The European Revolutions of 1848 and the Americas

To translate the influence of political ideas in different contexts is a dangerous endeavor that casts the credibility of the historian of ideas into permanent doubt. Some contend that political ideas are rooted in certain contexts, and when transferred to different environments they undergo alterations that make them difficult to recognize. This book on the European Revolutions of 1848 and their influence in the Americas tries to do something still more complex—not only to trace the influence of the ideas that inspired the near-simultaneous uprisings in Europe but also show how the events themselves were models for social unrest and revolution. Six case studies (Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States) deal with the content of social republicanism, its reading in these countries, and the relationship between political events in the New World and the “spring of the people” in Europe. The book also contains two general surveys of the European revolutions and their influence in America. A final article is devoted to the Chilean Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna and his impressions of the events in Europe during his trips between 1852 and 1853.Most of the articles confirm Roger Magraw’s observation that the participation of a “radical republican stratum of the bourgeoisie” was the driving ideological and organizational force behind popular protest in France, rather than the artisanal character of the urban labor force. This is also true in Latin America—where, as Clara Lida suggests, the French political and social ideas of romanticism, utopian and democratic socialism, and republicanism penetrated through the bourgeois so-called liberals who organized the new states and gave content to the new nations. Although all these ideas had some effect on Latin American intellectuals, the vocabulary of republican democracy, understood as a widening of social and political participation, was the most influential. Most Latin American elites had adopted republicanism as the only alternative to monarchy without a clear definition of its political implications, especially regarding the boundaries of civil and political society. Until 1848, republicanism had no real liberal content, contrary to traditional historiography: the idea of the community and the common good, rather than individual rights, were the driving ideas behind all political discourse. The social republicanism of 1848 encouraged Latin American intellectuals and activists to widen the scope of participation in civil society. Artisans became the representatives of the “people,” since they were the new actors pressuring for incorporation into civil society.The authors suggest that the ideas behind 1848 seem to have been most influential in Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and Colombia. They were disseminated through the press, clubs, associations, and other social venues, such as freemasonry and the banquet as a place for political mobilization. Nevertheless, one must not forget that many of the ideas that occasioned the social uprisings in Europe had already been disseminated through different means, even in America. David Rock rightly points out how the Generación de 1837 in Argentina was already discussing romanticism and Saint-Simonian socialism. Francisco Bilbao published “Sociabilidad Chilena” in 1844, scandalizing Chilean society, attacking clericalism, proposing new forms of distribution of property, and despising the Spanish heritage as an impediment to modernity.The events of 1848, especially those of February, did have a major impact in Latin America, as described throughout the book. The news, by May, of France’s apparently peacefully transition toward the republic produced relief and hope among Latin American liberals under pressure for social democratization. Peruvian “true patriots” gave “glory to republican France,” as stated by Natalia Sobrevilla Perea (p. 199). We know that reactions in June were not as optimistic. Fear of the populus reappeared in the political discourse, and the possibility of revolution “à la française,” awoke conservative feelings about the natural order of society and a rejection of radical change. Clara Lida cites the Mexican Eco del Comercio as “ringing the alarm bells vis-à-vis ‘the principles of a most impassioned republicanism’ which took into account ‘the uneducated working clases’” (p. 68). Tim Roberts reports that in the United States, the New York Herald saluted the “suppresion of the mob,” while acknowledging that “U.S. exercises saluting Europe fell off significantly after early 1849” (p. 81). Therefore, the political influence of the events of 1848 was twofold. The events of February encouraged a republican discourse, while those of June terrified the intellectuals engaged in that discourse, demonstrating the contradictory effect of European events and ideas on the minds of Latin American intellectuals.What was the relationship between local democratizing pressures of the period and the influence of the events and ideas generated in Europe? Undoubtedly abolitionism was widespread and became more accepted in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru; artisans were recognized as members of civil society in Colombia and Chile, nurturing elite fear of their political potential; freedom of the press and freedom of association (which gave birth to modern political parties) became principles that admitted no ideological discussion. These are obvious consequences of the legitimization of a new republican pathos and a new social ethos. Nonetheless, internal dynamics were important in the sequence of events in different countries. Posada Carbó rightly argues that long unresolved problems surfaced in 1848 in Colombia, while Nara suggests that the Praia movement and opposition toward the Portuguese bureaucracy were related mainly to “matters of daily life and survival” in Brazil (p. 122). Natalia Sobrevilla Perea stresses the fact that 1848 fueled an ongoing debate among Peruvian intellectuals and provided support for the 1854 revolution that abolished both slavery and Indian tribute, as well as granted legitimacy to artisans as social and political actors.Neither slavery nor Indian tribute were part of the agenda of the “Quarantehuitards,” nor were most of the political and social events they influenced in Latin America. This shift in the political and social motivations for change, dependent on the particular realities of state formation and nation consolidation taking place in different Latin American countries, is a demonstration of the effects of what was mainly a cultural revolution in 1848. It introduced a new vision of the social and the political, forced a redefinition of republicanism and democracy, and blurred the traditional separation between civil and political society. Within this new context, local demands and internal dynamics in every country acquired a new ideological guideline that replaced traditional legitimizing forces with new rational parameters in which representation, citizenship, popular sovereignty, and political and social rights became accepted and undisputed requirements for a republican government. This book is an excellent compilation of articles illuminating this process in Latin America

Democracy · Economic history · Ideology · Latin Americans · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Historical Studies in Latin America · History · Law · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America · Politics and Society in Latin America