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Deconstructing Legitimacy
Viceroys, Merchants, and the Military in Late Colonial Peru
416 pages | 4 illustrations/3 maps | 6 x 9 | 2007
Cloth edition is not available
ISBN 978-0-271-03210-8 | paper: $35.00 sh
Winner of a 2008 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
“In broad terms the arguments and conclusions presented in this stimulating book build upon and extend, rather than contradict, those of previous commentators on Peru’s transition to independence, but they do so with an unprecedented level of detail and incisive analysis, making a major contribution to the historiography of late colonial Peru. This book deserves to be read by all students of the Bourbon reforms and Spanish American independence.” —John Fisher, American Historical Review
“In a thoughtful and perceptive study, independent historian Marks . . . reveals that, rather than acting independently, the military officers who executed the coup also represented a significant group of wholesale merchants in Lima. Based primarily on extensive research in archival materials in Spain and Peru, this clearly written and argued work is the most important English-language study of Peruvian independence to appear in nearly 30 years.” —M. A. Burkholder, Choice
“This book, based on decades of meticulous research, is a major contribution to the burgeoning literature on the late colonial period, a period whose intellectual vitality is now being recognized after many decades of neglect.” —G. B. Paquette, The Americas
“In a thoughtful and perceptive study, independent historian Marks examines relationships among viceroys, merchants, and high-ranking military officers in Peru during the closing years of Spanish rule and their consequences for both the coup d’etat that toppled Viceroy Joaqu������ín de la Pezuela in January 1821 and independence, which the coup’s protagonists wanted to prevent. She reveals that, rather than acting independently, the military officers who executed the coup also represented a significant group of wholesale merchants in Lima. . . . Based primarily on extensive research in archival materials in Spain and Peru, this clearly written and argued work is the most important English-language study of Peruvian independence to appear in nearly 30 years. All academic libraries should purchase it.” — M. A. Burkholder, Choice Full Review
“Examining the bitter trade disputes that divided Peru and shaped its conflicts with Spain, Patricia Marks casts new light on Spanish America’s bumpy transition from colony to republic. In delightfully clear prose, she contributes to our understanding of the Wars of Independence and the trans-Atlantic struggles about 'free trade’ and representation. This is a landmark book that offers many surprising and welcome discoveries.” —Charles F. Walker, University of California, Davis
“This is an impeccably researched and articulately written inquiry into the collapse of royal authority in Lima at the time of independence. Not only does the book yield a bounty of fresh insights and interpretations into these tumultuous events, but it also identifies actions by the rebels that set an important precedent in Peruvian politics and reverberated in the political culture for years to come.” —Peter Klaren, George Washington University
The overthrow of Viceroy Joaquín de la Pezuela on 29 January 1821 has not received much attention from historians, who have tended to view it as a simple military uprising. Yet in this careful study of the episode, based on deep archival research, Patricia Marks reveals it to be a pivotal event in the emerging commercial conflict between free-traders and protectionists that retarded the establishment of a stable national state in post-independence Peru. The overthrow of the viceroy thereby may be seen as an early manifestation of Latin American praetorianism, in which a particular sector of the civilian population, unable to prevail politically and unwilling to compromise, pressures army officers to act in order to save the state.
Patricia H. Marks is an independent scholar who received her doctorate in history from Princeton in 2003.
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Mercantile Conflict and Political Culture
1 City of Kings, City of Commerce
2 Bourbon Reformers and the Merchants of Lima
3 Sabotaging Reform
4 Preventing Independence
5 The Free-Trade Dispute
6 Merchants, the Military, and the Disintegration of Pezuela’s Authority
7 The Pronunciamiento and Its Aftermath
Conclusion: Legitimacy and the Salvation of the State
Glossary of Spanish Terms
Bibliography
Index