A Southern Caribbean Radical Republicanism in Trinidad and Venezuela

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the Southern Caribbean was a space of singular politicization, characterized by a vibrant republicanism between 1789 and 1817. Recent historiography has rightly greatly valorized the importance of the Haitian Revolution and its political impact in the Atlantic world. However, other major revolutionary movements occurred at the same time in other neighboring areas, notably the Southern Caribbean, and especially in eastern Venezuela and on the island of Trinidad. Furthermore, the military mobilization of Blacks and pardos (mixed-race people of African descent) in favor of a republican project was once again at work in the independence of Venezuela in the 1810s and 1820s and promoted by Caribbean leaders such as Jean-Baptiste Bideau. By studying these circulations, I show how soldiers and intellectuals, as well as slaves and women from different social backgrounds, promoted a radical republicanism based on the abolition of slavery and civil equality between male citizens. However, this paper also highlights the limits of these new politicizations, which came up against powerful political and economic interests. This work is based on the study of original sources (National Archives of the United Kingdom, Archivo de Indias, Archives Nationales de l’Outre-mer, etc.)

Civil society · Dictatorship · Historiography · Politics · Spanish Civil War · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Studies in Central America