THE INDEPENDENCE OF SPANISH AMERICA
Having followed the course of the Brazilian fortunes from the elevation
of the province to a kingdom, from its promotion to an Empire, and from
its Imperial status to its modern Republican condition, it is necessary
to revert again to the Spanish-speaking territories of the Continent.
It must be admitted that the epoch that immediately followed the war of
liberation was one of strife and bitter disillusion. A certain number of
the leaders had foreseen the chaotic phase which had necessarily to be
undergone before the benefits of independence and enlightenment could be
enjoyed. These, however, were restricted to the very small intellectual
minority. The great bulk of the population of the late provinces, now
nations, had anticipated nothing of the kind. In their eyes the period
of transition had been pictured as fleeting and as of no account. It
had, indeed, been popularly considered as but a step from a condition of
oppression and dependence to that of complete freedom and
self-government.
It was not long before the fallacy of all such theories was shattered.
Indeed, the very earliest periods of independence were ominously
prophetic of what Spanish South America was destined to suffer before it
emerged from the chaos of blood and strife, and before its various
nations were enabled to stand firmly on their own feet.
In some respects, but only in some, South America, freed from the
Spaniard, resembled the ancient Britain deprived of its Roman rulers and
garrison. It is true that the Spanish army had been forced, struggling,
from the Continent by means of battle and blood, and that the Roman
legions had left the coasts of Britain amid the lamentations of the
natives. One thing, however, is quite certain, that neither race was
prepared to govern itself. Washington was duplicated in the south by
Bolivar and San Martin, but the influence of Bolivar and San Martin died
very shortly after the dramatic events in which they took part.
It would be more correct, perhaps, to say that this influence was
overlooked for the time being and forgotten, since, those periods of
all-absorbing anarchy notwithstanding, the influence of Bolivar and San
Martin has manifested itself strongly from time to time during every
generation which has succeeded.
That the age of petty and local tyrants should have followed so closely
on the skirts of the great national and Continental revolution was
inevitable in the circumstances. Spanish South America was Royalist by
custom and tradition. Whatever the nations might in the first instance
term themselves, their inhabitants were bound by these very traditions
and instincts to find some leader whom they could put in the place of
the once revered, but never seen, monarch.
Thus the rather curious circumstance arose that South America flung off
the Spanish dominion (which during its last decade had grown by
comparison with the past considerate and beneficent), in order to
replace it by the far more tyrannical Governors of their own creation.
It was doubtless the fact that these despots who ruled so unmercifully
over the South Americans were men of their own race and country that
tended to reconcile the private citizens to the very real perils and
oppressions which they now had to endure. The social upheaval had been
such that, although many of these _caudillos_ or despotic chieftains
were descended from aristocratic Spanish colonial families, others were
mere children of opportunity, whose ancestry and origin could bear no
comparison with their feats, dark though these latter may have been.
In the eyes of many European contemporaries, and even in those of a
multitude of their own people, the condition of the erstwhile Spanish
South American colonists showed no glimmer of hope for a considerable
time after the much-desired liberation had actually been obtained. Yet
all this time the leaven was working very slowly, but very surely. The
fact, indeed, was that, although the acts and circumstances, politically
speaking, of the River Plate provinces grew wilder and more desperate,
the human substance of the nation was steadily improving and becoming
enlightened--a somewhat curious paradox! Even during the tyranny of the
most remorseless of the _caudillos_ the enlightenment was working its
way among the mass of the people.
The influx of foreigners alone worked an enormous influence in this
direction. A country which until the revolution had been governed in a
more autocratic fashion than probably any other in the modern history of
the world had suddenly opened its doors, and its people stood blinking
in the powerful light shining from the European civilization--an outer
world, of which the majority of the colonists had had no previous
conception.
That many of these should have lost their heads was quite inevitable. A
number of intellectuals took France's Jean-Jacques Rousseau and her
other contemporary prophets as models, or rather as gods, before whom
they fell down and worshipped. The trend of the nation became strongly
and even curiously materialistic. In this respect it must be confessed
that Argentina and Uruguay more especially have continued to follow the
French school of thought.
This departure in itself was enough to cause a profound disturbance in
the breasts of the majority of those in themselves neither leaders nor
intellectuals, but plain men imbued with the very true, if intensely
narrow, devotion and piety of the old-fashioned Spaniard. The force of
the convulsion was doubled from the mere fact of its astonishing
suddenness, and the religious and political earthquake, once started,
went rumbling and roaring ceaselessly the length of the startled
Continent.
Speaking quite frankly, there seems very little doubt that in the two
countries mentioned the influence of religion died in the birth
struggles of the Republics. In the course of the innumerable civil wars
which tortured these lands for half a century and more afterwards,
religious emblems were from time to time employed, and priests were
occasionally attached to one faction or the other; but the records of
these latter are such as to show that they had entirely lost to sight
their sacred calling, and a number, such as Felix Aldao, became
politicians and leaders of these bands, and executed and drank with the
wildest of their men. On a few occasions a religious pretext was
actually seized upon by one or two _caudillos_, who in the most
barefaced fashion endeavoured to make this cloak serve their ends.
A notable instance of this was afforded by the famous Argentine
chieftain Quiroga. This worthy was altogether one of the wildest of his
kind. Indeed, at one period he stood self-confessed as a land pirate by
the ensign which he adopted--a black flag, with a skull and cross-bones.
On one occasion, however, when a religious dispute had broken out among
his more intellectual neighbours, Quiroga determined to intervene on
behalf of religion. So, when he next made his appearance at the head of
his cavalry, not a little amazement was mingled with the dread with
which the spectators were wont to regard his grim personality. For the
skull and cross-bones had disappeared from the chieftain's banner, and
in their place floated the words, "Religion or death." It was evident
that Quiroga was determined that whatever he took up should be seriously
undertaken!
On several occasions Rome endeavoured to intervene, but on each occasion
was met with rebuff. Leaders, such as Francia of Paraguay, appointed
their own clergy, and, quite regardless of any outside authority
whatever, made or unmade priests, and, in fact, dealt in sacred things
to their hearts' content. Francia retained his Bishop in a capacity
which was little more than that of a body-servant. This Bishop he had
himself promoted from the most ignorant country priest of a most
ignorant country.
Probably no other portion of the history of the modern world shows such
unbridled licence as was exercised in almost every Republic of the
Continent during the first half of its freedom.
Perhaps one of the most curious phenomena of the post-revolutionary era
of South America was the rapidity with which the majority of the
original leaders disappeared from the stage of public life. San Martin
had voluntarily forsaken the scene of his triumphs. In one sense he was
fortunate, since the fierce rivalry which arose at the conclusion of the
War of Independence left his colleagues little chance of making their
_conge_ with a similar amount of dignity.
Bolivar died impoverished and exiled, one of the most sublime and tragic
figures of the revolution. O'Higgins, it is true, divested himself of
his insignia of office by a spontaneous act. This, however, only came
about when the opposing parties had stretched forth their hands to
clutch at each other's throats. In the majority of cases the ending of
the careers of these early patriots was equally abrupt.
Nothing of this, however, was foreseen when the age of liberty first
dawned; then the men who had organized the campaign and who had won the
battles were still heroes in the eyes of the people. Bolivar was
frenziedly acclaimed as the deliverer of Peru, an honour which, in the
absence of San Martin, none could dispute with him. Although it was
obvious that the circumstances about him were changing, and that the
once high ideals of many were becoming affected by sordid
considerations, Bolivar's exaltation of spirit seems to have continued
unimpaired. That he had become sterner and more imperious there is no
doubt.
Many anecdotes are told of him at this period, one of which shows him in
a light rather uncommon in South America, where gallantry towards ladies
is apt to be carried to the extreme. It is said that at a ball a lady
insisted on singing his praises with an admiration that was positively
fulsome. Bolivar, according to the story, reproved her by these words:
"Madam, I had previously been informed of your character, and now I
perceive it myself. Believe me, a servile spirit recommends itself to no
one, and in a lady is highly to be despised." No doubt the reproof was
well earned, but at the same time the language reveals a gruffness which
scarcely tallies with Bolivar's usual conduct.
Another anecdote will suffice to show the various situations with which
the Liberator had to contend. At a public dinner given to Bolivar at
Bogota a fervent admirer of his uttered an incautious toast: "Should at
any time a Monarchical Government be established in Colombia, may the
Liberator, Simon Bolivar, be the Emperor!" A stern patriot, Senor Paris,
then filled his glass and exclaimed: "Should Bolivar at any future
period allow himself to be declared Emperor, may his blood flow from his
heart in the same manner as the wine now does from my glass!" With these
words he poured the wine from his glass upon the floor.
Bolivar, far from being offended, sprang up and, approaching Senor
Paris, embraced him, exclaiming: "If such feelings as those declared by
this honourable man shall always animate the breasts of the sons of
Colombia, her liberty and independence can never be in danger."
The story is pretty enough, and doubtless it occurred much in the way
related at the moment; but it must not be forgotten that convictions on
the part of public men must frequently wait on policy, since it is well
known that Bolivar's own views for the independence of South America ran
rather in the direction of Empires than Republics.
Simon Bolivar, indeed, worked on large and Imperialistic lines. As has
been said, he dreamed of a single State of Spanish South America, of a
great community with a single heart. It is not surprising that he found
opponents to this scheme, the chief of these being Chile and Buenos
Aires. Even in his own country these stupendous plans of his, though
they were conceived in a disinterested and loyal spirit, led to troubled
and harassing times. Thus revolutions against his authority broke out in
Venezuela, and even in parts of Colombia itself. International
complications followed. In 1827, Peru declared war against Colombia,
alleging that Bolivar was attempting to place her in a state of
vassalage to Colombia.
Discord was now arising on every side. Bolivar saw the majestic turrets
of his castle of state fall with a crash to the ground almost ere they
had had time to rear themselves against the darkening horizon. The
tragedy was too much even for his enthusiastic spirit. Broken and spent,
he retired to Santa Marta in New Granada, where his grief brought him to
a death in solitude in 1830. Thus his fate supplied yet another link
between his career and that of San Martin, whose death in Boulogne on
the French coast, when it occurred, scarcely occasioned a passing
notice.
In Chile, as has been said, the career of the famous Bernardo O'Higgins,
although shorn of so many of the tragic elements that attended that of
Bolivar, had ended with almost equal abruptness. It is true that the
great Chilean for his part had the satisfaction of performing one of the
greatest acts of his life at the close of his official existence. When,
faced by the deputation of those who were in revolt against his
authority, he stepped forward to confront them, and, with deliberation
and calmness, tore from his person his insignia of office, he knew that
his deed had been echoed through the whole length of Chile, and that it
had caused a shock of astonishment and sympathy in the breasts of even
those most strenuously opposed to his policy. In other respects the
results were much the same as in the case of Bolivar. The great
O'Higgins had retired from the eye of the nation and from the scene of
his struggles and self-sacrifice.
In Argentina the tale was similar, notwithstanding the enlightened and
progressive influence of intellectual men, such as Belgrano, Rivadavia,
and numerous others. The tide of civil strife burst out, and its mad
eddies swept away many of those who had proved themselves heroes in the
cause of independence. The severing of ties and of friendship was
necessarily abrupt, and occasionally claimed a victim. Among these was
Liniers, who in the last days of the Spanish regime had gathered
together a local force on the River Plate, and had dislodged the British
forces from Buenos Aires. This, however, did not prevent his execution
by the patriots soon after the outbreak of the war.
To enter into the details of individual cases is impossible here, since
volumes could be written on every separate decade, and on a score and
more of the personalities of this particular epoch in Argentina alone.
Paraguay stood out as an exception to the rest. In that State the reins
of power fell into the hands of Dr. Francia, a merciless autocrat, who
suffered nothing whatever to be disturbed within the frontiers of his
country, and who now ruled with a ferocious tyranny, such as had
scarcely been approached even in the darkest days of the early colonial
age. After that Paraguay was destined to undergo its baptism of fire as
well as the rest; the process seemed inevitable. In Paraguay it had not
been avoided; it had merely been postponed.