The Enlightenment proclaimed the equality of all human beings, on account that we all share a common nature that makes human rights universal. Armed Trading Weaponry on trade ships. Unlike other far more questionable Venezuelan caudillos of the latter 19th Century (such as Ezequiel Zamora), who freed their slaves only after having been financially compensated, Bolivar genuinely freed his own slaves without any compensation. From: Simn Bolvar, An Address of Bolivar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819), Reprint Ed., (Washington, D.C.: Press of B. S. Adams, 1919), passim. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2515360. Madrid: Planeta. hold on the North American continent five. But in truth, for most of the 20th Century, Bolivar was more frequently an icon of authoritarian right-wing military Latin American governments, who quite openly opposed democratic institutions. The Lycurgus legislature produced glory, virtue, morality and therefore national happiness (Bolivar 1819). The first is very wisely constituted. Do we not read in Montesquieus Spirit of the Laws that laws should be suited to the people making them, and that it is extremely unlikely that the laws of our nation will suit another? (Bolivar 1819). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, 1. 1 (2018): 7482. Disqus. Prof. Arkenberg has modernized the text. Indeed, he was, but even more so from an intellectual point of view. This would become a perennial feature amongst many Latin American caudillos ever since and something that would dominate most of the regions politics and society for the next century (Castro 2007). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500001534, Andrade, G. and Lugo-Ocando, J., 2018. The ministers, being responsible for any transgressions committed, will actually govern, since they must account for their actions. A political upheaval that took place between 1765 ad 1783 during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. Retrieved from: http://www.archivodellibertador.gob.ve/escritos/buscador/spip.php?article10971. Formerly, criollos had major participation in the administration of the Empire. That same year, Bolivar would head towards the Venezuelan plains, assemble an army of llaneros who now supported the Republican Cause- and European mercenaries. The ruling bureaucracy of Oriental despotism: A phenomenon that paralyzed Marx. The Review of Politics, 15(3): 350359. However, later on, in the Constitution that he wrote for Upper Peru (named Bolivia in his honor) in 1826 and that he attempted to impose on Colombia afterwards, he stipulated the figure of President for Life. But, as for Man, I declare that I have never met him in my life. Did not monarchy exist in France for fourteen centuries? Nevertheless, his main concern was not so much with absolutism itself, but rather, with the exclusion of criollos in the administration of the Spanish Empire. Independence would, nevertheless, prove to be no easy task. Liberty has been its cradle, it has grown up in liberty, and it is maintained by pure liberty. Strategies for Economic Development, Moments and Events in Latin American Economic Development, Document #35: Testimony before Congress on the Goals of NAFTA and Preliminary Evaluation, C. Fred Bergsten (1997), Document #36: NAFTA Equals Death, Say Peasant Farmers, Diego Cevalos (2002), Chapter 13. 2019 should definitely be a year of celebration, for the Angostura Address is a landmark political document. 1. Download date: August 25th, 2018. Discussion Questions; Further Readings; Honduras: A Country and a Coup 1, 2018, pp. What I propose is an office for which the candidates must prepare themselves, an office that demands great knowledge and the ability to acquire such knowledge. Proyecto de Constitucion para la Republica de Bolivia y discurso del Libertador al Congreso Constituyente de Bolivia. By 1819, Bolivar fully understood that he would not succeed without their support. ), EZLN Command (1993), Chapter 4. The morality of slavery was by no means a settled debate during the time of the Angostura Address. Bolivar makes a sophistic gap that leaves careful readers perplexed. 1Despite the prominent hero-worship of Bolivar, there have been scholarly works critical of his deeds. Again, Bolivar does not make it sufficiently clear. 1999. One of the main thesis of that classic work of political philosophy, is that American democracy is not only built on a particular form of government and its institutions, but also on the cultural foundations of Americans (Tocqueville 2004). Being just 21 years old in 1805 and after losing his wife just years earlier, he went to tour Europe. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ncr.2003.0004. A republican magistrate is an individual set apart from society, charged with checking the impulse of the people toward license and the propensity of judges and administrators toward abuse of the laws. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427. Slavery is the daughter of darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction. Bushnell, D. 2003. Like the North Americans, we have divided national representation into two chambers: that of Representatives and the Senate. The Angostura Address 200 Years Later: A Critical Reading. How does an aristocratic principle, such as hereditary privilege, motivate sharing the peoples interests, opinions and spirit? As it was the educational custom of his times, Bolivar was deeply embedded in the Classics, emulating the spirited rhetoric of Cicero and other great orators of Greece and Rome. Bolivar acknowledged that federal forms of government were theoretically virtuous, and that democratic systems of checks and balances were to be emulated. Addressing the Congress of Angostura, 1819 [Bolvar addresses the Congress of Angostura. As early as 1805 (when he made his famous oath of American independence in Romes Monte Sacro), he was already determined to fight for American independence. It enjoys all its proper functions, and it requires no essential revision, because the Constitution, in creating it, gave it the form and powers which the people deemed necessary in order that they might be legally and properly represented. Its culminating piece of legislation was the Venezuelan Constitution of 1819, officially adopted on August 15, but quickly made obsolete by the creation of the Republic of Colombia on December 17, 1819. For, of all Enlightenment thinkers, Rousseau is typically considered to be somewhat of an outsider, even a pioneer of the Counter-Enlightenment. Silencios y disputas en la historia de Hispanoamerica. The case could be made, however, that, in the context of revolutionary struggle, perhaps Bolivar was not aspiring to create an old-fashioned nobility, but rather, a neutral organ intermediate between executive and popular instances. Although Bolivar admired British imperialism more for its liberal ethos than for its military might (as opposed to the despotism of Spain), he was still a man of arms, and imbued his political ideas with militarism. Andrade, G. and Lugo-Ocando, J., 2018. I will add that that people is unique in the history of the human race, and repeat that it is a miracle that a system as weak and complicated as the federal should have existed under so difficult and delicate circumstances as those which have occurred (Bolivar 1819). Library of America. Some nostalgic defenders of the Spanish Empire in Latin American countries claim that the Indies were not colonies at all. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X03006849. Wittfogel, K. 1953. 1826. These leaders assumed the role of dictators while rhetorically expressing their reluctance to do so. 1965. State Fullerton. Colombia: Civility and Violence, Document #20: Press Release from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Secretariat of the Central General Command of the FARC-EP (2002), Document #21: Statement by Humberto de la Calle, Head of the Government Delegation to the Conversations Table, Humberto de la Calle (2013), Chapter 8. University of Chicago Press. Mindlessly appropriating the constitutions of other nations, he argued, would lead to Gran Colombias demise. Caballero, M. 2006. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. Again the Angostura Address of 1819 clearly shows a Bolivar who was already very concerned with the chaotic potential of an independent South America. Retrieved from: http://www.archivodellibertador.gob.ve/escritos/buscador/spip.php?article9987. By 1812, liberals in Spain understood that, if the Empire were to survive, some further reforms were required. In order to achieve this political goal, Bolivar proposes conventional republican institutions: Venezuelas government has always been republican, it is republican, and it should always remain so. Repeated elections are essential in popular systems, for nothing is so dangerous as to allow power to remain a long time vested in one citizen; the people become accustomed to obey, and he to command, and this gives rise to usurpation and tyranny (Bolivar 1819). (2018). Mexico: The Taming of a Revolution, Travels and Adventures, William Carpenter (1851), A Mexican Journey, E.H. Blichfeldt (1912), Document #3: President Diaz: Hero of the Americas, James Creelman (1908), Document #4: Plan de San Luis de Potos, Francisco Madero (1910), Document #5: Program of the Liberal Party, Ricardo Flores Magn (1911), Document #6: Plan de Ayala, Emiliano Zapata (1911), Document #7: Speech to the Nation, Lzaro Crdenas (1938), Document #8: First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle, Today We Say Enough is Enough! (Ya Basta! In a sense, Bolivars approach is anti-colonial (let us remember that many aspects of colonialism itself were modeled on the universalism of the Enlightenment), inasmuch as he advises colonized peoples not to necessarily copy Eurocentric models. Login has been disabled for this journal while it is transferred to a new platform. These subordinate officers are entrusted with the civil, military, and political administration, the collection of duties and the protection of religion. Sparta, of course, is the emblem of militarism in Western imagination. This was by far the most important motive in the struggle for independence amongst the criollo elite, and throughout his writings, Bolivar makes very clear how important this issue is for him. The Andes: Soldiers, Oligarchs, and Indians, Memories of Violence, Peace, and Justice in Peru, Across Patagonia, Lady Florence Dixie (1881), Document #18: Pulacyo Theses, The Union Federation of Bolivian Mineworkers (1946), Document #19: Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, Plurinational Legislative Assembly of Bolivia (2010), Chapter 7. Caracas: Monte Avila Editores. Venezuelans were by no means unanimous in their desire to be independent and consequently a bloody civil war began. He is the head of government, but his ministers and subordinates rely more upon law than upon his authority, as they are personally responsible; and not even decrees of royal authority can exempt them from this responsibility. Again, contemporary anti-colonialists may find much of value in Bolivars words. What republic has exceeded in duration those of Sparta and Venice? In 1817, Bolivar captured the city of Angostura (now Ciudad Bolivar) and the whole of Guayana, and established it as his center of military operations. He believes that The most perfect system of government is that which produces the greatest degree of happiness, of social security, and political stability (Bolivar 1819). From there, with the auspices of President Alexandre Petion (17701818) that included 6.000 soldiers, money and even a print- (Helg 2003), Bolivar returned to Venezuela with a military expedition. Bolivar spoke, expressing his ideas regarding freedom. He first settled in Jamaica, and then in Haiti. Leiva, L. 1985. While in Rome and inspired by his early contacts with liberal movements in the old continent (Bushnell 2003) he made an oath to free the American countries from Spanish imperialism (Castro-Klaren 2003). This time, he wandered throughout the Caribbean. His praise for division of powers was also only half-hearted. Shubert, A. In China they do not send for their mandarins, military, and literati to the country of Genghis Khan, who conquered them, even though the present race of Chinese are direct descendants of the tribes subjugated by the ancestors of the present Tartars. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226016191.001.0001. comments powered by This question becomes even more important as it was central to the separatist movement against the Great Colombia that finally overthrew him and led to his exile and ultimate death in solitude. Paredes Muante, J. Simon Bolivar and the spectre of pardocracia: Jose Padilla in post-independence Cartagena. Journal of Latin American Studies, 35(3): 447471. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.427, Andrade, Gabriel, and Jairo Lugo-Ocando. Download date: August 25th, 2018. This is an understandable and legitimate point. But, this second Venezuelan Republic would also prove to be short-lived. An address of Bolivar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819) Reprint ordered by the government of the United States of Venezuela, to commemorate the centennial of the opening of the Congress by Bolvar, Simn, 1783-1830 2010. But, even in the Angostura Address itself, Bolivar seemed to be very enthusiastic about strong governments with little distribution of power, as this passage makes clear: The Roman Constitution brought about the greatest power and fortune that any people on earth have enjoyed. But, it still reflects Bolivars anti-colonial convictions, inasmuch as unlike most figures of the Spanish Enlightenment, he was not embarrassed of having African roots. Timeline for Mexico: 1519-Present; Mexican Heads of State; Mexican Profiles and Personalities; Moments and Events in Mexico. After he assumed full dictatorial powers in 1828, Bolivar severely limited various basic liberties, appealing to reasons of public morality. By then, Bolivars movement was seen as one that intended to establish a Republic for the white criollos, which explains partly why Boves savagely occupied Valencia and executed so many of the white elite (Stoan 1974). In the speech, Bolvar lays the foundations for the establishment of democratically governed Gran Colombia that is free from the burden of slavery and racial inequality. He attempts to excuse himself thus: Only an imperative necessity, united to a strongly expressed desire on the part of the people, could have induced me to assume the dreadful and dangerous office of dictator, supreme chief of the republic (Bolivar 1819). Bolivar did not elaborate much on what this moral power would do exactly, but he seemed to have in mind a governing body akin to Roman censors, whose basic function was to regulate public morality (Leiva 1985). State Fullerton. Mine is done. It is certainly the case that, during Habsburg times (the dynasty before the arrival of the Bourbons), the Indies were not colonies in the modern sense. from the original Spanish by Francisco Javier Ynes) by Bolvar, Simn, 1783-1830; Ynes, Francisco Javier, 1861-1924; Venezuela . In order to gain Catholic support, he even outlawed the teaching of Benthams philosophy (which he himself had admired for so long), as the English philosophers views were considered too immoral by conservative clergy. From there he would go to occupy modern-day Ecuador and unite the current territories of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela into a single political entity; it was known as the Gran Colombia, with Bogota as its capital. If the Senate were hereditary rather than elective, it would, in my opinion, be the basis, the tie, the very soul of our republic. Under Jose de Galvezs (17201787) recommendation (after an administrative visit to the Indies), posts high in the military and civil hierarchy (including ecclesiastical appointments) ruling American affairs, would no longer be occupied by people born in Spanish America, but rather, by administrators born in Spain, i.e., the peninsulares. He ardently defended freedoms, yet he believed that South American nations were not fully prepared for liberal systems. The Congress of Angostura A Great Address and Campaigning in the Plains (1819) Congress did not meet until February 15, 1819, on account of the late arrival of some representatives. Throughout his lifetime, Bolivar was concerned with public morality, and perhaps his most quoted words by Colombian and Venezuelan schoolchildren, come from the Angostura Address: Morals and knowledge are what we most need now (Bolivar 1819). Stoan, SK. This emphasis on militarism cohered well with his autocratic inclination. The Lower Classes . 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