THE LAST DAYS OF EMPIRE
We have now arrived at the most critical of all the periods which
Spanish South America has undergone in the course of its history, the
decade or so which preceded the actual outbreak of the revolutionary
wars. In order to arrive at a just appreciation of the situation it is
necessary to realize that, although the policy of Spain had consistently
demonstrated itself as discouraging towards learning and progress in
every direction, to such an extent had the population of the colonies
grown that this task of repression of the intelligence of a Continent
had now become Herculean and altogether beyond the powers of the
moderately energetic Spanish officials.
Despite every precaution, the colonists had succeeded in educating
themselves up to a certain point; moreover, a number of them, flinging
restrictions to the wind, had now begun to travel abroad, and had
visited European centres. These sons of the New World had adapted
themselves admirably to the conditions of Europe. They had been received
by notable personages in England and France, who had been struck with
the intelligence and ideals of the South Americans. These latter, for
their part, had benefited from an exchange of views and from
conversations concerning many subjects which were necessarily new to
them. With an intercourse of this kind once in full swing it was
inevitable that the regulations of Spain should automatically become
obsolete and, in the eyes of the Americans, ridiculous.
In South America itself, nevertheless, the social gap between the
Spaniard and the colonial continued entirely unbridged, and the contempt
of the European officials for the South American born was as openly
expressed in as gratuitous a fashion as ever. Indeed, as the
opportunities for education broadened for the colonists, it would seem
that their Spanish alleged brethren affected to despise them still more
deeply--no doubt as a hint that no mere learning could alter the solid
fact that their birth had occurred without the frontiers of European
Spain.
The ban upon mixed marriages continued, and neither Viceroys, Governors,
nor high officials might lead to the altar any woman born in America,
however beautiful she might be, and however aristocratic her descent. A
few minor privileges had been accorded to these oversea dwellers, it is
true. A system of titles had been instituted throughout the colonies,
for instance. By means of this it was hoped to pander to the vanity of
the Americans, and to bring into being a new tie of interest which
should cement the link between the Old and the New World which was
proving so profitable to Spain.
As a matter of fact, none took the trouble to grant these titles in
return for merit or service; it was necessary to buy them and to pay for
them. Their grandeur was strictly local. Thus a Marquis or a Count in
Lima or elsewhere in the Southern Continent would have been crassly
unwise to leave the shores of South America, for once in Spain his title
fell from him like a withered leaf; he became plain "Senor" and nothing
beyond, for in Spain these colonial distinctions were a matter for jeers
and mockery. What remained, therefore, for the poor local noble but to
hasten back to the spot where his nobility held good! It was better to
bask as a Marquis in the sunshine of the south than to be
cold-shouldered as a plebeian in stately Castile.
Commercial and more material distinctions which favoured Spain as
against her colonies remained equally marked. Bartolome Mitre has
appropriately explained the situation which preceded the Revolution:
"The system of commercial monopoly which Spain adopted with respect
to America immediately on the discovery of the Continent was as
disastrous to the motherland as to the colonies. Employing a
fallacious theory in order that the riches of the New World should
pass to Spain, and that the latter country should serve as sole
provider to her colonies, all the legislation was in the first
instance directed to this end. Thus in America all industries which
might provide competition with those of the Peninsula were
forbidden. In order that this monopoly might be centralized, the
port of Seville (and afterwards that of Cadiz) was made the sole
port of departure and of entry for the vessels carrying the
merchandise between the two continents. In order to render the
working of this system doubly efficacious, no commercial
communication was permitted between the colonies themselves, and
the movements of all merchandise were made to converge at a single
point. This scheme was assisted by the organization of the galleon
fleets, which, guarded by warships, united themselves into a single
convoy once or twice a year. Portobello (with Panama on the other
side of the narrow isthmus) was the sole commercial harbour of
South America. Merchandise introduced here was sent across the
isthmus and down the Pacific coast, and eventually penetrated
inland as far as Potosi. To this place the colonists of the south
and of the Atlantic coast were obliged to come in order to effect
their negotiations, and to supply themselves with necessities at a
cost of from 500 to 600 per cent. above the original price. These
absurd regulations, violating natural laws and the rules of good
government, as well as the colonial monopoly, could only have
emanated from the madness of an absolute power supported by the
inertia of an enslaved people.... When Spain, enlightened by
experience, wished to alter her disastrous system of exploitation,
and actually did so with sufficient intelligence and generosity, it
was already too late. She had lost her place as a motherland, and
with it America as a colony. No bond, whether of force, affection,
or of any other interest, linked the disinherited sons to the
parent country. The separation was already a fact, and the
independence of the South American colonies merely a question of
time and opportunity."
What would have happened had the position of Spain herself in Europe
remained unimpaired is idle to conjecture, but it is practically
certain, with the new light which was now beginning to flood the new
Continent, that the struggle for independence would have been postponed
for a few years only.
The first herald of the great struggle for liberty which was to ensue
was Francisco Miranda. The character of Miranda resembled not a little
that of Bolivar. Both men were of exalted and enthusiastic temperaments;
both were skilled in the arts of oratory and the management of men, and
both possessed a visionary side. For each the situation in the New World
formed an ample and, indeed, justifiable field.
Long before the first outbreak of hostilities in America Miranda had
played the part of stormy petrel in other continents. Born in Venezuela,
he had the advantage of a wider knowledge of the world than many of his
compatriots; he had already taken an active part in the struggle between
North America and Great Britain, and he had joined with Lafayette in the
territories of the then British Colonies in order to assist the
revolutionaries in their campaign.
No ill-will appears to have been borne him by the English for the part
he played in this war; for some while afterwards we find him residing in
England, and corresponding with many prominent men of the period. He is
said to have gained the friendship of Fox, and it may have been due to
his efforts, whether direct or indirect, that Canning gave such
whole-hearted support to the South American cause. As has already been
said, it was largely due to Miranda's persuasions and
assertions--somewhat premature and optimistic though these eventually
proved themselves--that the various British expeditions sailed for the
River Plate. The result was disastrous in every respect save that it
lent to the colonials a new confidence in their own powers. In any case
Miranda's good faith and honour were unquestionable, although at a later
period he appears to have fallen somewhat under the suspicion of his
fellow-patriots.
It was not long before the efforts of Miranda began to be seconded by
those of other distinguished and high-spirited South Americans. Simon
Bolivar, the liberator himself, accompanied by a tutor, was sent by his
parents to gain an intimate knowledge of Europe and of the polite arts
of the Old Continent. Here he had plunged himself into Latin classics
and the French philosophy, and his remarkable personality is said to
have created no small impression upon those with whom he came into
contact. Venezuela has every right to be proud of the fact that,
although the seeds of liberty had already been sown throughout the
Continent, and especially in the River Plate Provinces, they first
sprouted into material activity in Venezuela, for Bolivar, having been
born at Caracas, could claim Miranda as a fellow-countryman, or rather
as a neighbour, since theoretically, in the colonial days, all South
Americans were fellow-countrymen.
It is certain that during this early European tour of Bolivar's he had
already become strongly imbued with the idea of freeing his country and
Continent from the rule of Spain. At one period of his travels he was
at Rome, and he is said to have chosen the holy city as the spot in
which to swear a solemn oath to take his share in the liberation of his
native land--an oath which, as history proves, he fulfilled in generous
measure, since the first desperate fights in the north of the Continent
were conducted on the patriot side under his auspices and those of
Miranda.
In the face of all the trials and injustices which they had undergone,
it is important to remember that the temperament of the South Americans
was one which urged them strongly to remain loyal to the Mother Country.
Although it had now become evident that a rupture was inevitable, the
colonists viewed the snapping of the ties which bound them to Spain with
reluctance and unease. As fate would have it, it was the situation in
Europe which arose to solve the difficulty, and to remove the last doubt
from the breasts of the South American patriots. The news of catastrophe
after catastrophe filtered slowly through from the peninsula to the
colonies. The Napoleonic armies had overrun the country; the Corsican's
talons were now fixed deeply in its soil, and the rightful Sovereign had
abdicated while the throne was being seized upon by Joseph Buonaparte.
Then came the news of a Spanish _junta_, formed as a last resource to
organize a defence of the harassed country; after this followed tidings
of dissensions among the numbers of these defenders themselves, of the
formation of other _juntas_, and, in fact, of the prevalence of complete
desolation and catastrophe and of the wildest confusion.
In the midst of the reports and rumours, contradictions and
confirmations which followed one another at as great a pace as the
methods of communication of the period would allow, there came at last
definite proofs of the chaos which reigned in Spain. An envoy arrived
in Buenos Aires, sent by Napoleon in his capacity of Lord of Spain, in
order to announce the fact to the colonies, and to open up negotiations
for future transactions. Almost simultaneously arrived another envoy--a
special messenger this, sent from the Junta of Seville, who claimed that
Spain still belonged to the Spaniards, and that the Junta of Seville
represented Spain.
[Illustration: BRITISH WARSHIPS UNDER ANSON'S COMMAND PLUNDERING PAYTA
(NORTHERN PERU) IN 1741.]
In one direction the colonial authorities were enabled to act without
hesitation. Napoleon's envoy was sent packing back in haste to where he
had come from! The messenger from the _junta_, on the other hand, was
received with every consideration; but his presence failed to dispel the
doubts from the minds of the South Americans. For the downfall of Spain
was now patent to all, as well as her impotence, not only to maintain
communication with her colonies, but to move hand or foot to free
herself from the grasp of the French.
The situation as it now presented itself would have been sufficiently
bewildering even in the case of colonies who had enjoyed fair treatment
on the part of the _Madre Patria_. Amid the chaos which prevailed in
Europe it was practically impossible to discover in whose hands the
actual authority lay in Spain. The Spanish King, his rival Prince,
Joseph Buonaparte, the Junta of Seville--all these reiterated their
claims to the supreme authority. The storm of contradictions and
disclaimers ended by proving clearly to the colonists what was actually
the case. In Spain no single supreme authority existed. This in
consequence lay with themselves.
From the moment that this became clear the passive submission to the
local royal garrisons and to the powers of Spain set above them began to
give way to active protests. In ordinary circumstances these would
probably have continued for some while, and efforts would have been made
to avoid the actual resort to arms. So fiercely, however, were the
first claims to their rights on the parts of the colonists resented and
opposed by the Spanish officials that the South Americans, disgusted and
embittered, threw caution to the wind, drew the sword in turn, and met
force by force, while the flare of battle burst out from the north to
the south of the great Continent.
[Illustration: PEASANTS OF ST. MICHAEL PROCEEDING TO DEL GADO.]