A fragmented sovereignty. Indigenous peoples, war and political change in the process of independence in the Central and Southern Andes (1783-1825)
Kosovych, Silvia Escanilla Huerta
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115886
Description
Title
A fragmented sovereignty. Indigenous peoples, war and political change in the process of independence in the Central and Southern Andes (1783-1825)
Author(s)
Kosovych, Silvia Escanilla Huerta
Issue Date
2022-07-05
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Jacobsen, Nils
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Jacobsen, Nils
Committee Member(s)
Crowston, Clare
Brosseder, Claudia
Dávila, Walter
Department of Study
History
Discipline
History
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Indigenous Peoples
Age of Revolutions
War of Independence
Latin American History
Political History
Legal History
Language
eng
Abstract
In “A Fragmented Sovereignty,” I argue that in the geographic space of what is currently Peru and Bolivia, indigenous communities played a significant role in fighting the war of independence that ended Spanish domination in the region. The research radically challenges not only narratives of independence from a national framework of analysis, but also the way the emergence of the nation-state in Latin America has been understood until now. Much of the research on this topic suggests that white creole elites led both processes while other social groups played a secondary role. While a few recent studies do recognize the important role of indigenous people for achieving independence, I demonstrate that indigenous political activism in the form of militias not only helped to consummate the defeat of the royalist forces in the South Andean macro-region, but also was a major factor in defining what sovereignty came to mean after independence.
In the post-independence period, indigenous militias had a decisive role in the negotiation over the exercise of power between regional elites until at least 1850. In this negotiation, guerrilla warfare was an integral aspect of an indigenous political vision that understood sovereignty as decentralized in nature. The political instability of the post-independence era should be read under this light. For this reason, it is impossible to understand the construction of the republics of Peru and Bolivia without addressing the fundamental role that indigenous peoples played in their formation. Moreover, my claims broaden our historiographical understanding of the state formation process in Latin America by challenging views of indigenous peoples that present them as backward and anti-modern political actors.
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