gradually to industrialization with the Acts of Union (1707) 7. From an intellectual point of view, this was the beginning of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century. With the Acts of Union, urban landlords and professionals, intellectuals who were living in Scotland discussed the conditions that would enable and sustain their economic growth and discussed the roles of banks and political problems that unification would bring. (Emerson, 2009, p. 1)
Although it did not have a radical approach that rejected religion like the French intellectuals, the Scottish Enlightenment remains in mind as a system of thought that made a significant contribution to history, moral philosophy, and political economy. Scottish intellectuals’ contribution to the European culture was substantial, despite some economic difficulties and political, cultural, and religious turmoil their country faced. Both ecclesiastical and secular thinkers made an effort for the Enlightenment to
6 Francis Hutcheson was one of the prominent intellectuals of Scottish Enlightenment. He was a moral philosopher. David Hume was student of Francis Hutcheson and was considered the most important figure of Scottish Enlightenment. His main aim was to solve the psychological basis of human nature by creating science of man. Adam Smith was considered one of the pioneers of Scottish Enlightenment. He was known his contribution on economy. Thomas Reid was founder of the theory of common-sense and he was known counter arguments of John Locke and David Hume. Adam Ferguson was the intellectual who contributed to the Scottish Enlightenment, and he was known as “the father of modern sociology.” Henry Home, Lord Kames was the patron of some Scottish intellectuals including David Hume and one of the founding members of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh.
7 The Act of Union (1707) was an agreement that united England and Scotland under Great Britain. According to this act, the two kingdoms would be united, the Protestant dynasty would continue, and trade with Great Britain and its colonies would be conducted freely ad equally. Except for certain temporary privileges, direct and indirect taxation would be applied equally everywhere. Also, the Scottish legal system and its courts would be preserved.
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reach its intended goal with their writings and via the associations and clubs, they formed during the 18th century. Alexander Broadie rightly places a strong emphasis on the institutional framework of the Enlightenment in Scotland, which included the three spheres of which The Acts of Union guaranteed independence: the Kirk8, the legal and educational systems which formed most of the actors of the golden age of Scotland (Brodie , 2012, p. 5). Additionally, coffee shops, bars, or trade centers had become the places where people come upon one another to share their ideas. James Buchan provides an awe-inspiring demonstration about the roles that these places played as followed:
Men and women read newspapers, became Freemasons, danced, burst into tears. Societies sprang up for encouraging manufactures, abolishing Scottish pronunciation, and spreading Gospel. Rents, profits, and cost living all doubled. …A new theory of progress, based on good laws, international commerce and the companionship of men and women, displaced the antique world valor, loyalty, religion, and dagger. ‘Edinburgh, the Sink of Abomination’ became ‘Edinburg, the Athens of Great Britain.’ (Buchan, 2003, p. 2)
Also, intellectuals gained the chance to gather and discuss their thoughts, politics, or social problems. Not only academics but also clergymen pioneered the Scottish Enlightenment. Roger L. Emerson and Mark G. Spencer wrote that the “Scottish virtuosi in the late 17th century were part of the European world of virtuosi who communicated with one another, swapped seeds and information and who saw themselves as men who could restore of Adam’s original nature and make a life better for all with help of Bacon, Bayle and Newton.” (Emerson & Spencer, 2019, p. 17)
The Scottish Enlightenment was regarded as the “provider of intellectual tools for 19th century social science and political economy.” (Plassart, 2015, p. 4) If someone makes a list of the books that influenced significantly the second half of the 18th century in European thought, the names of several Scots and their works will come to the fore like Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and The Wealth of Nations (1776), David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (1739- 1740) and Essays: Moral, Political, And Literary (1758). Scottish thinkers did not rely on
8 The Kirk is the special name of the national church of Scotland.
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the power and competence of reason/ rationality in their individual and social analysis. They emphasized elements other than the “reason” such as experience, emotion, tradition, and habit (Phillipson, 1981, pp. 20-21)
The Enlightenment intellectuals were proficient in both natural sciences and mathematics, as well as theology, logic, and philosophy. They used this knowledge to get to know human beings and to form the science of human nature. Scottish Enlightenment intellectuals examined the human mind, judgment, decision-making process based on John Locke's empiricism. The writings of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704) gave hints to a better understand the reasons for revolutions. These philosophers attempted to explain the origin of states by applying the “state of nature” model. The state of nature symbolizes a life without a state, government, and laws. The conditions of the man in synch a situation shed light on why the state is necessary or why man gather under the sovereign power. These philosophers developed a political thought that had two instruments: state of nature and social contract from the 16th century to the 18th century. Christopher Berry emphasized that “legitimacy” was the main problem after the post-reformation period. (Berry, 2001, p. 30) By questioning the ruler’s power, which was deemed to derive from divine legitimacy, new questions arose. While questioning the ruler’s power, philosophers paid their attention to the human nature as well. Understanding human nature and the state of nature would help people interpret the reasons for the revolutions that occurred on both sides of the Atlantic because the concept of equality and liberty was based on understanding human nature. The Enlightenment writers influenced the intellectuals and revolutionary leaders who mobilized the masses at this point.
The idea of equality is one of the most confusing concepts for social sciences. Enlightenment thinkers gave their attention to this concept in order to establish a new order that was different from the one of the ancient regimes. The word of “equality” can be defined as the “correspondence between a group of different objects, persons, processes, or circumstances that have the same qualities in at least one respect, but not all respect.” (Gosepath, 2011) According to Thomas Hobbes, “nature hath made men so equal”; this equality led them to war because humans are equal in terms of their
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physical and mental abilities. However, every human being agrees that his or her own thoughts are right. This “equality of nature” means that all men have the same chance to complete their mission. If two men want the same things, the problem arises at this point because both try to do what they want in accordance with their nature. In the end, they became enemies. (Hobbes, 1998, pp. 82-83) Hobbes emphasized that this situation became the reason of war between men. He wrote that “During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war, as is of every man, against every man.” (Hobbes, 1998, p. 84) Hobbes called this situation the “state of nature.” The state of nature is the worst situation that man can be in. Man’s nature will enable us to get rid of this situation just like it causes the state of nature. In addition to having will and desire, man, as a rational creature, he is aware that this war situation threatens his own life. That’s why men also try to find ways to build a peaceful environment in order to secure their own lives. At this point, he states that “[t]he passions that incline men to peace are fear of death; the desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living; and a hope by their industry to obtain them and reason suggested convenient articles of peace, upon which men may be drawn to agreement. These articles are called the Law of Nature (…)” (Hobbes, 1998, p. 86) and defined the Law of Nature as “ [a] Law of Nature is a precept, or general rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do, that, which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same; and to omit, that by which he thinketh it may be best preserved.” (Hobbes, 1998, p. 86) However, the first question that comes to mind at this point is whether these laws are binding enough and whether every person will abide to them. According to Hobbes, maintaining a permanent environment as sovereign power is essential. In the absence of sovereign power, the laws of nature are insufficient to provide peace. He argues that this power must be absolute and belong to one person. Hobbes emphasizes his above-mentioned view by providing definition and formation of the state, or “commonwealth”, as follows:
The only way to erect such a common power (…) is to confer all their power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will (…) if every man should say to every man, I authorize and give up my right of governing myself, to this
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man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition, that thou give up thy right to him, and authorize all his actions in like manner. This done, the multitude so united in one person, is called a commonwealth, in Latin Civitas. (Hobbes, 1998, p. 114)
John Locke was the son of a Puritan prosecutor and was still a college student at Oxford when Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan was published. As a Puritan intellectual, he was exiled to the Netherlands like many other Protestant intellectuals after James II of England (1633-1701)9 ascended to the throne and appointed Catholics to important positions. After the Glorious Revolution, he returned to England from the Netherlands.
His most important influence on the political theory was about the social contract. Locke stated that the social contract was intended to protect the natural rights of the people. This contract is signed between people and the representative of the majority. (Asadi , 2015, p. 411) Locke wrote that
Men being, as has been said, by Nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this Estate, and subjected to the Political Power of another, without his own Consent. The only way whereby any one devests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community (…) (Locke , 1988, p. 300)
According to him, when the ruler starts to behave as the enemy of the people instead of being their protector, people have the right to dissolve the contract. Locke’s ideas penetrated the American Continent in the 18th century and played an important role in overthrowing patriarchal despotism. In summary, Locke argued that the society is the product of a voluntary contract between people who were accepted equal to each other in the state of nature, and this contract will protect people’s innate rights to life, freedom, and property.
The Scottish philosophers gave importance to the attention to human nature and society. As Plassart emphasizes, some Scottish philosophers concentrated on human nature inherited from the past and tried to combine “empirical studies of human societies in history”. (Plassart, 2015, p. 28) In the Scottish Enlightenment tradition, a
9 James II was the last Catholic king of the England. He was dismissed by Parliament in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution.
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man was not considered as a son of God, a being with divine qualities and taking his rights and responsibilities from divine creation. On the contrary, a man was one of the species that had lived on earth, different from the others in important ways, but without categorical superiority. “History” and “human nature” are two of the most frequently shared main themes in the works of Scottish authors. Scottish intellectuals have portrayed human nature as “friendly.” (Plassart, 2015, pp.25-27) This optimism is more evident compared to 17th century philosophers, especially Hobbes’ pessimism mentioned earlier.
Francis Hutcheson was one of the prominent figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. He was known as an Irish philosopher because his family migrated to the Ulster region of Ireland in the mid 17th century (Scott, 1900, p. 4). His works are primarily about moral studies. His philosophy was based on “trust in man,” as Dionysis Drosos states as following “For Hutcheson, all human beings are naturally endowed with a moral sense; as creatures of a perfectly benevolent God, we are all concerned with the good of all the system of which we are part; that is, we are determined to care not only for our own happiness but also for the happiness of others.” (Drosos, 2014, p.147). He believed that human nature was established on the foundation of goodness. Hutcheson followed Locke’s footsteps. He indicated that the empirical perspective, which was accepted at the highest level, could be applied in ethics after the theory of knowledge. (Jensen , 1971, p. 1) Hutcheson should be considered a philosopher who put forward original views on morality, which was one of the most critical debates of the Enlightenment period. One of the most striking points of Hutcheson’s moral philosophy was the “moral sense” doctrine. According to him, in addition to the five senses, man has an innate sixth sense, which is a “sense of morality.” This type of sense connects one’s own happiness with the happiness of others. The subjects Hutcheson primarily examines are “external senses” for the senses that provide information about the physical structures of objects such as regularity, harmony, inconsistency, and togetherness that provide the first perceptions that serve to base our knowledge about the outside world, and “internal senses” that help people feel the power to live the happiness of integrity and harmony. Morality is also the type of sense that works independently. Hutcheson expresses this opinion with the following words:
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“If we may call every determination of our minds to receive ideas independently on our will, and to have perceptions of pleasure and pain, a sense, we shall find many other senses beside those commonly explained.” (Hutcheson, 1728, p. 4) According to Hutcheson, man can understand the distinction between good and bad, useful and useless, right and wrong with a sense of morality. Hutcheson opposes the claims of Hobbes and the moralists who followed Hobbes that the only motivation that leads man to goodness is to seek their own benefit by saying
Many of moralists, after Mr. Hobbs, are generally very eloquent on this head. They tell us, that men are to each other what wolves are to sheep; that they are all injurious, proud, selfish, treacherous, covetous, lustful, revengeful. (…) We scarce ever hear anything from them of the bright side if human nature. They never talk of any kind instincts to associate; of natural affections, of compassion, of love of company, a sense of gratitude, a determination to honour and love the authors of any good offices toward any part of mankind, as well as of those toward ourselves; and of a natural delight men take in being esteemed and honoured by others for goof actions. (Hutcheson, 1993, p. 100)
In other words, against those who see selfishness and self-interest as the only source of moral motivation, Hutcheson argues that virtue and sincere happiness are the basic and natural motives that ensure morality in social life.
Adam Ferguson was born in 1723 in Perthshire, Scotland. He was the only Highlander amongst the literati. Ferguson used the experimental method in ethical and moral concepts. According to him, social norms create the rules and principles that balance man’s self-interest with his inherent compassion towards others. These social norms are mainly based on religion and tradition. Ferguson believed that various civilizations had distinct standards based on geography, environment, and other tangible layouts of their surroundings. (Hutcheson, 2011, p.2308) Man was considered a part of social communities by these norms. People’s fundamental state is civilization for Ferguson. Ferguson believed that the government’s main purpose was to protect individual liberty because norms are the basis of the law that protects the freedom of non-harmful behavior of individuals. Moreover, he believed that individuals could live with each other in a peaceful environment by the help of norms that were created for the maximum freedom for individuals.
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David Hume was born 26 April 1711 in Edinburgh, Scotland, as the third child of a respected family. He started his education at Edinburgh University in 1723 at the age of 12 and completed his education there three years later. During these years, he took courses in law, history, literature, and philosophy. Although his family wanted him to become a lawyer, Hume was not interested in anything except philosophy and was keen on reading authors such as Cicero and Virgil (Hume, 1776). Especially since Renaissance, Cicero and Virgil have been accepted as the milestone. People interested in philosophy would often read these two authors. While the tradition from the Middle Ages generally focused on Greek and Roman writers, Roman writers began to be more prominent with the Renaissance. He went to France to continue his philosophical studies in seclusion in 1734 and lived there for three years. There, he wrote his most fundamental work, A Treatise of Human Nature. The two books of the trilogy, titled Of the Understanding and of the Passions, were published in 1739; the last one was titled of Morals in 1740.
David Hume’s political theory basically had a content shaped in the context of the concepts of justice, fundamental rights, property, contract, obligation, society, state, freedom, and the relations between these concepts. Although Hume is considered as one of the most influential philosophers in history, he is also regarded as a political theorist by a few people. Little attention in the history books has been given to his political philosophy or has been completely ignored in terms of the history of political thoughts.
Hume perceives the politics as a cultural asset. In his political theory, he tried to explain how man constructs society and the state and how he positions himself as the provider of social order within the framework of the functions of the state. In his essay “Of the Origin of Government,” published in 1770, he stated that man is born into a family out of a necessity arising from natural inclination and habit and has to maintain society. He continued by writing, “The same creature, in his farther progress, is engaged in establishing political society, in order to administer justice; without which there can be no peace among them, not safety, nor mutual intercourse.” (Hume , Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary, 1985, p. 37) According to him, the basis of the state has consisted of a combination of two factors. These are the public’s perception
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of security and the perception of obligation to obey. Hume defined “opinion” as the only principle on which government is based. He wrote, “It is, therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the freest and most popular.” (Hume , Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary, 1985, p. 32) Hume also indicates, “the people are the origin of all just power. The state combines liberty and authority and maintains a balance between the two elements. The people give all authority to government, but that government must recognize its purpose is to protect the people’s liberty, security, and property.” (Hume, 2007, p. 528)
Although politics were linked to religion and morals at the beginning of the Enlightenment, towards the end of the 18th century, more importance was given to the relationship between politics and economics which was another topic of discussion throughout the Enlightenment. Largely, both theory and practice were based on mercantilism. According to this view, the wealth of a nation was equal to the amount of gold and silver that countries owned. That’s why the wealth of the nation was so sensitive to the entry and exit of gold and silver, and it was considered that the state should control trade. However, arguments against the trade controls emerged during the 18th century, and Adam Smith was one of the prominent leaders of this view. Accordingly, the actions taken by all individuals in trying to satisfy their own needs give rise to the general welfare of society. Thus, wealth is not centralized in gold, but it is best perceived as the flow of goods and services resulting from the interactions and transactions of all members of society. So, with minimal government intervention and without monopolies, there is competition between individuals, and the largest of goods is sold at the best possible price.
Commerce was regarded “as a motor of progress for modern society” and “the development of trade established the necessary conditions for the development of ideas of liberty in society Under the right circumstances, these ideas could foster the establishment of civil, and possibly political, liberties.” (Plassart, 2015, p. 30)
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CHAPTER III
THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS (LATE 18TH - MID 19TH CENTURIES)
In recent years, numerous studies have addressed the relationship between the American revolutions and the radical changes that occurred in the metropolises, focusing on the analysis of the role of liberal constitutions and courts in Spain and Portugal. (Rinke, S., & Schulze, F. 2010, p. 156) A series of radical changes commenced with the independence of the Anglo-American colonies, continued first with the French Revolution, then the Haiti Revolution and the Napoleonic expansion over the Iberian Peninsula, and finally ended with the Independence Wars in Brazil and other Latin American countries. On the one hand, the independence of the Americas called into question both the fictitious nature of relations between Europe and America and the monarchy. On the other hand, the French Revolution brought with it the ideals of liberty and equality. (Rinke & Schulze, 2010, p. 156)
In his book The Age of the Democratic Revolutions (2014), R.R. Palmer wrote about practicing democracy in Europe by focusing on the American and French Revolutions that led the uprising to disseminate new ideas coming from the Enlightenment. During that period, most people in the world lived under the authority of “emperors, kings, and republics” in a low voice and compliantly for centuries. Enlightenment thoughts caused the society to question the life the people had lived. Enlightenment ideas, like equality of rights with the citizen, made the people revise their rights and liberties. As Jacques Godechot’s emphasize “public opinion,” which came from the intellectuals, began to influence the atmosphere of the time. (Godechot, 1965, p. 2) Latin American independence leaders could not stay away from that wind of public opinion. According to Racine, “[T]hey were obsessed with the working of a vigorous press and started to learn the value of public opinion on both sides of the
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ocean” (Racine , 2010, p. 424). Also, with the advancement of trade, 18th century world became more interconnected. The events that took place in different countries began to affect other countries as well with the escalating interconnectedness. From the end of the 18th century to the mid-19th century, momentous events occurred in the whole world. The American continent had undergone important transformations from the end of the 18th to the 19th centuries. The term of Atlantic World demonstrates “a region of commercial exchange and cultural transfer”; in other words, “upheavals and wars on the one side of the ocean had and influence of people who lived on the opposite side as a result of the philosophical and political ideas’ shaping” (Forrest, Hagemann, & Rowe, 2016, p. 7). Robert Breña’s words, “[f]rom the Atlantic perspective, the Spanish American independence revolutions were one more step of a long ideological and political process that spans the Atlantic world between circa 1775 and circa 1825.” (Breña, 2013, p. 278)
One may define the timespan between the Seven Years War10 (1756-1763) and the Napoleonic Wars as a period of maximum tension between Great Britain and France over the dominance of the Atlantic ant the Indian ocean, with repercussions that fully reached the other still important colonial powers of the world. The triggers of great changes were the consequences of the Seven Years war, the starting point of the political, military and economic reorganization of the colonial systems of all European countries. This international conflict was essentially a struggle for hegemony between Great Britain and France, in which Spain was directly involved in the final phases, allying itself with France against the English. After the Seven Years War, England and Spain became the leading contenders to control the New World. Both militarized the region by establishing permanent armies for the first time;
10 The Seven Years War lasted for nine years between 1754-1763. This war took place in almost all continents of the world, in which all the great powers of Europe were involved. While the war passed over Europe as a struggle for sovereignty between Austria and France’s alliance with Sweden, Saxony and later Spain, British Prussia, Portugal, and some German states. Overseas wars were fought between the British and Franco- Spanish alliance, and results resulted in the 1763 Paris Agreement as a victory for England, especially against France. The reflection of the war on the American continent was the French - Indian War between the British and French colonies, in which the Indians took the side of the French colonies. Britain became the largest overseas power and the most powerful colonial empire after the war.
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moreover, they also introduced new regulations and structures designed in order to have greater control over their vast territories (Rodríguez O., 1995, pp. 195-196). As a result, the Americans, both in the Spanish and British domains, opposed the new order. The wind of the change had begun to pass from one country to another. The first uprising started in the British colonies in North America. In 1786, the British government brought new taxes for the colonists in America, and this action resulted in the independence of America after eight years. Breña states that “[t]he experience of the American Revolution, and the first decades of independent life of the United States, were in the minds of many Spanish American revolutionaries. In some regions, Venezuela and Nueve Granada, important documents of the American revolutionary period circulated among members of the creole elite.” (Breña, 2013, p. 273)
The second one was the French Revolution. It started with an uprising of the nobility in 1787 and circulated in the whole social structure of France. Revolutionary ideas were carried from Iberia to the Spanish colonies; these ideas became one of the sparkles of the wars of independence in Latin America. These wars should not be thought apart from the revolutionary movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. (Godechot, 1965, pp. 6-7) The third one was Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) which was an almost completely different background from the American and French Revolution. People who were enslaved or mixed-race began to argue against the European perspective, which considered them as “naturally inferior and lacking in humanity.” (Reid-Vazquez, 2019, p. 509) The Haitian Revolution influenced the people who lived under Spanish rule in the continent. The last important series of events that occurred at the beginning of the 19th century were the Wars of Independence in Spanish America. After almost three hundred years of the Spanish rule, people began to fight for their independence. Enlightenment ideas were used to established new orders by the American and French Revolutions, but these ideas were regarded as deficient in understanding the motivation behind the Latin American Revolutions (Matson, 2005, p. 358). This chapter aims to find a link between the Enlightenment and independence wars in the Americas.
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III.I. The Impacts of the Scottish Enlightenment on North America
During the 17th and 18th centuries, with the advent of the Enlightenment, the definition of power as well as relations within the construction of power in the West changed, as theistic rule gradually changed with reason. Revolutionary thinking became widely popular in Europe as opposed to a form of irrational oppression. (Asadi , 2015, p. 411) This transformation can be seen on the other side of the Atlantic. The entire founding era of the United States of America coincides with the Enlightenment and revolution process in Europe. In this process of interaction, European countries in the continent naturally came to the fore. At that time, three important overseas empires were active across the world and had commercial superiority: Britain, France, and Spain.
America, as a British colony began to search a way to become independent from the British Empire. It can be noted that American revolutionaries benefited from the following sources: “ the history of classical antiquity, the English legal tradition, Calvinist thought, ideas from British political and social opponents, basic ideas and methodology of the Scientific Revolution, work of John Locke, Enlightenment thought from all over Europe, especially England and Scotland.” (Goetzmann, 2009, p.31)
The main motivation of the American Revolution was the idea of “freedom.” With the War of Independence, America moved from a colony to a new state. The political philosophy of America was significantly influenced by the British thinkers who shaped the state-society relationship in England after the Glorious Revolution11. John Locke, who was a defender of the theory of social contract that excludes the monarchy, was especially influential in the adoption of the right to revolt and right of private property in America. The philosophy of law which formed the justification and
11 The Glorious Revolution was a social/constitutional event that paved the way for the separation of powers and the parliamentary system in Britain. On the one hand, King of England James II was pro-absolute monarchy, on the other hand, the British Parliament wanted to expand its powers. At the end of the Revolution, William III came to power and Britain started to be ruled by a constitutional monarch who accepted the principle of parliament. As a result of this revolution, the legislative power was transferred from the king to the parliament with the establishment of the Bill of Rights (Suranyi, 2015, pp. 137-138).
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basis of this new state found its answer in the natural law that John Locke used to explain the nature of legitimate governments. Locke’s philosophy influenced the people and, in particular, elites in the American colonies. Influenced by Locke’s ideas, America’s Founding Fathers attempted to build a “union” in which the acquiescence of citizens was a matter of concern. (Asadi , 2015, p. 411)
In fact, the influence of John Locke in the establishment of the American state and political thoughts becomes evident in two areas. The establishment of a liberal state in the basis of understanding contractual society and the right to rise up against the ruler that arises in violation of the social contract formed by individuals who come together voluntarily. As Locke emphasized in his Treatises on Government (1689), people can only be governed by their consent; they have the right to resist against an unjust and tyrannical government. The American Revolution is one of the consequences of the War of Independence, caused by the events arising from the tension between England and the American colonies. The source of unrest was largely related on financial and economic pressures. The taxes imposed on the colonial trade by England to finance the increasing burden after the Seven Years Wars caused the revolt of the rich and ever-growing colonies. At that time, series of acts were published by Britain for the Continent such as The Iron Act (1750)12, The Stamp Act (1765)13 and The Tea Act (1773)14. Randolph G. Adams states that ““[i]n the third stage of the controversy, the colonies admitted the right of Parliament to act as a quasi-imperial superintending power over them and all the dominions, but denied that Parliament had any legislative authority over the colonies as a general proposition, on the ground that the colonies were not represented in Parliament.” (Adams, 1922, p.69). Protest actions such as the boycott of British goods that started in Boston forced England to abolish the taxes on consumer goods, except for the tea tax. (Hyland, Gomez, & Greensides, 2003, p. 329) Later, The Boston Tea Party action in December 1773, when three
12 Iron production was restricted.
13 It is the first tax paid directly to England. A tax imposed on all kinds of printed material.
14 A British monopoly on the was established and a flat tax was imposed.
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hundred and forty tea sacks were poured into the port, caused the port to be closed and occupied by the British infantry. According to Hyland, although there were many fragile points throughout American and British history, there is no other example where these points increased and accelerated in such a short time after King George III came to the throne in 1760. In this period, natural rights, classical rights, and rights that were obtained later were ignored entirely. During the sixteen years of George’s rule, the colonies were subject to domestic and foreign taxes, some of which were outlined above. Apart from this, administrative and political measures as well as financial and economic pressures in order to make its dominance felt. The vital interests of the colonies were left in the hands of individuals in England, and their legislative privileges were suspended. Jury trials were closed; as a result of this, they had to be tried by foreign judges. (Hyland, Gomez, & Greensides, 2003, p. 337) As a result of these pressures, the War of Independence and the American Revolution began. The Continental Congress, the first institutional result of the protest actions organized after the Boston Tea Party, convened in Philadelphia in September 1774. As it is known, the War of Independence started after 1775 when the Declaration of Independence was published and ended with the Paris Peace of 1783.
The belief in the natural right and natural law is a mixture of Jewish, Christian, Classical thought, and 17th-18th century philosophical theories. The understanding that life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness are among the natural rights was adopted in America and England in the 1770s. (Kirk, 1991, p. 409) John Locke wrote that
Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of Nature, equally with any other man, or number of men in the world, hath by nature a power not only to preserve his property- that is, his life, liberty and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men, but to judge of and punish the breaches of that law in others, as he is persuaded the offence deserves, even with death itself, in crimes where the heinousness of the fact, in his opinion, requires it (Locke, 1988 p. 323-324).
It is ironic that the law of nature, which constitutes the basic norms of the Declaration of Independence declared by the thirteen colonies against the British Empire, was also taken from England. The law of nature actually became the theoretical basis of the norms that shaped the English legal order. The fact that a significant part of the founders received an English/Scottish style legal education in
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colonial universities facilitated the adoption of natural law. Starting from the colonial period in America, the philosophy of the law of nature has also been a subject of interest. Fundamental rights that the law of nature confers on people who are considered equal were freedom, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
Thomas Jefferson was one of the prominent figures of the independence period of America who was influenced by John Locke. This influence can be observed in the Declaration of Independence on a variety of issues, including natural rights and the right to overthrow the government. In drafting the Declaration, Jefferson not only listed specific reasons why the colonies should secede from Britain, but also suggested the ideological foundations on which the Revolution would be based. While doing this, Jefferson did not put forward a new and original theory of the state, but displayed an ideological attitude based on the theory of natural, inalienable rights. Jefferson built his thoughts about the rights of citizens upon the Locke’s state of nature. John Locke’s influence can be found in the first section The Virginia Declaration of Rights as following “All men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety”. (The Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776)
The Declaration of Independence of America emphasizes equality and the inalienability of rights and counts the pursuit of life, freedom, and happiness together with these rights. The Declaration of Independence expressly acknowledges the law of nature as a fundamental truth that does not need to be proved by saying that: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Declaration of Independence, 1776) The most important text in which Locke was directly quoted in the founding period of America is the Declaration of Independence. The most apparent and most important evidence of Locke’s influence is that
…That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
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the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness. (A Declaration of Independence, 1776)
On the other hand, it is controversial to argue that the Americans were inspired entirely by enlightenment ideas in their struggle against the British. Even if there is no input from the Enlightenment, there were so many reasons for the unrest between the colony and the homeland. The financial pressure of the British on the colonies for the increasing war burdens increased the political tension. The colonies questioned why they were not represented in London despite their financial burden. There are many different sources that establish the ideology of the conflict between the colonies and homeland. (Outram, 1995, p. 121) These sources are different from the enlightenment ideology in Europe. For example, puritanical ideas, which were the idea of human sinfulness, do not easily fit into the basic thought patterns of enlightenment, such as belief in growth, optimism, and the human mind. Other ideas in American ideology, and especially the idea of republicanism, are also ideas that predate the Enlightenment. Republicanism found its origins in classical models and was influenced by Renaissance humanism. In the American interpretation of republicanism, the virtue of a simple society of ordinary people devoted to the common good and the independence of each individual came to the fore.
Not only Locke but also Scottish philosophers influenced the revolutionary period. There were many people who emigrated from Scotland to America just before the Revolution, and some of them participated actively in the Revolution. John Witherspoon (1723-1794) was one of the important Scottish figures that played an important role in the establishment of the United States. After arriving in America, he became president of Princeton University (1768), which was then known as the College of New Jersey. He later signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union (1781)15. He sought to change the educational system of the College of New Jersey in accordance with the Scottish
15 The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union served as first constitution of the United States of America. The main aim of the Article was to guide to independence and sovereignty.
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educational system because at that time Scottish universities were considered best educational places. Also, there were different subjects in the Scottish universities. As Arthur Herman words
He indented to make Collage of New Jersey not only the best collage in the. Colonies, but in the entire British world. The model he chose was his own Scottish alma mater, the University of Edinburg, and its curriculum would be the rigorous humanistic one that Hutcheson and others had introduced at Glasgow. (Herman, 2007, pp. 530-531)
Hutcheson’s influence on Thomas Jefferson is one of the important points to find a connection between Scottish Enlightenment and America. Scottish intellectuals have played a significant role in the understanding of the law, the state, and moral. The Scottish Enlightenment influenced in the Declaration of Independence cannot be ignored. According to Gary Wills, “Thomas Jefferson spent the four intellectually exciting and influential years of his life studying moral philosophy; moreover, he prepared a book list that contained works by Adam Smith, David Hume, Francis Hutcheson and Lord Kames.” (Wills, 2018 pp.175- 201) Ronald Hamowy shows passages taken from the Declaration, John Locke’s Second Treatise and the Hutcheson’s work in order to understand Hutcheson’s influence. One of his examples is followed
The Declaration: Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light & transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Locke. Till the mischief be grown general, and the ill designs of the Rulers become visible, or their attempts sensible to the greater part, the People, who are more disposed to suffer, than right themselves by Resistance, are not apt to stir.
Hutcheson: A good subject ought to bear patiently many injuries done only to himself, rather than take arms against a prince in the main good and useful to the state, provided the danger extends only to himself. But when the common rights of the community are trampled upon, and what at first is attempted against one is made to be precedent against all the rest, then as the governor is plainly perfidious to his trust, he has forfeited all the power committed to him. (Hamowy, 1979, pp.507-508)
As this example demonstrates, The Declaration of Independence was affected not only by John Locke but also by Francis Hutcheson. Samuel Fleischacker states that “the debate between the Scottish and the Hobbesian-Lockean view of the founders is part
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of a larger controversy over whether the political philosophy expressed in the American Declaration of Independence is primarily a ‘liberal’ or a ‘civil republican’ one.” (Fleischacker, 2003, p.316) He also believed that Jefferson regards himself with Hutcheson’s moral sense doctrine. (Fleischacker, 2003, p. 320)
Notions like natural law and natural rights became the roots of the fundamental rights that were used in the declaration in order to be independent. According to Turnbull, “the spirit of the legal, philosophical, and moral teachings of Scottish philosophers such as Hutcheson, Reid, and Kames dominated the spirit of all the central doctrines of American Congress between 1774 and 1787.” (Turnbull, 1996, p.143).
Historical study was significant for many founders of the United States in terms of revolutionary ideology and constitutionalism. For instance, James Madison, who played an essential part in creating the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, took this interest to the next level while preparing the Constitutional Convention. In addition, there are many hints to history in many of the writing of the first secretary of the treasury of the United States, Alexander Hamilton16, illustrating human nature, morality, and government structure. Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick emphiseze that “the he behavior of people in society occurs in patterns that are more or less uniform in virtually all times and places, and that human nature itself is not subject to very great change…. State-making and the forming of commonwealths must thus be guided by the scientific reading of history’s lessons.” (Elkins & McKitrick, 1993, p.86)
According to Michael P. Federici’s statement, “Like Hume, Hamilton believed that historical experience provided patterns of human behavior that illuminated the meaning of human nature and from which statesmen could craft laws and policies that would stand a reasonable change of serving justice…” (Federici, 2012, p. 1347). The Federalist Papers17 adopted Hume’s experimental reasoning. As Hamilton wrote in Federalist No.9:
16 Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was one of the American Founding Fathers which influenced the Constitution.
17 The Federalist Papers is a series of 85 articles written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of the ratification of the American Constitution and published between the 1787 and 1788.
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The science of politics, however, like most other sciences, has received great improvement. The efficacy of various principles is now well understood, which were either not known at all, or imperfectly known to ancients. The regular distribution of power into distinct departments; the introduction of legislative balances and checks; the institution of courts composed of judges holding their offices during good behavior; the representation of the people in the legislature by deputies of their own election: there are wholly new discoveries or have made their principal progress towards perfection in modern times. (Hamilton, Federalist No: 9)
Common sense is also needed. Empiricism, philosophy of knowledge, hinted that human beings could look at nature and discover new ideas out of it, thus making decent judgments. For instance, the first basis of common sense indicates that communication and transacting commerce among people with average intelligence is possible even if they do not belong to the same society as they share standard mental capabilities. Here in another Enlightenment thinker Reid's expressions is asserted that lords, popes, bishops, and other elites did not have a common sense about truth. “The first principle of every kind of reasoning are given us by Nature, and are of equal authority with the faculty of reason itself, which also the gift of Nature… The more obvious conclusions drawn from our perceptions, by reason, make what we call common understanding; by which men conduct themselves in the common affairs of life.” (Reid, 1997, pp. 172-173) This view especially important for the process of establishment of the new state because there were thirteen colonies which were different from each other. Common sense doctrine helps the colonies to build on their differences of the colonies.
The principles such as protecting basic civil liberties, forming a republican government both by and for the people, forming a federal system with shared powers, protecting property, and establishing a mixed form of government were all managed within a government institution created by the founders after the Revolution. These principles were also visible in the literature of the natural moral philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, and many of the Founders had learned them through their Scottish upbringing. As mentioned earlier, Scottish education and Scottish intellectuals’ works were popular at that time in the other sides of the Atlantic. Thus, in the 18th century, an essential philosophical current that had its origins in this
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Scottish culture became a necessary part of revolutionary ideology and constitutional ideals.
The American Revolution, which began and succeeded in the north of the continent in 1774 further facilitated the spread of the impact of the French Revolution. In other worlds, it was impossible for the American Revolution not to affect the southern part of the continent. Parallel to the newly established and independent state’s desire to increase its relations with the southern neighbors, the ideas of the American Revolution began to spread in the Spanish colonies. There was admiration for the success and institutions of the Anglo-Americans. The United States was respected as a political and economic precursor in the fight against colonialism in the “New World” that was considered as an independent political sphere. Speeches and pamphlets were translated into Spanish, and made available to large audiences. Due to that reason, the Scottish influence on North America is of the important points discussed in this thesis.
III.II. The Impacts of the Scottish Enlightenment on the Independence of Latin America
Federica Morelli points that “one of the main characteristics of the new Atlantic history is the consideration of the Atlantic as a vigorous interdependent construction” that invites us to study the individuals and societies around the ocean in terms of connections and convergences. It is no longer a question to write the history of the Atlantic Ocean to analyze the commercial traffic between a metropolis and its colonies, to study the political and cultural influences between Europe and its colonies. Rather, it is about to integrate migrations, economic exchanges, commercial networks, institutions that allow us to examine the colonization and independence of the Americas in a comparative way (Morelli, 2011, p. 29) The Atlantic dimension of the revolutionary movements is not determined by the results of the different revolutionary processes, but by the connections, circulations, reciprocal influences between Europe and the two Americas. Indeed, Spanish American independencies cannot be understood by looking only at the events of the Spanish monarchy. Hispanic
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Americans were assimilating the experiences of two political upheavals that broadened their horizon of possibilities, and condensed ideas that aspired to have a universal character. The North American and French Revolutions were important points of reference for the Latin American transformations since they demonstrated that revolution was possible. The solutions they proposed for the crises of the Hispanic Monarchy were not improvised occurrences, nor responses derived from native intellectual traditions. The ideas of freedom, equality, and self-determination also spread in Latin America. In order to avoid monocausal interpretations and/ or Eurocentric reflections, the Atlantic perspective constitutes a fundamental axis of the analysis. It is important to take into account the multiple links that took place in the Atlantic space. Karen Stolley proposes “other empires” as a term to avoid Eurocentric perspective. she emphasizes that “[o]ther empires might be Spanish rather than British, Bourbon rather than Hapsburg; Aztec or Inca rather than European” (Stolley, 2019, p. 17). She continues her argument by saying that “the 18th century Hispanic empire faced a particular set of complex realities on the ground: the governance of imperial subjects who included criollos, indigenous peoples, African-descendants, mestizos, mulatos and Spaniards; efforts the put in place enlightened reforms of the imperial pollical eceonomy; scientific and philosophical debates about the nature of the New World.” (Stolley, 2019, p. 17)
On the basis of Latin America’s independence process, liberalism and nationalism movements that rose all over the world with the French Revolution (1789) were influential. Napoleon Bonaparte’s overthrow of the Spanish royal family paved the way for the struggle for independence. After more than 300 years of colonialism, Latin America won its independence from Spain and Portugal. Between 1808 and 1826, all of Latin American countries became independent except for the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico. After the death of Charles II of Spain (1661-1700), who was the last ruler of the Hapsburg Dynasty, the throne passed to the first Bourbon rule, Philip V (1683-1746). The Bourbon Monarchy aimed to strengthen its power over the colonies to reconstruct the Spanish Empire's administration system in the peninsula and the territories. These efforts’ main purpose was to restore the Spanish Empire’s
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power. In order to be successful, the Viceroyalty of New Granada was established, and important government positions in Spanish America were filled with peninsulares.18 The reforms that the Bourbon Dynasty aimed to make created important problems within the colonies; creoles19 did not want to lose their advantages and took action to protect their privileges. Reforms that were implemented by the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century tot instability in the relations between the kings and their colonies in the Americas. During the Spanish American independence period, most of the independence leaders were creoles; these leaders watched carefully what happened to their northern neighbor, the United States, and also Europe. Many creoles regarded the Bourbon policies as unfair to their wealth, political power, and social status. They wanted to have more free trade. After hundred years of proven service to Spain, the creoles felt that the Bourbons treated them like a conquered nation. Naturally, this understanding gave birth to rebellion and independence. They paid a lot of attention to the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)20 and The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)21 in order to support their rights against the Spanish Rule. Among the secondary sources, various studies demonstrate the impact of the Enlightenment on the wars of independence. For instance, Richard Graham states that
It is a myth that Latin America was kept cloistered isolation from all new ideas by veritable iron curtain imposed by the retrograde government. The truth is that precisely these governments, led by ‘enlightened despots”, injected a modern and scientific worldview into overseas domains, along with a new
18 Definition of the word “peninsular” is that people who were “the colonial residents of Latin America from the 16th century through the early 19th century who had been born in Spain.” (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007)
19 The definition of the word “creole” is as following: “In the West Indies and other parts of America, a person born and naturalized in the country, but of European (usually Spanish or French) or of African negro race: the name having no connotation of color, and in its reference to origin being distinguished on the one hand from born in Europe and on other hand from aboriginal.” (Allen, 1998, p. 36)
20 This document was drafted in 1776 in order to provide natural rights of men such as right to reform.
21 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) was formed after the French Revolution by the French National Constituent Assembly in order to define individual and collective rights.
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understanding of man and of the world that the Enlightenment embodied. (Graham, 2013, p. 23)
One may assume that the fact that a pro-independence American identity began to emerge from the beginning of the 19th century. The emergence of the idea of Americanism and the consciousness of “us” would inevitably lead to the emergence and strengthening of nationalism ideologically among various social classes and layers, especially intellectuals. This situation was synchronized with the international conjuncture. The role that the Enlightenment played in developing the new order manifested itself in the multifaceted transformation of the 19th century after the French Revolution. The main reason behind three important revolutions (the American Revolution, Haitian Revolution and Spanish American Independence Wars) was to “protest against imperial powers” (Langley, 1996, p.2) in order to search for social ground where people could determine their lives. In other words, the 18th century’s enlightened ideas were one of the powers that influenced the creoles. With the Enlightenment, social and economic reform became widespread in Latin America, and even the wars of independence became factors that influenced new constitution making process (Suranyi, 2015, p. 151). The Enlightenment cannot be explained without the interconnection between Europe and the Americas, as in Meléndez and Stolley’s words “The 18th century was a time when the production and circulation of knowledge occurred on a global scale through printed books and their translations, maps, scientific expeditions, and commercialization.” (Meléndez & Stolley, 2015, p. 9) Latin America and Europe were both key actors in the global changes that brought about the birth of the modern world in the 19th century. The nationalism and liberalism that surrounded the whole world after French Revolution increased the effects of the Enlightenment thought. Especially leading figures were highly influenced by these movements with the activities of the intellectuals, liberal ideas began to spread rapidly in the colonies and affected wider masses. Latin American politicians and intellectuals came into direct contact with nationalist and liberal ideas. Karen Racine clearly explains that
As politically active American creole elites tried to modernize their societies, they actively sought foreign models too replace the Spanish one they had recently rejected. Although the US and France both offered fascinating
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experiments for Spanish Americans’ consideration, it was early 19th century Britain, the home of Adam Smith and the Industrial Revolution, that most captured their collective imagination. As the traditional opponent of Napoleon’s continental expansion and aggressive seeker after the New World markets, Britain had extended semi-official support to Spanish American independence movements since 1790s. (Racine, 2000, pp. 3-4)
According to Matthew Brown and Gabriel Paquette, between 1808 and 1830, seventy Spanish American leaders who participated in independence movements lived in London, while many of them had studied at the universities of Coimbra, Montpellier, or Edinburgh. (Brown & Paquette, 2013, p.14). Simón Bolivar22 (1783-1830) and Bernando O’Higgins23 (1778-1842) were only two of the leading actors of the story. Some others such as Francisco de Miranda24 (1750-1816), Chilean Camilo Henríquez25 (1769-1825), New Granadan publicist Antonio Nariño26 (1765-1824), Mariano Moreno27 (1778-1825), Andrés Bello28 (can be also regarded as the pioneers of independence in Latin America. As mentioned earlier, the period of Latin American Independence had been marked by intellectual production. The Enlightenment ideas such as freedom, equality, progress, and sovereignty were widely studied among the educated clergy and creoles and spread rapidly. However, the majority of the population could not come into contact with these ideas due to several factors such as
22 Simón Bolivar was a revolutionary leader. He completed his military education in Spain and returned to Venezuela in 1810. He fought against the Spaniards for many years, and liberated the Grand Colombia region which included Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Peru from the Spanish colonization in 1821.
23 Bernardo O’Higgins was one of the revolutionary leaders and the first president of Chile. He commanded the Chilean armies in the war that resulted with Chile’s independence from Spain.
24 Francisco de Miranda was a prominent revolutionary leader. He participated in the French Revolution, and built a close relationship with England. Some of his friends were Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and John Adams.
25 Camilo Henríquez was known as one of the early Latin American newspaper writers. His articles are considered to influence people about independence.
26 Antonio Nariño was Granadan independence leader who promoted independence during the 18th century.
27 Mariano Moreno was an Argentinian journalist who established the first newspaper in Argentina.
28 Andrés Bello was the founding rector of the University of Chile.
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illiteracy, and the strong prevailing censorship against anything that represented a danger to the colonial state. Yet the measures had been endorsed by Spain did not prevent the expansion of the new philosophical and political tendencies.
In the colonies, the ideas of the Enlightenment were spread by Spanish scientists, travelers from Europe, Creoles who traveled to Europe, and by the arrival of books of English and French origin as a result of smuggling. Scientific expeditions, in order to explore geography and nature were particularly important. Among which it is possible to mention the voyage of Alexander von Humboldt (1799-1804) that constituted the culminating point of scientific journeys at the end of the colonial era. These helped the Creole elites to understand wealth and possibilities of their homeland. The more they learned, the more they understood that colonial policy had failed and that many resources had not been properly used. (Rinke, S., & Schulze, F. 2010, pp. 158-259)
The Enlightenment in Latin America had slow process because of the limitation of Spain towards the people, prohibiting the text of the products of the enlightenment. Although it was prohibited, many of these works reached the hands of different colonies.
The Enlightenment reached the Spanish and Portuguese America in the second half of the 18th century with an explosive force. The changes initiated by the Bourbon administrators opened the Spanish and colonial doors to the new ideas. Philip V and Ferdinand VII, the first Bourbon monarchs, launched the reforms. People who actively played a role during the making of reforms were influenced by the Enlightenment. (Klooster , 2009, p. 123) The Spanish authority in Latin America tried to catch up with the European science. In Lima, for example, the viceroy approved in 1771 a new curriculum that included the teachings of Leibniz, Bacon, and Descartes. (Martínez C. , 2016, p. 176) Existing bookstores and libraries in the colonial cities of the New World gave a chance to the arrival of texts of various themes; this book trade rooted the process of the Enlightenment in Latin America. (García, 2009, pp. 47-48) In addition, Lima was regarded “enlightened city with the founding of academic societies, scientific academies, cafes and newspapers in the 18th century” by the editors of the well-known newspaper at that time, Mercurio Peruano. (Meléndez & Stolley, 2015, p. 1) The texts reached resonance in the academic circles, and they became guides and
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catalysis of the intellectual spirit. (García, 2009, p. 49) With those books and texts, Latin American intellectuals started to discuss about social, political topics. They wrote articles and published them in various newspapers such as Gazeta de Mexico (1784-1821), Mercurio Peruano (1790-1795), Papel periódico de Santa Fe de Bogotá (1791-1797). (Meléndez & Stolley, 2015, p. 9) The independence press played an essential role in the dissemination of documents for the cause of independence and the founding of the new states. In the case of the translations into Spanish, constitutions, declarations, speeches, proclamations that encompassed the pro-independence notion were utilized.
Mercurio Peruano (1790-1795) was one of the important newspapers at that time that was formed by a group of creole intellectuals. The first issue appeared in 1791. It was product of the new current of thought of the time, called the Enlightenment. At that time, there was considerable interest in the events that occurred in Europe, and the French Revolution was obviously one of them. However, during the first years of the independence movements, French Revolution was regarded as a dangerous event. According to the historian T. H. Martínez, the Creole aristocracy, despite its ideological adherence to many of the fundamental principles of the Enlightenment, opposed the revolutionary process in France because some of them had a deep-rooted loyalty to the monarchical institutions (Martínez T. H., 1988, p. 163). This situation demonstrates that the independence leaders were influenced by the English/Scottish Enlightenment more because these intellectuals did not aim to create an entirely new order by changing everything radically. They did not want to live fear of French Revolution. Karen Racine clearly demonstrates this situation as following “the concept of liberty, as it was understood in the British tradition of John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume, stressed not only political rights but also the rights of property, and it found a sympathetic audience among Spanish American independence leaders.” (Racine , 2010, p. 442) Because, at that time, to have property was one of the important tool to gain strength in the society.
The ideas of the Enlightenment met the creole elite’s interest when they arrived in Latin America at the end of the 18th century. At that time, the creole elites realized the importance of civil and legal equality for all people, the need for constitutional
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government, and freedom (Graham, 2013, p. 59). Graham states that some intellectuals believed that “the absence of a legitimate ruler, the sovereignty devolved onto the people” (Graham, 2013, p. 59). On the other hand, British ideals were more accepted by the creoles because they took their education mostly in England and they had a strong bond with the British side. At this point, it would be appropriate to quote Racine’s words:
Central themes of interest to this generation included such British-inspired ideals and aristocratic brand of reformism, a respect not just for liberty but also for the preservation of property and status, the expansion of state-sponsored primary education, the controlled abolition of slavery, a concern for the establishment of constitutional authority rooted in local tradition, the adoption of specific laws related to liberal and freedom of the press, trial by jury, an acute awareness of the power of public opinion. (Racine , 2010, p. 424)
Independence movements started in Haiti (1791) and spread from one country to another, and demand for the “natural rights” became the main demand of the people. For the Enlightenment philosophers the problem of liberty for the people in society was very important. Therefore, As Lockean view of the rights of life, security, and individual property protection were considered as an individual’s basic natural rights. The leaders of independence such as Francisco de Miranda, Simon Bolívar, José San Martín, Bernardo O’Higgins, Mariano Morelos and among others were accompanied by thousands of creoles, mestizos, and blacks. This movement was an expressions of the struggles for social justice. People who rebelled against colonial powers wished to access these rights. These people yearned their countries would become free, every person would be equal. The thinkers of that time were inquisitors of the existing status quo, especially regarding growing social inequalities. They questioned the validity of the absolutist monarchical political system in most cases. According to Graham:
The social and political ideas associated with the Enlightenment such as the social contract between rulers and ruled, the political and economic freedom of the individual, the importance of reason over revelation in guiding social policy were penetrated by Latin Americans, especially creoles; some of these creoles were well educated, and they knew the Enlightenment philosophers; most importantly, they played a role in the independence period. (Graham, 2013, pp. 24-25)
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The 18th century had been the awakening of a certain self-awareness of identity and the cult of knowledge for Latin Americans. Knowledge became a driving force in the society even it was limited to the sphere of civil and political reforms. (González, 2010, p. 185) There is no doubt that the Enlightenment played the role of cementing the ideological and political transformations that were required to resolve the independence process. Griffin states that:
…assertion of natural rights against tyranny involved assigning a major role to the political ideas of the Enlightenment as a cause of revolution. The writings of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau were held to be at the root of the revolutionary movement… Once the important of the ideas of the Enlightenment as a cause of the revolution was accepted, it followed that the popularization of these ideas in the previous revolutionary movements in the United States of America and in France was significant means by which the fundamental ideas came to be transmitted to Latin America. (Griffin , 1961, pp. 119-121)
The revolutions in North America and France in the second half of the 18th century influenced the world view of the Latin American Creoles, but they were not directly related to the rebellions that occurred at the same time in the Iberian Empires. The rebellions did not imitate the American and French Revolutionaries, although it is possible to perceive a certain parallelism between the two, such as social demands and the importance of the Enlightenment as a point of reference. These rebellions were not precursors of the independence movement either; they were generally local reactions against the Bourbon reforms referring to traditions and old concepts of order threatened by the aggressive procedure of the colonial power (Rinke & Schulze, 2010, p. 163). It is for this reason that rebellions were indications of the increasingly conflictive relationship between the metropolis and colonies.
After the French Revolution, a few creoles started to seek independence because as Peggy Liss points out the “government policy from then on serves to fan existing creole antipathies toward Spaniard, toward policy itself, and toward Spain’s obvious inability to defend its America against foreign commercial, territorial, and ideological aggression.” (Liss, 1991, p. 45) In the second half of the 18th century, important social and economic changes occurred in Latin America. However, in this process, the new taxation methods implemented by Spain constituted the starting point of a constant and fierce opposition. When Spain wanted to impose tighter taxes and
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customs in order to finance the war with England in 1779 (Anglo-Spanish War, 1779-1783), louder protest voices began to be heard from the colonies. Between 1780 and 1810, Spain’s revenue from sales tax increased by 155% compared to 30 years ago, and this was due not to the increase in surplus sales, but to the increase in taxes. (Lynch, 1994, p. 4) The political and administrative environment created by the reforms initiated by the Bourbon policies to increase the power of the state also formed a very important cornerstone on the road to independence. The Bourbon reforms established a colonial army, reorganized administrative and territorial borders, introduced the system of intendencies, restructured trade, increased taxes, limited the appointments of creoles to government positions in their respective homelands. (Graham, 2013, pp. 8-10) Despite the fact that there was no united front made up of American high society that demonstrated against the reforms in the 18th century, the vast majority rejected the central ideas of this process, such as increasing taxes. The reforms contributed to the overcoming of colonial domination by strengthening the self-worth of the Creoles. The appointment of peninsulares to nearly all senior positions in the army, in the audiencias,29 in the treasury played an important role in the birth of the idea of independence. Because at that time, creoles were the main privileged class. According to Klooster, some of the creoles considered themselves as the heirs of the conquistadores; other ones gained wealth by mining or planting. (Klooster , 2009, p. 118)
Resistance began to emerge from the end of the 18th century to the first years of 19th century. Breña notes that “the Spanish American revolutions were not result of any ideological doctrinal and ideological premises coming from the United States or revolutionary France. They did not start as a fight against the monarch-like in the thirteen colonies- but as exactly the opposite: a fight for the monarch.” (Breña, 2013, p. 279) The factor that caused the revolt was the French occupation of Portugal and Spain from 1808 onwards. This event made the Spanish government disappear and produced a massive political upheaval in both Spain and Spanish America. Jeremy
29 Audiencias were defined as following “ a kind of miniature Council of Indies that also acted as a court” (Graham, 2013, p. 9).
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Adelman considers this upheaval as a choose between the “ going back to folding back into a restored imperium or forging ahead beyond empire, in isolation. (Adelman, 2006, p. 258) Adelman continues “Spanish restoration transformed a struggle over local sovereignty within empire into a civil war, and thence into a revolution that shattered Spanish sovereignty in the Atlantic World.” (Adelman, 2006, p. 258) He also demonstrates political spheres of the Latin America by following words “In 1810, the patriotic coalitions were dominated by civilian urbanities: Lawyers, prominent merchants, clergymen, and notable vecinos of colonial cities. And their styles of action and media of mobilization reflected the public spaces they had dominated: the press, literary salons, local assemblies, parishes and gatherings in the streets.” (Adelman, 2006, pp. 277-278).
The first years of the 19th century were quite turbulent in Europe, especially for Spain. In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain and put his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne (Kinsbruner , 1994, p. 37). In 1809, a representative of Joseph Bonaparte’s government arrived in Caracas. He demanded that the Spanish colony there continue to pay taxes and recognize Joseph as ruler. Thereupon, a great reaction broke out in Caracas against the kingdom of Joseph Bonaparte. The people of Caracas were proclaimed their allegiance to their former king Ferdinand in streets. In the big cities of Spain, juntas were formed against the French invaders, depending on the real owner of the throne. The English and French philosophies transported to Latin America by travelers, scientific societies. The cabildo which had gradually lost its vigor in the seventeenth century, regained some of its strength before the Spanish American Revolution, mainly as a result of internal changes due to new immigrants from northern Spain. The council carried until the Wars of Independence the echo of the sentiments of the colonial society against the royal officers. It was through the town councils that the revolution on 1808-1810 began in most of Spanish America and through these town councils the evolution that converted the lands took place of the crown in independent republics. The struggle for Spanish-American independence needed only one historical event as a catalyst, and this circumstance was facilitated by the Napoleonic invasion of Spain and Portugal. However, the Napoleonic invasion did not immediately change the situations. Although the entry of French troops to the
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Peninsula transformed the political map of the Spanish Empire, the Hispanic people rose up against an external invader, not against their Monarchy. However, sooner rather than later the war against the invader would give rise to a series of new concepts beginning to be discussed and legitimacy of the Spanish political system to be questioned.
In 1810, creole juntas were also established in Latin American cities such as Caracas, Buenos Aires, and Bogota. These juntas were supported by independence ideas. (Klooster , 2009, pp. 128-130) The Hispanic Americans maintained the position that they were in possession of the same rights as the peninsula for the establishment of those Juntas. This judgment was correct because the provinces or reigns of Spanish America were united to the Crown by non-colonial ties. The movement thus initiated evolved slowly from the original autonomous circle to the break with the mother country and complete independence. The historical events outlined above centered around a particularly specific stream of thought. Juan Luis Ossa Santa Cruz mentions that Spain did not experience firsthand the supposedly “subversive” consequences of the Enlightenment and that this, in addition to postponing its access to enlightened “modernity”, protected it from European “democratic revolutions”. (Santa Cruz, 2014, p. 258) By the early 1810, Venezuela was ready for independence. However, the Caracas elites were in favor of a temporary independence because they were not against the Spanish crown, but against Joseph Bonaparte. That was why they advocated independent action until Ferdinand VII came to the throne again. Venezuelan creoles declared their temporary independence by holding a meeting in Caracas on April 19, 1810. Their aim was to rule until the Spanish monarchy’s back. Their resistance against France eventually turned into a war of independence against Spain. Independence movements did not progress in the same way in Latin America. As Hobsbawm states, existence of different independent power centers in Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina led to the independence movements to be carried out separately. (Hobsbawn, 1989, p. 260) The independence wars in South America were mainly waged from two centers. The wars that started independently in Venezuela in the north and Buenos Aires in the south entered a common path in 1822. Conditions for independence in Venezuela matured much earlier than other places in Latin
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America. For this reason, Venezuela was the first country to officially leave Spain (1821). The names that stand on the road to independence were Francisco de Miranda and Simon Bolivar.
Venezuelan soldier Francisco de Miranda was a former general of the French Revolution. Many Venezuelans supported his actions. Young people, such as Simon Bolívar were also interested in breaking away from Spain. They wished to establish their own republic as northern neighbor at the end of the American Revolution. Francisco de Miranda was known as the precursor of independence of Latin America. However as Karen Racine states, he was more than that. She defines him as “a Spanish military officer, an informant for the British in Caribbean, a colonel in the Russian army, a lobbyist for South American independence on the payroll of the British government.” (Racine , 2003, p. xiii) Miranda was one of the important figures in Latin America who could be linked to the Enlightenment. He was raised in Caracas and took classic education at university. His life was full of activities; he traveled to Europe, became a part of England tour, participated in the American Revolution, and became friends with George Washington and Thomas Pain. (Chasteen, 2008, p. 36) One may assume that the driving force of his activities was the desire of revolution. He went to London in order to start a movement by bringing together all the Spanish Americans who were demanding independence. Considering the situation in America and Europe, London was presumably the most suitable place for the Latin American intellectuals and leaders. Because Britain wanted more trade opportunities for the colonies but Spain was the monopoly at that time and did not want to lose its colonies. As a result of these counter demands, Britain shows a lot of interest of Latin American independence. Independence leaders and intellectuals could spend time and prepare plans in order to leaver Spain in Britain. Britain’s importance for Latin America has to do with political circumstances, which were Britain’s long aversion to Spain and strong opposition to Napoleon, as well as the whole philosophical, political, and economic tradition that emerged in England during the 18th century. London around the year 1810s became the obligatory destination of the liberals of the Spanish America. In these cities, various figures from Spanish America carried out different activities, including translation and publication. They were taking what materialized
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in one cultural context and preparing it for dissemination and possible adoption in another (Nuñez, 2018, pp. 76-77). It can be postulating that independence leaders and intellectuals themselves were intercultural people. They spoke and wrote in several languages; for example, Miranda knew “at least six languages such as Spanish, French, English, German, Russian and Italian” (Nuñez, 2018, p. 77).
After that, he became busy person “lobbying and publishing for his cause” (Chasteen, 2008, p. 36). In 1801, Francisco de Miranda translated one of the primary documents, about independence written by Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán and titled it as “Carta dirigida a los españoles americanos”30 (Nuñez, 2018, p. 78). Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán was one of the Jesuits from America; furthermore, he tried to make negotiations with the English government in search of help for the uprising of America (Bastin & Castrillón , 2004, p. 2). Karen Racine wrote that “ Viscardo y Guzmán identified England as the most natural ally for such a project because of its ongoing dispute with Spain, the two countries’ historical antipathy and the strong British presence in Caribbean.” (Racine, 1997, p. 50)
In England, Viscardo y Guzmán sought for many years unsuccessfully for support to carry out a rebellion in Spanish America. In 1791, he recapitulated his political program in the famous “Letter to the American Spaniards” that he criticized the misery of the tricentennial colonial regime had brought only “ingratitude, injustice, servitude and despair (ingratitude, injusticia, servidumbre y desesperación) ” to the colonies. At the same time, he claimed that the “New World” and its history should belong to the natives of America and effusively defended the idea of “our homeland (Nuestra Patria)”. Viscardo perceived the fundamental and irreparable opposition of interests between Spain and America and identified the Spanish colonial empire as tyrant and slaveholder. (Viscardo y Guzmán, 2002, p.91)
He wrote several essays on the conflicts in South America, on trade with Europe and on the independence ideal. Viscardo y Guzmán who was convinced of the greatness of his land, the value of his fellow citizens and, above all, fed up with the
30Carta a los españoles americanos can be translated in English as Open Letter to the Spanish Americans.
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Spanish tyranny that lasted three hundred years, believed that the time had come to fight for the freedom for the Spanish colonies. He was inspired by the ideas of Rousseau and Montesquieu, Viscardo y Guzmán wrote his letter in French. (Bastin & Castrillón , 2004, p. 2)
This short document was against the Spanish monarchy and its purpose was to inspire and justify the revolution of the American colonies. The document directly influenced the Act of Independence and the 1811 Constitution of Venezuela. Viscardo y Guzmán wrote that:
Spain exiles us from the whole of the Old World, and cuts us off from the society to which we are connected by every tie; adding to this unprecedented usurpation of our personal liberty, a second usurpation, no less important, that of our properties. … Since men began to unite in society for their mutual interest, we are the people whom government has compelled to provide for our wants at the highest price possible; and to part with our production at the lowest price. (Vizcardo y Guzmán, 2002, p. 329)
He continued his letter by emphasizing of natural rights and liberty. He stated that:
The preservation of the natural rights, and especially of liberty and ssecurity of person and property, is undoubtedly the foundation stone of every human society, under whatever from it maybe constituted: it is therefore the indispensable duty of every society, or of the government which represents its, not only to respect, but still further effectually to protect the rights of every individual. …We have essential need of government which would be in the midst of us, for the distribution of benefits, -the object of the social union. (Vizcardo y Guzmán, 2002, pp. 340, 346)
Viscardo y Guzmán was highly influential person for Francisco de Miranda in order to be successful his plans about the independence. The Venezuelan Miranda met the ideas of the Peruvian Viscardo in London, which he used to complete his own theories and concepts. At the beginning of the 19th century, London became one of the most important centers of the Atlantic networks for political activists in Latin America. Thus, in 1801, Miranda made the first Spanish translation of Viscardo’s document and organized on the basis of the political propaganda. According to Vscardo’s text, the successful revolution in the North America had been great importance as a point of reference and as a model for the South. The aspiration for the liberation from European colonialism had led, according to Viscardo, to the unity of
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America, emphasizing at the same time English support had been indispensable. Given these facts, it is clear that without the analysis of the Atlantic dimension it would be difficult to understand the antecedents of the independence of Latin America. Miranda justified his actions against Spanish rule by emphasizing Viscardo y Guzmán’s words about the natural rights and liberty.
The forerunner of Latin American independence, Francisco de Miranda pointed out that victory will lead to conquering conditions worthy of life of the original peoples of these lands by these words:
Citizens, this monstrous tyranny must be torn down: True creditors must enter into their usurped rights. The reins of public authority must be returned to the hands of the people and natives of the country, whom a foreign force has taken away. For it is clear that the government of such a conqueror is the most illegitimate, contrary to the laws of nature, and that it must immediately be toppled. (Miranda, 1978, p. 14)
The time has now come to throw the barbarians who oppress us. Remember that you are the descendant of illustrious Indians, who did not want to live as slave in their homeland, preferred a glorious death to a dishonorable life. These illustrious warriors wanted to die under the walls of Mexico, Cuzco or Bogotá rather than to drag the chains of oppression. (Miranda, 1978, p. 5)
The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence was announced on July 5, 1811. Like mentioned earlier, this declaration was influenced by Viscardo y Guzman’s thoughts. It was stated that:
America was called into a new existence, since she could, and ought, to take upon herself the charge of her own fate and preservation; as Spain might acknowledge, or not, the rights of a King, who had preferred his own existence to the dignity of the Nation over which he governed. All the Bourbons concurred to invalid stipulations of Bayona, abandoning the country of Spain, against the will of the People; they violated, disdained, and trampled on the sacred duty they had contracted with the Spaniards of both Words. (Venezuelan Declaration of Independence, 1811) (Armitage, 2007, p. 201)
…Like all the other nations of the world, we are free, and authorized not to depend on any other authority than our own, and to take amongst the powers of the earth the place of equality which the Supreme Being and Nature assign us, and to which we are called by the succession of human events, and urged by our own good and utility (Venezuelan Declaration of Independence, 1811) (Armitage, 2007, p. 205)
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In the Declaration, there was a focus on freedom and equality. According to the Declaration, people are equal from born. Also, they emphasized that the Government of Spain became unsuccessful to protect his people. At this point of view, people of Venezuela who had right to resist this government used their rights to rebel. They justified their actions by focusing on this point of view from Lockean philosophy.
Simon Bolivar, who played an important role in the liberation of Latin America, was one of the creoles in Venezuela. He went to Europe for education and started a movement to gain independence from the Spain when he returned to his country. He also tried to ensure the unification of Latin America. In other words, his desire was to establish “united Spanish America which was to cover most of northern South America with the exception of Brazil” (Suranyi, 2015, p. 154). After he joined the militia, he offered to go to Britain in order to bring help for independence; he sailed to Britain with his one of his tutor Andrés Bello in 1810 (Kinsbruner , 1994, p. 48). Bolivar’s first job when he arrived to London was to visit Miranda who also residing there at that instant. He attempted to make some connections with the British diplomats whose help he could ask. (Chasteen, 2008, p. 58) As a leader who followed both the American and French Revolutions, Simon Bolivar succeeded in being an important actor in the independence process of Latin America. However, in terms of his political philosophy, Bolivar thought differently from the leaders of the War of Independence that the United States had won against the British Empire. More importantly, he believed that the government system adopted by the United States would not work in Latin America because Latin America had a much more complex social structure. According to him, a more nationalistic and patriotic government was more suitable for Latin America (Uzcategui, 2012, pp. 142-149). One of the most important aspects of Bolívar’s thought was that he placed a primary emphasis on the process of constitutionalizing that followed wars and achievement of independence. He attributed two missions to the of the constitution. The first was the classical constitutional mission: to rationalize the exercise of political power and to determine the reciprocal duties and rights of the ruler and the ruled. The second, and more important mission that Bolívar attributed to the constitution was to create a framework for the creation a
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civic order that gave Americans a “will to live in common” by overcoming their cultural, social and ethnic conflicts.
Simon Bolívar wrote numerous proclamations and letters, from different parts of Americas. There are there key documents that enable understand Bolívar’s illustrated ideas: La Carta de Jamaica (1815), Manifiesto de Cartagena (1812), and Discurse de Angostura (1819). These important historical documents were traversed as common thread by the concepts of freedom, equality, and justice. He spoke of three links in the chain that bound the people, as ignorance, tyranny and vice by the following words: “We have been dominated more by force; and by vice we have been degraded rather than by superstition. … an ignorant people is a blind instrument of their own destruction: greed, intrigue, … inexperience in all political, economic or civil knowledge; they adopt pure illusions as truths; they get permission for freedom.” (Bolívar, Discurse de Angostura, 1819)
He was also a fervent admirer of British institutions, hence why he recommended to the legislators of his time to study the Common Law, not to slavishly imitate it, but to see what it had of republicanism. He stated that: “I recommend this popular constitution, the division and balance of powers, civil liberty, as the most worthy of servile model to all those who aspire to the enjoyment of the rights of man and to all political happiness that is compatible with our fragile nature.”(Bolívar, Discurse de Angostura , 1819)
In La Carta de Jamaica, he analyzed the political situation and proposed his solution. First of all, he justified the uprising by writing “[t]he Americans, under the Spanish system, occupy no other place in society than that of brutes for labor; at best, that of simple consumers, clogged with oppressive restrictions. For example, the prohibition of all European productions…” (Bolívar, 1815 ) (Graham, 2013, p. 162). He continued to manifest the importance of independent state as “[t]he inhabitants of this continent have shown a desire to form liberal and even perfect institutions, no doubt from the influence of that instinct which all men possess of aspiring to the greatest possible happiness and which can only be obtained in those civil societies founded on the grand basis of justice, liberty, and equality.” (Bolívar, 1815) (Graham,
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2013, p. 163) His emphasis on happiness, liberty and equality showed that his affection of Declaration of Independence of the United States.
The colonies began to shout out that they did not want to live under the rule of a foreign European state. As Graham indicates, that “Spanish Americans considered themselves legally linked to Spain merely by their king. …Spanish Americans did not consider themselves colonial of Spain but subjects of the king” (Graham, 2013, p. 7). In the beginning, the reactions against Spanish rule did not come from the indigenous people, but from the creoles. Meanwhile, all the liberal ideas of the 18th century had begun to penetrate the colonies despite the Spanish censorship. When wealthy creoles went to Spain and Europe to study, they also learned about the new currents of thought that began to change the face of 18th century’s Europe and brought these new ideas to Latin America. Ideas that came from the European Enlightenment and initially put into practice in America as the former English colony, spread throughout the Spanish American domain via translated texts. The independence momentum led people to try various emancipatory strategies, which included not only the sword but also the pen. Independence leaders and intellectuals spread their ideas by using letters, proclamations, articles, newspapers. (Nuñez, 2018, p. 71) Translators such as Manuel García de Sena played an important role in spreading these ideas. Manuel García de Sena was one of the important publicists in the primary phase of the Venezuelan independence process through the translation. He translated Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which was Spanish titled La Independencia de la Costa Firme justificado por Thomas Paine trienta años ha; moreover, he included the Declaration of Independence of the United States, and series of American Constitution, Articles of Confederation of 1777 and Constitution of 1787 in his book. (Nuñez, 2018, p. 71). Also, Adrs Bello made a translation of the John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in Caracas possibly in the year of 1802 (Nuñez, 2018, p. 79).
Nuñes gave another example as Adam Ferguson’s book titled An Essay on the History of Civil Society was translated to Spanish (Nuñez, 2018, pp. 74-75). One may count a couple of reasons why these texts were translated to Spanish, firstly, considering the political atmosphere of that period, the visibility of these tests was quite high both on the American side and on the European side. For this reason, these texts translated a
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little bit more. Another reason may be assumed that creole elites and intellectuals built their political thoughts based on these texts because most of them took their education from abroad and learned these ideas.
London around the year 1810s became the obligatory destination of the liberals of the Spanish America. In these cities, various figures from Spanish America carried out different activities, including translation and publication. They were taking what materialized in one cultural context and preparing it for dissemination and possible adoption in another (Nuñez, 2018, pp. 76-77). It can be postulating that independence leaders and intellectuals themselves were intercultural people. They spoke and wrote in several languages; for example, Miranda knew “at least six languages such as Spanish, French, English, German, Russian and Italian” (Nuñez, 2018, p. 77).
As mentioned earlier, Andrés Bello was important for Bolívar and Latin America, he was called the “intellectual liberator of America.” Andrés Bello was the editor of the two probably most important publications that appeared just after the independence of Spanish America: La Biblioteca Americana (1823) and El Repertorio Americano (1826-1827). These publications published in London where Bello lived between 1810 and 1829 and contained many works by Spanish American authors and Spanish liberals exiled in London. (Cussen, 1982, p. 1) Three important concepts of English Enlightenment influence Bello: empiricism, tolerance and plurality. Andrés Bello was one of the figure who went to London with Bolívar with the purpose of requesting the support of Great Britain. In London, they stayed at Miranda’s house and met important English intellectual as James Mill and Jeremy Bentham (Cussen, 1982, p. 3).
While Simon Bolivar was in London, Buenos Aires began to feel the winds of revolution. Like Miranda and Bolivar, Mariano Moreno was one of the prominent revolutionaries of Buenos Aires. He took his education from the chief university of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata with the degree in theology and law (Chasteen, 2008, p. 59). Moreno improved himself by reading a variety of books, even some of them were condemned by Inquisition, and he also learned the Enlightenment ideals after he went to the University of San Francisco Xavier (Wait, 1965, p. 361). He was the translator of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract in Latin America. His writings
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were among the first to consider constitutional issues in break with the monarchical order and he endowed public opinion with a new role, trying to turn it into a legitimizing pillar of the new government (Labra, 2013, p. 8) One of the important ideas of Moreno was his belief in equality. According to Eugene Wait, he was “influenced by the idea of equality; he was impressed by the social injustice that existed towards Indians” (Wait, 1965, p. 362). He acted as the editor of Gazeta de Buenos-Ayres and El correo de Comercio for a while. Periodicals were quite important in the major colonial cities such as Buenos Aires because they made a crucial improvement in the new ideas and thoughts. Wait states that “in the decree establishing the new periodical, Moreno reasoned that an informed public was needed to preserve tranquility while junta looked after their interests” (Wait, 1965, p. 365) One of his aims was spreading the Enlightenment; he helped the foundation of the public library because he believed in the power of education. He wrote various of articles that argued political systems, electing representatives, dividing powers and constitutions etc. He was one of the founding fathers of Argentina and played a major role in the first part of the independence period. About him, Wait states that:
The first obligation of government, said Moreno, was to protect the four natural rights of man. The first was the liberty of persons and opinion. Liberty was not license but was a virtue which needed the support of justice, moderation, sobriety, and prudence. The second was equality, which Moreno defined very carefully. He said that people were equal by right, that is in the eyes of the law, but not in fact. Those who were not industrious were not equal to those who were. The third was property, which meant that those who were more industrious should have the right to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The fourth was security, which was the constitutional guarantee given the citizen that is rights would be protected. (Wait, 1965, pp. 373-374)
At that time, Spain did not open the Buenos Aires ports for the other European countries since it did not want to lose its monopoly. Also, at that time, there was not a common idea about society and its government in Buenos Aires. Graham provides an important point to understand Moreno’s view referring to the society and government problems by saying that “ …The natural laws that ruled economic and social affairs required the end of commercial restrictions, freedom of speech and press, equal rights for all men, and the attraction of immigrants from the non-Spanish world” (Graham, 2013, p. 35)
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Moreno followed Adam Smith’s path about free trade. The name of Adam Smith and his works in Latin America are related to the emergence and consolidation of a liberal ideology in the region. Liberalism becomes particularly influential during the 19th century, associated with the process of independence from the Spanish Crown.
He wrote an economic report titled Representación de Los Hacendados in 1809 which described and analyzed the economy of Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He wrote this report as a lawyer however he first defined the trade as “the movement or circulation of exchange objects which we get away from our surpluses and acquire what we need” (Moreno, 1809). He continued by giving macroeconomic benefits of the free trade: “Given to our trade the activity and life resulting to the freedom to import and export, there is no risk that the cash will be missing for the attentions of the state and needs of the citizen” (Moreno, 1809). His desire for the free trade was shared by the landowners of Buenos Aires because free trade with Britain was considered necessary (Chasteen, 2008, p. 59). The advent of free trade coincided with the growing economic power of the creoles. Andrés Bello shared similar thoughts with Moreno about free trade.
Chile is the southernmost country in the world which is between the Andes and Pacific Ocean. It constituted a place of difficult access for the arrival of ideas because of its geographical position that was away from all the centers of the circulation of ideas in contrast to Lima, where was the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru and a center of trade with the Americas and Europe during the Spanish rule. Similar to what happened in Venezuela, the Chilean intellectuals spoke loudly about independence after the events in Europe. There was a conflict between peninsulares and creoles in Chile about being royal to Ferdinand VII. Nuñez states that In Chile, Fray Camilo Henríquez “translated and disseminated North American and French documents that he later published in La Aurora de Chile. (Nuñez, 2018, p. 89) Camilo Henríquez (1769-1825) was considered as one of the important independence figures and founding father of Republic of Chile. He was the first journalist of Chile, and he was one of the prominent figures who fought against the rule of the Spanish Empire. As a result of these, Henríquez functioned as a key figure in the Chilean intellectual and political world. He occupied an intermediate place between the intellectual and
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journalist. On the one hand, he shared a passion for knowledge with an interest in being aware of the most relevant works and ideas of his time, as well as a reflective position regarding them; on the other hand, he shared the desire to convey these opinions through the more or less massive media with the aim of shaping public opinion (Gazmuri, 2017, pp. 13-14). Henríquez was interested in the Enlightenment philosophy starting with his early education years; texts that he read opened up the possibility of questioning the monarchical authority, as well as the political system that the Spanish colonial empire had imposed for more than three hundred years (Rojas, 2016, p. 62). He started to publish hid newspaper La Aurora de Chile on February 13, 1812 in order to be able to give information, to argue etc. about the concepts of liberty and independence. He wrote an article titled Sobre el Amor de la Patria that revealed the importance of law for the people. He stated that:
…The laws are the guarantors of civil liberty in citizens eyes. But what is more necessary and what is more difficult to exits outside the republics is a severe integrity in doing justice to all and in protecting the weak against the tyranny of the strength. If weakness is not always protected by the public force, it results in an extremely failed state, and that induces indifference to common good. Then, individuals suffer the weight of civil status without benefiting the advantages of nature. As a result of this, they could use their physical strength to defend themselves (Aurora de Chile, Tomo I, nº 26, 1812).
Before his articles in Aurora de Chile, Camilo Henríquez wrote a pamphlet that circulated through the streets of the capital which was titled Proclama de Quirino Lemachez in 1811. This pamphlet became representative of the rising popularity for independence among the educated creole elites in Chile. Henríquez philosophy bore a considerable debt to the social contract theorist as John Locke of the Enlightenment.
Jay Kinsbruner emphasizes that some economic societies in Latin America were established between the 1780s and 1820s in order to make an economic progress. One of the important economic societies was Sociedades Económicos de Amigos del País that was established in the colonies such as Cuba, Lima, Mexico (Kinsbruner , 1994, p. 13). Camilo Henríquez was the person who proposed the formation of this society. In the opening speech of society, Henríquez friends from José Antonio de Irisarri told that “We intend to preserve the majesty of reason, and gentleness of humanity, which are the two characteristic garments of man. We will cultivate the
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virtues and make our lives happy and delightful.” (Aurora de Chile, Tomo 2, nº 5, 1813). He continued by saying that “The illustration will dispel the shadows of ignorance, and the clearest, most delightful and serene days will follow the dark nights in which our lives were set” (Aurora de Chile, Tomo 2, nº 5, 1813). These quotations extracts reveal that there was a trust for the Enlightenment in Latin America to solve their problems.
After the independence years, many Latin Americans regarded the British Enlightenment as a perfect example of a country that had managed to challenge the centralizing forces that had prevailed during the 17th and 18th centuries. English empiricism provided these intellectuals the tools to discover and interpret their land thus allowing them to establish their differences. England had also successfully limited the monarch’s power and demonstrated a constitutional monarchy decentralize power without abolishing authority. Finally, the increase in trade that was fostered by the market mechanism described by Adam Smith, made it clear that wealth was not equivalent to gold, and that the interaction of countless independent actors within Britain and throughout the world would increase production and destroy the monopoly power of governments. The leaders and the intellectuals of the independence period of Latin America sought inspiration and guidance from thinkers who associated with the promotion of individual freedom and market economy by reading Adam Smith’s ideas in order to advance and support their arguments for the opening markets and joining the world economy.
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CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
This thesis has basically focused on the thoughts of Scottish and English Enlightenment philosophers within a shared political and cultural framework represented by the American revolutionaries especially during the American Revolutionary War (1776) and Spanish American Wars of Independence (1810-1825). It has tried to propose a comparative and diachronic interpretation of the passage between 18th and 19th centuries by following the pattern of sequent revolutions as they mutually interacted as located not only in Europe but also in Americas as part of a larger Atlantic socio-political and economic sphere. Contact between the Americas was intensified by the dissemination of illustrated texts that were read by both Creole elites in Anglo America and Latin America. Southern Creoles showed interest in revolutionary rhetoric during the preliminary phase of Anglo-American independence between 1763-1776.
The Age of Enlightenment was a period in which the thought system was shaken from its foundation and the concept of natural rights was taken as the basis instead of divine rights. Much has been written on The Enlightenment, a period which confronts the ideas of unification around European cities, such as Edinburgh, London, or Paris, however as we have been introduced to new approaches, towards the end of 17th century, the notion of unification of the concept of centralization began to mould around a different concept: the notion of plurality. As Hume observes lately, “the variety of humanity”, thinkers could no longer ignore the great diversity and differences which formed the circles of society. The change of perspective led the movement of Enlightenment to accept the fact that the variations influenced all fields of research in a wider range than they believed, from physics to politics or from
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religion to philosophy and it has emerged that the divergences and individual entities mutually impacted each other in order to create their own systems.
Having said that, little room has been given to overlapping layers of mutual interactions between Scottish and English thinkers and American revolutionaries as they were benefitting from their European backgrounds such as their education, travels or experiments. A comparative look has allowed me to say that American revolutionaries moulded their ideas and driving forces around the principles of John Locke and Francis Hutcheson as their widely recognized works provided them with the notion of common sense and the idea of natural rights which led them to think about the regional governments under a centralized authority which had a limited power, as the evidence lay at The Constitution of the United States that enumerates the authority of the federal government one by one, and leaving the rest to the individual states. Here, I do not deny the fact that the revolutionaries transformed the ideas of Scottish or English thinkers or the efforts of American revolutionaries in order to start the movements of independency, instead, as this thesis tried to open a window into the Atlantic world to deconstruct the relationship between the two sides of the ocean, I would like to propose a narration that based on the mutuality and variations.
First, one may consider that the Scottish and English Enlightenments as one of the triggers of the American revolutions as the new ideas influenced not only the Old but also the New World. For example, the second treatise of Locke states that, life, liberty, and property, created significant results for the socio-political trajectories such as Creoles benefitted from these ideas in order to establish new states as they followed the notion of equality of people during the period under the scrutiny. There was a deep historical, social, economic and intellectual relationship between Britain and the Americas. However, it is not possible to reduce the reasons of independence wars to English and Scottish Enlightenment. Intellectually, Lockean, Republican and Scottish sources of the independence wars do not preclude its originality or importance. Americans have considered and evaluated all of these traditions, adapted and developed them according to their needs and their culture. Not only the intangible ideas but also the methods of influencers were effective, both parts of Americas exploited the ways of communication, newspapers and pamphlets were immensely
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used in order to spread the ideas to the different social classes. Obviously, the impacts of these efforts were more visible on the major cities, instead of peasants, as the lack of education caused.
It can be assumed that within the scope of the the wars of independence in North and South America, there were some differences between the reasons. In the northern side of the American continent, people took action to gain their independence from Britain because they declared that they were not adequately represented in the Parliament in contrast to their payment of constantly increasing taxes. On the other hand, there were different reasons for the rise of independence movements in Latin America. Firstly, the elites in Latin America did not accept the foreigner ruler on the Spanish throne. Secondly, the gradual loss of the privileges of the Creoles strengthened the desire for independence. In other words, the second point I would like to point out is a reverse reading of the Scottish and British Enlightenment’s impacts on the American revolutionaries. Even though these ideas heavily influenced American political leaders and intellectuals, and bolstered their claims and aims in order to take an action against Spanish rule, the same set of mentality did not successfully create new nations which “the rule of law” unerringly prevailed, or happy utopian places where the citizens equally enjoyed all the rights of citizenships. Furthermore, the Enlightenment did not generate entirely republican governments which could represent all the general interests. This interpretation mirrors a bifurcation which dominates the literature, on the one hand Breña states that “the liberal ideals of the independence movements were, more than anything, the result of a specific Spanish and Spanish American debate, a set of liberal principles that was born among the currents of thought that clashed in the Peninsula at the beginning of the 19th century” (Breña, 2013, p. 271). On the other hand, Chasteen supports the second point I would like to highlight. As the historical trajectory testifies, the first wave of the independence calls, the main aim was not opposing the colonial order itself but the illegitimate authority that was imposed by Napoleon Bonaparte (Chasteen, 2008, p. 5). Many Latin Americans argued that the colonies naturally owed allegiance to the Crown of Spain, but not to Spain while proclaiming that if the Spanish monarchy was going to be abolished; there was no need to be bound to Spain with socio-economic or
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political ties. These arguments served the purpose of terminating the administrative, social, or economic relationships between Latin America and Spain, and paved the way for leaders like Bolivar, who actively pursued an entire separation from Spain, or Bello, whose ideas were more moderate than the ones of Bolivar. Here, I would like to indicate that during the time of the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, London became a common place where leaders met and discussed about their plans for the future of their countries, as Karen mentions “between the years 1808-1830, over 70 independence leaders lived and worked together in London, including Francisco de Miranda, Simon Bolivar and Andres Bello” (Racine, 2010, p. 423). The abovementioned leaders were definitely inspired by the Scottish and English Enlightenments while they were planning to gain their independence from Spain. Furthermore, they aspired to establish new national state systems based on the fundamental rights of man and their traditional directions.
Although the causes of Latin American independence movements were internal, the events on the eve of independence can only be explained from an Atlantic perspective. Different transatlantic links were of great importance especially with regard to the circulation of knowledge, whose example is Francisco de Miranda. In the framework of the Enlightenment, European and American books and pamphlets reached Latin America; these materials encouraged the Creole elites. Certainly, there are many factors that contributed to the process of independence of the Spanish colonies, which began in 1808. However, it is worth highlighting the importance of the influence of the transformations that occurred in the transatlantic space during the liberation processes in Americas.
Last but not least, my third point is in tune with the general conclusion of this thesis. As my main conclusion tries to paint a picture of the power of Scottish and English Enlightenment thinkers over the American revolutionaries, these Spanish American patriot leaders generally identified themselves as the notions which they learned from the Scottish and British traditions of progress, the changes could be under control which were led by a generous, enlightened, and public-spirited elites, with the concepts of liberty which was entrenched in a constitution. This was the exact definition of the leaders of independence’s self-perspectives as ardent believers of
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liberty, therefore, as pragmatic politicians who were interested in concrete reforms. The patriot leaders consciously drew thick lines between themselves from their Spanish past.
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APPENDICES
A. PROCLAMACION A LOS PUEBLOS DEL CONTINENTE COLOMBIANO ALIAS HISPANO-AMERICA
PROCLAMACION A LOS PUEBLOS DEL CONTINENTE COLOMBIANO ALIAS HISPANO-AMERICA
Francisco de Miranda
Estando encargado por vosotros ha muchos años de solicitar los medios de establecer vuestra independencia, tenemos hoy la dulce satisfacción de anunciaros, que ha llegado ya el momento de vuestra emancipación y libertad. Esperamos que nuestros esfuerzos colmarán vuestros magnánimos deseos. Penetrados al fin estos generosos amigos de la justicia de nuestra causa, y cediendo a vuestras instancias, nos prestan sus socorros y ayuda para que establezcamos, sobre bases sólidas y sabiamente balanceadas,un gobierno justo e independiente.
Llegó el tiempo ya de echar a los bárbaros que nos oprimen, y de romper el cetro de un gobierno ultramarino. Acordaos de que sois los descendientes de aque llos ilustres indios, que no queriendo sobrevivir a la esclavitud de su patria, prefirieron una muerte gloriosa a una vida deshonrosa. Estos ilustres guerreros, presintiendo la desgracia de su posteridad, quisieron más bien morir bajo los muros de México, de Cuzco o de Bogotá que arrastrar las cadenas de la opresión. Muriendo víctimas de la libertad pública.
Vosotros vais a establecer, sobre la ruina de un gobierno opresor, la independencia de vuestra patria. Mas en una empresa de tanta importancia, en una empresa que va a cambiar el estado de vuestra situación, es de vuestra obligación hacer conocer al universo entero, los motivos que os determinan, y probar de una manera
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irrefragable, que no es el odio, o la ingratitud, sino la voz de la justicia, y el sentimiento de vuestra propia conservación que os impelen a este esfuerzo memorable.
Lejos de rehusar la más amplia discusión sobre este asunto estáis interesados en solicitarla. Efectivamente, ¿cuál es el título sobre que su Majestad Católica funda exclusivamente su derecho de posesión a estos dominios?
Abramos la historia general de las Indias occidentales de Antonio de Herrera, y hallaremos en ella aquel famosísimo manifiesto hecho por Su Majestad Católica en 1510 contra los pueblos de América. Manifiesto que sirve al mismo tiempo de poderes y de instrucción a todos los gobernadores y oficiales civiles y militares de las Indias. Allí se halla el pasaje siguiente: “Uno de los Pontífices pasados que he dicho, como señor del mundo, hizo donación de estas Islas y tierra firme de Mar océano, a los Católicos reyes de Castilla... Así que Su Majestad es Rey y Señor de estas Islas y tierra firme por virtud de la dicha donación, etc.”
El mismo historiador hablando en otro lugar de la soberanía de la España a las Indias occidentales y temiendo sin duda que se la contesten, declara que ella la ha adquirido en virtud de una concesión hecha por el Papa, en su cualidad de Vicario de Jesucristo.
De manera que su Majestad Católica no tiene otro título que invocar para establecer su derecho de posesión, que una Bula papal. A la verdad este título es tan absurdo y tan ridículo que sería perder tiempo inútilmente el detenerse a refutarlo. Otras naciones tales que los franceses, los ingleses y los holandeses, mucho antes que nosotros, y en más de una ocasión han hecho ver al mundo cómo debía responderse a tan extrañas donaciones. A este propósito aquellos dos caciques del Darién, guiados únicamente por la impulsión de la ley natural, tenían gran razón en decir que “dar, pedir y recibir los bienes de otro, eran otros tantos de actos de demencia; y que siendo ellos mismos señores del país, nada tenían que hacer con un señor extranjero.”
Tal vez los defensores de la Corona de España alegarán como un título legítimo, el derecho de conquista. Pero antes de examinar si en la circunstancia particular que nos ocupa, el derecho de conquista puede ser invocado por Su Majestad Católica es menester observar que en el caso de afirmativa, esta invocación sería tardía,
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puesto que la Corte de Madrid, cuando la ocupación de las Islas y del Continente Americano, no declaró tenerle sino en virtud de la donación papal.
Por otra parte, la relación sucinta de las expediciones sucesivas de Cortés, Pizarro, Quesada y Soto prueban de una manera incontestable que si el derecho de conquista pudiese ser admitido, esto no podía ser sino de los sucesores en favor de aquellos conquistadores que a sus propias expensas, intentaron estas expediciones lejanas y arriesgadas, sin que costase nada a la Corona de España.
Pero suponiendo que la Corte de Madrid quisiese alegar el derecho de conquista, vamos a demostrar que aun en esta hipótesis, este derecho es de ningún valor. Según el derecho de gentes una nación puede muy bien ocupar un país desierto e inhabitado; mas este mismo derecho de gentes no reconoce la propiedad y la soberanía de una nación, sino sobre los países vacíos que ha ocupado realmente y de hecho, en los que haya formado un establecimiento, o de donde perciba alguna utilidad actual. Cuando los navegantes han encontrado tierras desiertas en las que otras naciones habían levantado de paso algún monumento, para probar su toma de posesión, no han hecho ellos más caso de esta vana ceremonia, que de la disposición de los Papas que dividieron una gran porción del mundo entre las Coronas de Castilla y Portugal. Mas siendo incontestable que las Islas y el Continente Americano, en lugar de estar desierto, estaba por el contrario muy poblado, los españoles no pudieron tomar posesión de él legítimamente.
Hay otra consideración todavía, sacada del derecho de gentes necesario, y que se opone de la manera más fuerte a la admisión del derecho de conquista por Su Majestad Católica. Sigamos lo que dice sobre esto el más sabio y más célebre de los publicistas modernos: “Una guerra injusta no da ningún derecho, y el soberano que la emprende se hace delincuente para con el enemigo a quien ataca, oprime y mata, para con su pueblo, invitándole a la injusticia, y para con el género humano, cuyo reposo perturba, y a quien da un ejemplo pernicioso. En este caso, el que hace la injuria está obligado a reparar el daño, o a una justa satisfacción, si el mal es irreparable”.
Desde el descubrimiento del Nuevo Mundo hasta ahora no hay un solo publicista que se atreva a sostener que la guerra de la España contra los pueblos de América, haya sido justa. Las naciones del Perú, de Chile, de México y de Bogotá,
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desconocidas hasta entonces a los españoles, no habían podido hacerles la ofensa más ligera. Por consiguiente las agresiones de estos últimos, injustas en su origen, atroces en su ejecución, no pueden darles el más ligero derecho: y como el mal que la Corona de España ha hecho es irreparable en sí mismo, no le queda otro remedio, según la disposición ya citada, sino el ofrecer una justa satisfacción que no puede encontrarse sino en la evacuación inmediata por sus tropas del Continente Americano, y en el reconocimiento de la independencia de los pueblos que hasta hoy componen las colonias llamadas hispano americanas.
Estos son los verdaderos principios, las reglas eternas de la justicia, las disposiciones de aquella ley sagrada, que el derecho de gentes necesario en virtud del derecho natural impone a las naciones. Pero pues que, por una fatalidad enemiga de la felicidad del género humanos se hace imposible alegar, el derecho natural y necesario, dejándolo solamente a la conciencia de los soberanos, nosotros examinaremos, sin embargo, lo que el derecho de gentes voluntario establecido para la salud y ventajas de la sociedad y sancionado por el consentimiento general de todos los pueblos civilizados, haya establecido acerca de las pretensiones del Rey Católico.
En virtud del derecho de gentes voluntario, obligatorio de todos los soberanos, hallamos “que solamente una guerra declarada en forma, debe ser mirada en cuanto a sus efectos, como justa de una y otra parte.” Examinaremos ahora cuáles son las circunstancias que constituyen una guerra en forma, y veamos si esta guerra en forma ha existido de parte de la España.
Para que la guerra sea en forma es menester, primeramente, que la potencia que ataca tenga un justo motivo de queja; que se le haya rehusado una satisfacción razonable; y que haya declarado la guerra. Esta última circunstancia es de rigor; atento a que éste es rehusado reiteradamente una satisfacción equitativa. Tales son las condiciones esencialmente requisitivas, para constituir una guerra en forma.
Ahora nosotros preguntamos al Universo entero, y con estas saludables e indispensables formalidades, aun a la misma Corte de Madrid, si ella ha cumplido y en fin que aun en este caso la potencia atacada haya antes de establecer sobre las ruinas y escombros de nuestra patria, su horrible dominación. No, sin duda: el último remedio empleado para prevenir la efusión de sangre. Es menester, además, que esta
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declaración de España un motivo justo de queja, cuando antes del descubrimiento del Nuevo Mundo, no los conocían ni aun de nombre. Y no habiéndoles ofendido, no habiéndoles hecho injuria alguna, ¿cómo podían estar obligados a ofrecerles ninguna satisfacción? Los Reyes de Castilla y de Aragón han sentido bien estas razones. Ellos han conocido que no podían hallar en el derecho de gentes ni causas legítimas ni aun motivos honestos para colorear su toma de posesión; y por eso no han alegado otro título que la donación del Papa español.
Es pues evidente que los españoles no tenían ni aun sombra de pretexto para llevar la guerra y sus estragos al Contienente Americano; es evidente también que no han hecho una guerra en forma. Sus hostilidades han sido, pues, injusticias, sus victorias asesinatos, y sus conquistas rapiñas y usurpaciones. La sangre derramada, las ciudades saqueadas, las provincias destruidas, he aquí sus crímenes delante de Dios y de los hombres.
Después de haber perdido el proceso en esta importante cuestión, los abogados de la Corte de España, recurriendo a su último refugio, nos dirán tal vez: ¿Cómo osáis trastornar el gobierno de Su Majestad Católica cuando una prescripción de 300 años la da sobre vosotros y vuestros bienes los derechos más legítimos?
Compatriotas, responded a estos defensores del despotismo, que no puede haber prescripción en favor de una usurpación tiránica. Vatel será aún nuestro árbitro. “El soberano, -dice-, que jusgándose el dueño absoluto de los destinos de un pueblo, le reduce a esclavitud, hace subsistir el estado de guerra entre él y dicho pueblo". Los pueblos que componen las colonias hispano-americanas, ¿no gimen de tres siglos acá bajo una opresión extranjera?
Pero aunque el título de Su Majestad Católica, derivado únicamente de la donación papal, es absurdo y ridículo; aunque sus pretensiones sobre los imperios que componen la América Meridional estén desnudos de toda especie de derecho, ¿tal vez los Reyes de España con un gobierno protector de las personas y conservador de las haciendas han procurado hacer olvidar la falta de todo título genuino?
¿Os acordáis de los furores de Cortés, de Pizarro, de Quesada, de Alburquerque, de Toledo, Alderete, y otros monstruos semejantes?; ¿qué Don Rodrigo de Alburquerque, en virtud de sus poderes, y de una Cédula confirmada después por
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Su Majestad Católica, repartía los desdichados indios y sus caciques como viles ganados, distribuyéndolos entre sus compañeros para que los sirviesen de esclavos? ¿Qué Vasco Núñez de Balboa se divertía en hacer devorar por los perros los caciques e indígenas que habían tenido la desgracia de desagradarle?
¿Os acordáis, que en conmemoración de Jesucristo y de sus doce Apóstoles, como ellos decían, ahorcaban y quemaban trece indios, cuyo único delito era haber nacido tales?
¿Os acordáis, que un sucesor de Moctezuma en desprecio de las más sagradas promesas de Cortés, después de haberle hecho sufrir los tormentos más dolorosos, fue ahorcado a un árbol al lado de otros Reyes? Así que por el solo motivo de algunas palabras vagas, y quejas inocentes perecieron aquellos Príncipes, reliquias desgraciadas de las familias soberanas de México; suerte que con más justicia merecían sus verdugos.
No hay que decir, que estas crueldades eran hechos extranjeros a la Corte de Madrid, ni que las Cédulas Reales se dirigían a conciliar el amor y la estimación de los pueblos americanos. Consultemos todos los procedimientos personales de los Reyes de España, desde el descubrimiento de la América hasta nuestros días; consultemos el manifiesto ya citado; y veremos que Su Majestad Católica autorizaba a sus gobernantes y demás oficiales civiles y militares de las Indias occidentales, a llevar por fuerza a las mujeres e hijas de aquellos indios que no quisiesen reconocer su soberanía: a hacer esclavas estas mujeres y estos muchachos: y venderlos como tales y disponer de ellos a su voluntad: en fin, a apoderarse de sus bienes y hacerles todo el mal posible, matándolos como vasallos desobedientes y rebeldes. He aquí el lenguaje paternal de la Corte de Madrid.
¡Ah!, si los Reyes de España, y sus agentes hubiesen profesado la virtud, el cristianismo, la humanidad del ilustre Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, vosotros habríais amado su memoria y habríais ansiado por vivir bajo su dependencia. O, si a lo menos os hubiesen dado leyes fundados sobre la justicia, y conformes tanto a vuestro carácter como a vuestros intereses, habríais podido olvidar sus antiguas usurpaciones, en favor de su gobierno saludable. Así era que, en iguales circunstancias, los romanos
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procuraban que las naciones vencidas olvidasen sus usurpaciones, ofreciéndoles por precio de la libertad que les quitaban, la civilización y sus buenas leyes.
Cuando a vosotros, compatriotas, la Corte de Madrid, lejos de derramar en vuestros países los rayos de la civilización, no ha procurado sino extinguirlos u ocultarlos; siguiendo en ello las máximas ordinarias del despotismo, cuya tiranía no puede reinar sino sobre la ignorancia de los pueblos. Así vemos que en nuestros días, está prohibido hasta a los nobles del país, que movidos de una ambición laudable quisieran aprender en tierras extranjeras las ciencias y las artes, el salir de su patria, sin haber obtenido primero una licencia especial de la Corte que rara vez se concede. En el día vosotros estáis excluidos de las principales funciones públicas. En el día la rapacidad más insaciable, viene a devorar vuestro dinero para enriquecer, en perjuicio de los nativos, a unos extranjeros codiciosos. En el día las exacciones de toda especie, sacadas de vuestro propio seno, no tienen otro destino sino el de remachar más y más los hierros con que vuestras manos están atadas. En el día, en fin, vosotros todos no sois, propiamente hablando, sino unos siervos vestidos de títulos que, por ser brillantes, no son menos imaginarios e indecorosos.
En fin, cuando se considera la ignorancia profunda en que la España mantiene estas colonias, no puede menos uno que compararla a aquellos Escitas, de que habla Herodoto, que sacaban los ojos a sus esclavos para que nada pudiese distraerlos del ejercicio de batirles la leche, en que los ocupaban.
¿Quién de vosotros no ha gemido bajo el reino opresor de los Gálvez, de los Araches, de los Piñérez de los Avalos, de los Brancifortes? En fin, Su Majestad Católica, ¿no ha violado, sin pudor, su fe y sus más sagradas promesas, anulando en 1783, sin motivos legítimos y aun sin pretexto, la Capitulación concluía en Zipaquirá en 1781 entre la Audiencia y los habitantes del Reino de Santa Fe, la cual había sido ratificada por la Corte de Madrid en 1782?
¿No hemos visto también en la provincia de Venezuela en 1797 un perdón general, una amnistía violada por el gobierno español sin rebozo y de la más infame manera?
¿Qué fe podremos dar, pues, nosotros, nimiamente crédulos americanos, a las protestaciones de un gobierno tan pérfido?
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Y si se añade a esto que la simple navegación de los ríos, el tránsito de muchos caminos, la comunicación de un puerto a otro sobre nuestras mismas costas, y la sola proposición de abrirnos canal de navegación en el Istmo de Panamá han sido o son actualmente crímenes capitales en el Código español; ¿entonces se podrá formar alguna idea del abominable sistema con que la España ha gobernado estos países?
Ciudadanos, es preciso derribar esta monstruosa tiranía: es preciso que los verdaderos acreedores entren en sus derechos usurpados: es preciso que las riendas de la autoridad pública vuelvan a las manos de los habitantes y nativos del país, a quienes una fuerza extranjera se las ha arrebatado. Pues es manifiesto (dice Locke) que el gobierno de un semejante conquistador, es cuanto hay de más ilegítimo, de más contrario a las leyes de la naturaleza, y que debe inmediatamente derribarse. El suceso más completo será sin duda el precio de vuestros generosos esfuerzos; y si vuestros hermanos de la América Septentrional, en número de tres millones de hombres, han llegado por su valor, sus virtudes y su perseverancia a establecer su independencia, aun conciliándose la esti mación de sus propios enemigos; con mayor razón debéis vosotros contar sobre el buen éxito; pues que una población de más de dieciséis millones de habitantes la reclama con justicia, con valor y resolución.
Y a la verdad, entre tantos desastres como afligen la América Meridional, ¿no es un espectáculo satisfactorio para la humanidad, el ver tantas tribus valerosas de indios que, retrincherados en sus desfiladeros y selvas, gustan más de una vida errante y precaria en los desiertos o sobre las cimas de los Alpes americanos, que el someterse a los verdugos de sus familias?
En fin, juntaos todos bajo los estandartes de la libertad. La justicia combate por nosotros, y si la parte más sana de la Europa aprobó el denuedo con que los holandeses se sustrajeron a los furores del Duque de Alba, y a la política homicida de su año: si de la misma manera favoreció con sus deseos la emancipación del pueblo portugués: si también aplaudió desde sus principios a la independencia de la América Septentrional, ¿cómo puede rehusar su aprobación a las de los pueblos de la América Meridional, víctimas de atrocidades y de atentados desconocidos a las demás naciones?
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Movidos, pues, de estas consideraciones y de un sentimiento de honor y de indignación, vosotros nos encargasteis de solicitar auxilios para destruir esta opresión deshonrosa e insoportable. Estos auxilios están aquí. Las fuerzas marítimas y terrestres que me acompañan vienen a favorecer vuestros designios: no hallaréis en ellos sino unos amigos generosos que sólo serán temibles a vuestros enemigos; esto es, a los enemigos de la sana libertad, y de la Independencia americana. Ellos abjuran y nosotros respondemos de su lealtad y buena fe, todo espíritu de conquista, de dominio o monopolio de cualquiera especie, no teniendo otros deseos e intención que contribuir a vuestra felicidad, a vuestra emancipación y a vuestra independencia política.
Mas al levantar sobre las ruinas de un régimen opresor la independencia de vuestra patria acordaos, ciudadanos, de e que vais a llenar con la fama de vuestros hechos las regiones más remotas, a grabar vuestros nombres en el templo de la memoria. Y tanto cuanto la empresa es grande y gloriosa, tanto más debéis temer el mancharla con procedimientos irregulares. Detestando los crímenes de toda especie, evitad con sumo cuidado los movimientos de la anarquía. Acordaos que la venganza de los delitos no pertenece sino a los tribunales de justicia; que un homicidio siempre es un homicidio, cualquiera que sea su origen. Al momento de confundir a vuestros opresores no imitéis su tiranía. No es vuestra idea la de reemplazar un gobierno irregular, por otro semejante; de sustituir a un régimen opresor por otro régimen opresor: de destruir una tiranía antigua por otra tiranía nueva; en una palabra, de establecer sobre la ruina de un despotismo extranjero, el reino de otro despotismo no menos odioso, el de la licencia y anarquía. En fin, ilustrados por la historia de los pueblos que han brillado en la antigüedad, y en los tiempos modernos, no olvidaréis jamás que, de la misma manera que una buena causa engendra bellos efectos, así un principio impuro, conduce necesariamente a los más funestos resultados.
Deseando, pues, el preservar estos países de los funestos efectos de la anarquía; de mantener nuestra dichosa emancipación pura de toda acción contraria al derecho civil, a la justicia y al orden público en general, proclamamos los artículos siguientes:
ARTICULO 1°.
Los cabildos y Ayuntamientos de las Villas y Ciudades que componen las colonias del Continente Colombiano, enviarán sin dilación sus diputados al cuartel
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general del Ejército. Estos diputados indicarán, a su voluntad, el lugar que les parezca mejor para reunirse en él, y formar el Congreso, que debe ocuparse de la formación de su gobierno provisional, que nos conduzca a una libertad bien entendida, y a la independencia de estos países.
ARTICULO 2°.
La Religión Católica, Apostólica, Romana será imperturbablemente la religión nacional. La tolerancia se extenderá sobre todos los otros cultos; y por consiguiente, el establecimiento de la Inquisición, haciéndose inútil por el mismo hecho, quedará abolido. Las funciones de los eclesiásticos, siendo de una naturaleza tan sagrada y necesitando de un estudio y de una ocupación diaria son y serán incompatibles, con toda otra función civil o militar.
ARTICULO 3°.
El tributo personal cargado sobre los indios y gentes de color siendo odioso, injusto y opresivo será abolido de hecho. Los indios y las gentes libres de color gozarán desde este instante de todos los derechos y privilegios correspondientes a los demás ciudadanos.
ARTICULO 4°.
Todos los ciudadanos desde la edad de dieciocho años hasta la de cincuenta y ocho estarán obligados a tomar las armas en defensa de su patria, según lo exijan las circunstancias y los reglamentos que a este efecto se publicarán después.
Patriae infelici fidelis
MIRANDA
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B. DESTERRAR DE CHILE LA POBREZA
DISCURSO INAUGURAL
Que en la apertura de LA SOCIEDAD ECONOMICA DE AMIGOS DEL PAIS DIXO SU SECRETARIO
D. JOSE ANTONIO DE YRISARRY.
SEÑORES:
HOY presenta Chile al universo al mas claro documento de su espiritu patriotico, de sus virtudes y de su ilustracion. Esta sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais, erigida por decreto de un Gobierno Americano, dará á conocer á las Naciones mas remotas de la tierra el verdadero sistema que ha adoptado el nuevo mundo. Si la Europa, convertida en el teatro de la guerra, solo escucha el horrendo trueno del cañon, solo ve cadaveres y sangre, solo se ocupa en descargar la tierra del peso de los hombres nosotros por opuesto rumbo no tratamos de otra cosa, que de domiciliar la humanidad y la beneficencia en nuestro suelo. ¡Que gloria, que honor para el hombre Americano! Alla pretenden los hombres confundirse con las fieras, quando aqui ofrecemos un asilo á la humanidad perseguida y salimos con la oliva de la paz en la mano á recibir á la virtudes que huyeron despavoridas del Reyno de la muerte.
Vivan en buena hora aquellos hombres en el seno de todas las desgracias. Empeñarse en destruir su especie y hacer mayor la suma de sus males: declarense al fin enemigos de si misma, hagan aborrecible su nombre y su memoria, Nosotros que detestamos un exemplo tan barbaro y atroz, pretendemos conservar la magestad de la razon, y la dulzura de la humanidad, que son las dos prendas caracteristicas del hombre. nosotros cultivaremos las virtudes, y haremos nuestra vida feliz y deliciosa.
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He aqui el objeto de la Sociedad, cuya apertura celebramos. Una porcion de Ciudadanos han tomado sobre si el peso de los ciudadanos que primen á los pueblos: ellos abandonan sus propios negocios por atender á los publicos: invertiran en beneficio de la Patria el tiempo que antes dedicaban al descanso de sus fatigas, formaran mil proyectos para desterrar de Chile la pobreza y substituir la abundancia en su lugar: ellos fomentaran tan beneficos planes á costa de sus propias comodidades, y á costa tambien de privaciones. Mas el mayor merito de estos servicios, tan grandes como nuevos en la Patria, es el hacerlos sin exigir si quiera el reconocimiento. Los Socios saben que deben ser utiles á su especie, y conocen que el premio haria despreciables sus servicios. Por esto, todos sus deseos estan reducidos á esperar que correspondan los efectos á sus beneficas tareas.
Solo resta que la mano bienhechora, que supo dar impulso á esta obra tan piadosa, la aliente cada instante con su poderoso patrocinio, para que puedan vencerse los grandes obstaculos, que necesariamente han de oponer las preocupaciones y los intereses particulares de algunos pocos hombres. Con esto solo cree la Sociedad que en breve tiempo conoceran todos los Chilenos el valor de las providencias de su beneficio Gobierno.
Congratulemos pues amados compatriotas por las glorias que esperan á la Patria. El anciano oprimido con el pezo de los años y de las desgracias: la viuda miserable que mendiga el alimento de sus hijos: el huerfano que se halla aislado en medio de la naturaleza: la doncella perseguida por la necesidad y la malicia; todos, todos hallaran en esta Sociedad el remedio suspirado. La tierra abrira su seno avaro para satisfacer las necesidades de todos los habitantes de Chile sin distincion de clases ni fortunas. El arte proporcionara los miedos de adquirir todas las comunidades de la vida. La ilustracion disipará las sombras de la ignorancia, y los dias mas claros, mas deliciosos y serenos seguiran á las noches tenebrosas en que estubieron emvueltas nuestras vidas.
Demos al fin las más reverentes gracias por sus beneficios al Ser Eterno origen de todos los bienes que disfrutamos en la tierra, y procuremos con todos los exfuerzos de
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nuestra constancia llevar á su cumbre de perfeccion la obra mas gloriosa que pidieron emprehender los miseros mortales.
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C. TURKISH SUMMARY/ TÜRKÇE ÖZET
Aydınlanma, sosyal bilimler alanında en çok çalışılan konulardan biridir. Ancak genellikle sadece Avrupa ülkelerine ait olduğu kabul edilir, başka bir deyişle Aydınlanma’nın Asya ve Latin Amerika gibi diğer coğrafyalardan etkilenmediği kabul edilmiştir. Ancak Sebastian Conrad’ın belirttiği gibi “Aydınlanma’nin küresel etkisi yalnızca Parisli filozofların fikirlerinden güç almıyordu. Kahire, Kalküta, Şanghay gibi yerlerde yaşayan tarihsel figürlerin eseriydi.” (Conrad, 2012, s.1001). Bu sebeple Aydınlanma’nın bir süreç olduğunu ve dünyanın her yerinde sayısız entelektüelin ürünü olduğunu anlamak önemlidir. Bununla birlikte, Aydınlanma tüm toplumlar için aynı şekilde yaşanan bir süreç olarak algılanmamalıdır. Aydınlanma düşünürleri birbirlerinden çok farklı argümanları savunmuşlardır. Bu farklı argümanlar sayesinde Aydınlanma düşünceleri çeşitlenmiştir. Bu bağlamda bazı ortak hareket noktaları olmakla birlikte, kökleri Fransız Aydınlanması’ndan gelen “Kıta Aydınlanması” ile “İskoç Aydınlanması”nın farklı argümanları ve yönelimleri olduğu varsayılabilir. Fransız materyalistleri ve Ansiklopedistler olarak adlandırılan entelektüellerin önderlik ettiği Fransız Aydınlanması, aklın mutlakıyetinin dinin mutlakçılığı yerine geçmesini savundular. Ayrıca çoğunlukla dine ve geleneğe karşı fikirler üretmişlerdir. Öte yandan tarihe bakıldığında İskoçya’nın aydın düşüncelerin yayılmaya başladığı başlıca yerlerden biri olduğu kabul edilmektedir. İskoç Aydınlanması’nın özellikle odaklandığı üç alan vardır: Ahlak felsefesi, tarih ve ekonomi. İskoç düşünürler, Fransız düşünürlerin aksine akıl/ rasyonalitenin gücüne ve yetkinliğine tam olarak güvenmezler. Bireysel ve toplumsal analizlerinde duygu, deneyim, gelenek ve alışkanlık gibi zihin dışındaki faktörleri vurgulamışlardır.
18. ve 19. yüzyıllar, Avrupa ve Amerika arasında mal ve paranın sürekli gelişiminin bir aşaması olmuştur. Bu trafik, Atlantik’in her iki yakasında yeni fikirlerin dolaşımına yol açtı çünkü bu iki yaka arasındaki soyut ve somut sınırlar oldukça geçişkendi. Nitekim dünyanın her yerinde ve farklı toplumlar arasında meydana gelen bu etkileşimler hem Avrupa hem de Amerika için dönüm noktası olan Aydınlanma’yı
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yarattı. Eşitlik ve özgürlük gibi fikirler Amerikan Devrimi ve Fransız İhtilali’nin liderlerini nasıl etkilediyse Latin Amerikan Bağımsızlık Savaşları’nın da liderlerini etkilemişlerdir.
Son yıllarda, İspanya ve Portekiz’deki liberal anayasaların ve mahkemelerin rolünün analizine odaklanan çok sayıda çalışma, Amerika’da ortaya çıkan devrimler ile metropollerde meydana gelen radikal değişiklikler arasındaki ilişkiyi ele aldı. (Rinke & Schulze, 2010, s. 156) Anglo-Amerikan kolonilerinin bağımsızlığı ile başlayan bir dizi radikal değişiklik önce Fransız Devrimi, ardından Haiti Devrimi ve Napolyon’un Avrupa’da gücünü artırmasıyla devam etti. İber Yarımdası ile devamında Latin Amerika ve Brazilya’da meydana gelen bağımsızlık savaşları ile bu radikal değişiklikler sona yaklaştı. Bir yandan Amerika’nın bağımsızlığı hem Avrupa ile Amerika arasındaki ilişkilerin hem de monarşinin hayali doğasını sorguladı. Öte yandan Fransız Devrimi, özgürlük ve eşitlik ideallerini de beraberinde getirdi. (Rinke & Schulze, 2010, s. 156)
Demokratik Devrimler Çağı (2014) adlı kitabında R.R. Palmer Aydınlanma’dan gelen yeni fikirlerin yayılmasına yol açan Amerikan ve Fransız Devrimleri’ne odaklanarak Avrupa’da demokrasinin nasıl uygulandığını yazmıştır. O dönemde dünyadaki çoğu insan, yüzyıllar boyunca “imparatorların, kralların ve cumhuriyetlerin” otoritesi altında sessiz ve uysal şekilde yaşamışlardır. Aydınlanma düşünceleri, toplumun yaşadıkları ve yaşamış oldukları hayatı sorgulamasına neden olmuştur. Vatandaşların hak eşitliği gibi hakları içeren aydınlanma fikirleri, halkın sahip oldukları hakları ve özgürlükleri gözden geçirmelerini sağlamıştır. Jacques Godechot’un vurguladığı gibi, aydınlardan gelen “kamuoyu” düşüncesi dönmenin atmosferini etkilemeye başlamıştı. (Godechot, 1965, s. 2) Latin Amerika’nın aydınları ve bağımsızlık liderleri de bu kamuoyu rüzgarından uzak duramadılar. Racine’e göre “Bağımsızlık liderleri güçlü bir basın çalışmasına takıntılıydılar ve okyanusun her iki tarafındaki kamuoyunun değerini öğrenmeye başladılar.” (Racine, 2010, s. 424) Ayrıca ticaretin gelişmesiyle birlikte 18. yüzyıl dünyası daha da birbirine bağlı hale gelmişti. Farklı ülkelerde meydana gelen olaylar, artan karşılıklı bağlantılarla birlikte diğer ülkeleri de etkilemeye başlamıştı. 18. yüzyılın sonundan 19. yüzyılın ortalarına kadar dün dünyada çok önemli olaylar meydana geldi. Amerika kıtası da bu
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dönüşümün bir parçası olmuştur. Atlantik Dünyası terimi, “bir ticari değişim ve kültürel aktarım bölgesi”ni ifade eder; başka bir deyişle, “okyanusun bir tarafında yaşanan çalkantılar ve savaşlar, felsefi ve politik fikirlerin şekillenmesi sonucunda karşı tarafta yaşayan insanları etkilemiş ve etkisi altına almıştır.” (Forrest, Hagemann &Rowe, 2016, s.7) Robert Breña’nın sözleri ile “Atlantik perspektifinden, Latin Amerikan bağımsızlık savaşları, Atlantik dünyasını yaklaşık 1775 ile 1825 yılları arasında kapsayan uzun bir ideolojik ve politik sürecin bir adımı oldular.” (Breña, 2013, s.278)
Yedi Yıl Savaşı (1756-1763) ile Napolyon Savaşları arasındaki zaman dilimi, Büyük Britanya ile Fransa arasında Atlantik ve Hint okyanusunun hakimiyeti üzerinde, okyanusun karşı kıyısına da ulaşan etkileriyle birlikte gerilim dönemi olarak tanımlanabilir. Büyük değişikliklerin tetikleyicilerinden bir tanesi, tüm Avrupa ülkelerinin sömürge sistemlerinin siyasi, askeri ve ekonomik yeniden örgütlenmesinin başlangıç noktası olan Yedi Yıl Savaşı’nın sonuçlarıydı. Bu uluslararası çatışma esasen, İspanya’nın son aşamalara doğrudan dahil olduğu ve İngiltere’ye karşı Fransa ile ittifak kurduğu İngiltere ve Fransa arasındaki bir hegemonya mücadelesiydi. Yedi Yıl Savaşı’ndan sonra İngiltere ve İspanya, Yeni Dünya’yı kontrol etmek için öne çıkan iki rakip haline geldiler. Her ikisi de ilk kez kalıcı ordular kurarak bölgelerini askeri hale getirdiler, geniş toprakları üzerinde daha fazla kontrole sahip olmak için tasarlanmış yeni düzenlemeler ortaya çıkardılar. (Rodriquez O., 1995, ss 195-196) Sonuç olarak hem İspanyol hem de İngiliz topraklarında yaşayan halk yeni düzene karşı çıktı. Değişim rüzgarları bir ülkeden diğerine esmeye başlamıştı. İlk ayaklanma Kuzey Amerika’daki İngiliz kolonilerinde başladı. 1786’da İngiliz hükümeti Amerika’daki koloniler için yeni vergiler getirdi ve bu vergilerin sonucu 8 yıl sonunda Amerika’nın bağımsızlığını kazanması oldu. Breña’ya göre Amerikan Devrimi deneyimi ve Amerika Birleşik Devletlerini’nin bağımsız yaşamının ilk yılları birçok İspanyol Amerikalı devrimci için örnek olmuştu. Venezuela ve Yeni Granada gibi bazı bölgelerde Amerikan Devrimi’nin önemli yazılı belgeleri creol elitleri arasında dolaşmaktaydı. (Breña, 2013, s. 273)
Bir diğer önemli olay Fransız İhtilali’ydi. 1787’de soyluların ayaklanmasıyla başlayan ihtilal Fransa’nın tüm toplumsal yapısında kendini gösterdi. Devrimci fikirler
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İberya’dan İspanyol kolonilerine taşındı; bu fikirler Latin Amerika’daki bağımsızlık savaşlarının arka planını oluşturan sebeplerden biri oldu. Godechot’un da belirttiği gibi bu savaşları 18. ve 19. yüzyıl devrimci hareketlerinden ayrı düşünülmemelidir. Üçüncü olay, Amerikan ve Fransız Devrimi’nden neredeyse tamamen farklı bir arka plana sahip olan Haiti Devrimi’dir (1791-1804). Köle olan ya da melez ırka sahip olan insanlar, onları “doğal olarak aşağı ve insanlıktan yoksun” olarak gören Avrupa perspektifine karşı seslerini yükseltmeye başladılar (Reid-Vazquez, 2019, s. 509). Haiti Devrimi, kıtada İspanyol egemenliği altında yaşayan insanları etkiledi. 19. yüzyılın başında meydana gelen bir diğer önemli olay ise Latin Amerikan bağımsızlık savaşlarıdır. Yaklaşık 300 yıllık İspanyol egemenliğinden sonra halk bağımsızlıkları için savaşmaya başladılar. Aydınlanma fikirlerinin, Amerikan ve Fransız Devrimleri tarafından yeni düzenlerin kurulmasında kullanıldığı üzerine çok duruldu ancak bu fikirlerin Latin Amerika’daki bağımsızlık savaşlarının arkasındaki motivasyonunu anlamak için yapılan çalışmalar oldukça azdır. Bu tezin temel amacı bu açıklığı giderebilmektir. Devrimci hareketlerin Atlantik boyutu, farklı devrimci süreçlerin sonuçlarıyla değil Avrupa ile iki Amerika arasındaki bağlantılar, dolaşımlar, karşılıklı etkiler tarafından belirlenir. Bu sebeple Latin Amerikan bağımsızlık hareketlerini sadece İspanyol monarşisinin yaşadıklarına bakarak anlamak pek mümkün değildir. .
Tezin ikinci bölümünde İskoç Aydınlanması yazarlarının özgürlük, eşitlik ve egemenlik hakkındaki fikirlerine yer verilerek İskoç Aydınlanması ayrıntılı olarak ele alınacaktır. Bu bölüm, İskoç Aydınlanması’nın tarihsel arka planını kapsamaktadır. Üçüncü bölüm, “Devrimler Çağı” başlığı altında kısa bir girişle başlayacaktır. Üçüncü bölümün ilk alt bölümünde, İskoç Aydınlanması’nın Kuzey Amerika’nın bağımsızlık dönemine etkileri analiz edilecektir. İkinci alt bölüm, Aydınlanma’nın Latin Amerika’daki devrimci hareketler üzerindeki etkilerini analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Aydınlanma ve Latin Amerika arasındaki ilişki, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin kuruluşuyla olan ilişkisinden daha az çalışılmıştır. Bu nedenle bu bölüm, Eski ve Yeni Dünya arasındaki etkileşimin pek iyi bilinmeyen yönünü ifade etmeye çalışır.
Bu tezde kullanılan birincil kaynaklar, belirtilen dönem hakkında ayrıntılı bilgi vermenin yanı sıra meydana gelen olayların toplum bilincinde nasıl yer edindiğini göstermek açısından önemlidir. Bu eserler o dönemde başlıca başvuru kaynakları
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arasında yer aldıkları için yazıldıkları ve yayımlandıkları dönemde etkili olmuşlardır. Ayrıca gelecek nesilleri de etkilemeye devam etmişlerdir. Bu birincil kaynaklar Şili’den Venezuela’ya kadar uzanan bölgede ortaya çıkan konuşmalar, mektuplar ve gazete makaleleridir. Okuryazarlık oranı nedeniyle etkilerinin çok büyük olmadığı varsayılabilir. Ancak bu konuşmalar, ve yazılar kamuoyunun bağımsızlığa ilişkin kaanatinin oluşmasında önemli bir etken olmuşlardır.
Tezin sonunda, Aydınlanma’nın etkisini göstermek amacıyla orijinal dilleri İspanyolca olan iki ana kaynağı içeren ekler kısmı yer alacaktır. İlki “Proclamación a los pueblos del continente colombiano alias hispano-América” olarak adlandırılan metindir. Bu konuşma 1801 yılında Francisco de Miranda tarafından yazılmıştır. Adalar ve Amerika kıtasındaki halklara bağımsızlıklarını kazanmak için harekete geçme çağrısı yapan bir konuşmadır. Bu konuşma, İspanya’ya, İspanya kralına ve yönetimine karşı oldukça sert eleştiriler içermektedir. “Bağımsızlık” kavramı bu bu metnin merkezinde durmaktaydı. Franciscco de Miranda bu konuşmayı İspanyol kraliyetine karşı yükselmeye başlayan sesleri gerekçelendirmek amacıyla yazmıştır. İkinci metin ise La Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País’in kuruluşunun açılış konuşması olan “Desterrar de Chile la pobreza”dır. Bu konuşma ise, 19. yüzyılda Şili’deki ilk gazetelerden biri olan Aurora de Chile’de yayınlanmıştır.
İskoç Aydınlanması, Avrupa ülkelerini etkileyen entelektüel bir hareket olmuştur. Bunun yanı sıra İskoç Aydınlanması’nın rüzgarları Atlantik Okyanusu’nu geçerek Amerika kıtasını da etkilemiştir. Bu entelektüel düşüncelerden sadece Kuzey Amerika değil aynı zamanda Latin Amerika’da etkilenmiştir. 18. ve 19. yüzyılların Amerika kıtası devrimler ve bağımsızlık savaşları dönemi olarak kabul edilmiştir. Amerika’nın güney kısmının bu hareketlerden ayrı düşünülmesi pek mümkün değildir. 1808’den 1825’e kadar, İspanya’nın egemenliğinden ayrılmak için Latin Amerika’da ayaklanmalar ve bağımsızlık savaşları başlamıştır. Kinsbruner’e göre bu ayaklanmaların ve bağımsızlık isteğinin dört temel sebebi vardır. Bu nedenler, “Aydınlanma, Bourbon Reformları, creol-peninsular tartışması ve geç dönemde ortaya çıkan isyanlar”dır (Kinsbruner, 1994, s. 9). Bu tez, 18. Ve 19. Yüzyıllarda Latin ve Kuzey Amerika’daki devrimler ve bağımsızlık savaşları dönemini, Aydınlanma’nın (geniş anlamda) ve İskoç Aydınlanması’nın bu gelişmelerde nasıl bir rol oynadığını
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araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. O dönemde Atlantik’in her iki yakasındaki insanların zihninde yasal direniş teması vardı. John Locke ve Francis Hutcheson gibi İngiliz ve İskoç aydınlarının, tiranlığa dönüşen siyasi iktidarlara karşı harekete geçilmesi gerektiğine yönelik olan argümanları ve bu tiranlığın halk tarafından değiştirilebilir olduğu biliniyordu. Kuzey Amerika, özgürlük, doğal hukuk, ve haklar hoşgörü ve siyasi iktidarın tiranlığa dönüşmesini önleme mekanizmaları açısından Aydınlanma siyasetini temsil etmektedir. Bu etki, örneklerini Bağımsızlık Bildirgesi, Amerikan Anayasası, Federalist Belgeler ve Haklar Bildirgesi’nde bulur. Bu tez esas olarak, İngilizce ve İspanyolca birincil ve ikincil kaynaklardan faydalanarak, İskoç Aydınlanması’nın 18. ve 19. Yüzyıllarda Kuzey ve Güney Amerika’nn devrimci süreci üzerindeki etkilerine farklı bir bakış açısı sunmayı hedeflemektedir. Aydınlanmaların çeşitliliğine odaklanmak bu tez için esas olacaktır. Aydınlanma tek bir coğrafyaya veya ülkeye ait olmayan, kültürel ve entelektüel birikimden etkilenen bir süreçtir. Aydınlanma’nın temel özelliklerinden biri, sadece daha iyi bir dünya hayal etmek değil, aynı zamanda o dünyaya bir an önce ulaşmaya çalışmaktır. Aydınlanma’nın entelektüel çabasının amacı, birikmiş bilgiyi insanlığı özgürleştirmekti. Bazı durumlarda Aydınlanma, Fransız Aydınlanması, İspanyol Aydınlanması ya da İskoç Aydınlanması gibi coğrafyaya göre farklı kategorilere ayrılmıştır. Ancak tüm bu farklı aydınlanmalar benzer fikrileri paylaşmış ve birbirlerinin özelliklerini yansıtmışlardır. Latin Amerika’da bu gelenekten uzak değildi. Avrupa’da kendini güçlü şekilde gösteren Aydınlanma’nın etkisi altına girmeye başlamıştı 1800’lü yıllardan itibaren.
Bu tez, temel olarak özellikle Amerikan Bağımsızlık Savaşı (1776) ve Latin Amerikan Bağımsızlık Savaşları (1810-1825) sırasında Amerikalı devrimciler tarafından temsil edilen ortak bir siyasi ve kültürel çerçeve içinde İskoç ve İngiliz Aydınlanma filozoflarının düşüncelerine odaklanmıştır. Amerika kıtasındaki hareketlilik hem Anglo-Amerika’daki hem de Latin Amerika’daki creol elitlerin aydınlanma metinlerini okumasıyla yoğunlaşmıştır.
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D. TEZ İZİN FORMU / THESIS PERMISSION FORM
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ENSTİTÜ / INSTITUTE
Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü / Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences
Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü / Graduate School of Social Sciences
Uygulamalı Matematik Enstitüsü / Graduate School of Applied Mathematics

Bölümü / Department : Latin ve Kuzey Amerika Çalışmaları / Latin and North American Studies
TEZİN ADI / TITLE OF THE THESIS (İngilizce / English): CONVEYING THE SPIRIT OF THE SCOTS VIA THE ATLANTIC OCEAN: THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS IN THE AMERICAS
TEZİN TÜRÜ / DEGREE: Yüksek Lisans / Master Doktora / PhD
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