Caudillisme, césarisme et périphéries impériales dans l’Indépendance du l’Amérique hispanique : l’exemple de la province de Guayana (Venezuela), 1810-1819

Abstract

The study of Guayana province, in the light of new sources, provides an insight into the militarization of political legitimacy in the Venezuelan independence movement. The complexity and ambivalence of the two sides' struggle to win over and recruit inhabitants from the various socio-racial categories of this colonial society is revealed. In this context, power struggles between warlords cut across both camps, at a time of fear of revolutionary radicalism. With the elite, these captains sought to legitimize themselves by embodying stability and a return to order, under the aegis of the Monarchy or Republic. In the eyes of the combatants, the leaders acquired autonomous war authority through control of resources and the prestige of victories. This is how Caudillism, then Caesarism on a state scale, became central phenomena for the new Spanish-American states, often from peripheral regions such as the Guayana.

Keywords

• war
• race
• independence
• revolution
• Venezuela
• caudillism