This book is a radical reinterpretation of the process that led to Mexican independence in 1821—one that emphasizes Mexico's continuity with Spanish political culture. During its final decades under Spanish rule, New Spain was the most populous, richest, and most developed part of the worldwide Spanish Monarchy, and most novohispanos (people of New Spain) believed that their religious, social, economic, and political ties to the Monarchy made union preferable to separation. Neither the American nor the French Revolution convinced the novohispanos to sever ties with the Spanish Monarchy; nor did the Hidalgo Revolt of September 1810 and subsequent insurgencies cause Mexican independence. It was Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 that led to the Hispanic Constitution of 1812. When the government in Spain rejected those new constituted arrangements, Mexico declared independence. The Mexican Constitution of 1824 affirms both the new state's independence and its continuance of Spanish political culture.

At the start of the nineteenth century, the Spanish Monarchy underwent a moment of profound crisis in which the sovereign powers of the king passed to local communities. This dissertation examines how that crisis altered the practice of politics in what became modern Spain. Utilizing the region of Western Andalusia as a case study, I explain how municipalities adapted to the advent of new political systems of rule beginning in 1808. I argue that the relationship between the central government and local governments changed in this period. At the middle of the eighteenth century, monarchy and municipalities enjoyed roughly equal status with one another. By 1823, the central government considered local communities subordinate to the will of the Spanish nation as a whole. Meanwhile, municipalities maintained a sometimes fierce defense of their political position vis-à-vis the central government. The transition from absolutism to constitutionalism that corresponded to the end of the Old Regime in Spain further contributed to the development of a more politically active and locally engaged population in Western Andalusia. War against the French roused deep sympathy for the patria chica. As Spanish patriots worked to reestablish political order under a series of juntas, local communities avoided ceding their sovereignty to centralized institutions. Local municipalities even interpreted central provisions of the Constitution of Cádiz (1812) to suit their needs in advance of those claimed by the nation. Thus, the advent of modern government in Western Andalusia was coupled with the intensification of localist political sensibilities.

The capstone of a research endeavor begun by Barbara Stein and Stanley Stein nearly sixty years ago, this volume concludes their masterful tetralogy on Spanish economic and Atlantic history. With a compelling narrative that weaves together story and thesis and brings to life immense archival research and empirical data, Crisis in an Atlantic Empire is a finely grained historical tour of the period covering 1808 to 1810, which is often called “the age of revolutions.” The study examines an accumulation of countervailing elements in a spasm of imperial crisis, as Spain and its major colony New Spain struggled to preserve traditional structures of exchange—Spain's transatlantic trade system—with Caribbean ports at Veracruz and Havana in wartime after 1804. Rooted in the struggle between businessmen seeking to expand their economic reach and the ruling class seeking to maintain its hegemonic control, the crisis sheds light on the contest between free trade and monopoly trade and the politics of preservation among an enduring and influential interest group: merchants. Reflecting the authors’ masterful use of archival sources and their magisterial knowledge of the era’s complex metropolitan and colonial institutions, this volume is the capstone of a research endeavor spanning nearly sixty years.

This book provides a new interpretation of Spanish American independence, emphasising political processes.

Modern Spain: 1808 to the Present is a comprehensive overview of Spanish history from the Napoleonic era to the present day. Places a large emphasis on Spain's place within broader European and global history The chronological political narrative is enriched by separate chapters on long term economic, social and cultural developments This presentation of modern Spanish history incorporates the latest thinking on key issues of modernity, social movements, nationalism, democratization and democracy

"Political Culture in Spanish America, 1500-1830 examines the nature of Spanish American political culture by reevaluating the political theory, institutions, and practices of the Hispanic world. Consisting of eight case studies with a focus on New Spain and Quito, Jaime E. Rodrguez O. demonstrates that the process of independence of Spanish America differs from previous claims. In 1188 King Alfonso IX convened the Cortes, the first congress in Europe that included the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the towns.This heritage, along with events in the sixteenth century, including the rebellion of Castilla and the Protestant Reformation, transformed the nature of Hispanic political thought. Rodrguez O. argues that those developments, rather than the Enlightenment, were the basis of the Hispanic revolution and the Constitution of 1812. Emphasizing continuity rather than the rejection of Hispanic political culture, as well as the Atlantic perspective, Political Culture in Spanish America, 1500-1830 demonstrates the nature of the Hispanic revolution and the process of independence. Rodriguez O.'s work will encourage historians of Spanish America to reexamine the political institutions and processes of those nations from a broad perspective to gain a deeper understanding of the Spanish American countries that emerged from the breakup of the composite monarchy"--