Atlantic Republicanism in Nineteenth-Century Colombia: Spanish America's Challenge to the Contours of Atlantic History

This article argues that the Age of Revolution and the abolition of slavery do not adequately mark the termination of the Atlantic world's political processes, at least concerning Latin America. Employing archival evidence from Colombia as a case study (as well as evidence from Mexico and Uruguay), the article explores how during the nineteenth century in Spain's former colonies, subalterns, especially popular liberals, and elites debated the meanings of nation, citizen, and democracy. These struggles over visions of republicanism and democracy that racked the region throughout most of the nineteenth century cannot be understood outside of an Atlantic context, nor can the full history of the Atlantic Age of Revolution be complete without taking into account the democratic and republican developments of mid nineteenth-century Spanish America.