Spanish American Independence Movements: A History in Documents by Wim Klooster

Reviewed by: Spanish American Independence Movements: A History in Documents by Wim Klooster Jane Rausch, Emerita Klooster, Wim, ed. Spanish American Independence Movements: A History in Documents. Petersborough, Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press, 2021. The independence movements of Spanish America in the early nineteenth century signal the virtual end of Spanish colonialism in the Americas (except for Cuba and Puerto Rico). These independence movements gave rise to the creation of the contemporary Latin American nations that stretch from Mexico in [End Page 229] the north to Chile and Argentina in the south. Wim Klooster's Spanish American Independence Movements: A History in Documents is the ninth instalment of Broadview Press' impressive Sources Series, which was launched with the 2016 publication of The Trial of Charles I. Klooster by K. J. Kesselring, who holds the Robert H. and Virginia N. Scotland Chair in History and International Relations at Clark University and is also the author of Revolutions in the Atlantic World: A Comparative History and coeditor of The Atlantic World: Essays on Slavery, Migration, and Imagination. Klooster's detailed and thought-provoking introduction provides the information needed to place the primary source documents in historical perspective. Topic discussed in the introduction include Ethnicity, Culture, and Power in the Spanish Territories; Early Revolts and Rebellions; The French Revolution and Spanish America; Napoleon's Invasion of Spain and the Imperial Crisis; The Road to a Constitution; The Constitution of Cádiz; Revolts in New Spain; Creole Ascension in the Río de la Plata; South America's Southern Theater; New Granada: South America's Northern Theater; The Perils of Self-Governance; Fernando's Return; Bolívar's Success; Peru and San Martín's Achievement; South America's Final Battles; and Mexican Independence. The book offers a carefully selected collection of fifty-four documents that cover the major developments from 1780 to 1826. The documents, many of which are appearing in English for the first time, are arranged chronologically in five sections: Prelude (documents 1–3), Imperial Crisis (documents 4–10), Independence Movements Take Off: Fernando's Restoration (documents 11–28), Continued Warfare and Independence (documents 29–41), and Imperial Defeat and Construction of New Regimes (documents 42–54). In addition to the chronological presentation of the documents, Klooster provides an alternative arrangement of the documents by region in a section called "Alternate Table of Contents: Documents Separated by Region." The "Questions to Consider" section offers a pathway to aid students in their assessment of the documents. Spanish American Independence Movements: A History in Documents, which also contains several maps, pictures, a glossary, and an index, can function both as a textbook and as a reference work. Used as a text in an undergraduate course, the instructor might assign the "Introduction" (which includes definitions of potentially unfamiliar Spanish words or phrases) to provide a succinct overview of the whole independence movement and then select one or two of the documents for a more intensive analysis. For example, "Bolivar's letter from Jamaica, [End Page 230] 6 September 1815" (document #30) has often been used to explain Bolivar's interpretation of the form of government that newly independent Spanish American nations might take. Other documents, such as the letters of Pablo Morillo to Spain's Ministry of War in July and September 1818 (documents #39 and #40), offer new insight as to why Morillo decided not to raise a battalion of enslaved Blacks to defend the empire against the insurgents. Used as a reference work, graduate students and scholars will find documents, previously inaccessible or difficult to locate, that are bound to enlarge their understanding of these extremely complicated events. To site just one example: in my capacity as a researcher of Gran Colombia, document #49, an extract from "Francisco María Roca's Friends of the Country or Essays about the Happiness of this Province, 1822," a work previously unknown to me, helps to explain why it was logical that many people in Guayaquil wanted to remain part of Peru rather than to become a department of Colombia (167–70). Klooster has assembled an invaluable collection of documents that will endure as an indispensable resource for students, instructors, and researchers of Latin America by...

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