Open AccessBolivar’s Total War
Author(s) -
Daniel Emilio Rojas-Castro
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
revista científica general josé maría córdova/revista científica general josé maría córdova
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2500-7645
pISSN - 1900-6586
DOI - 10.21830/19006586.794
Subject(s) - militarization , independence (probability theory) , latin americans , politics , state (computer science) , adversary , spanish civil war , phenomenon , total war , economic history , history , political science , political economy , sociology , law , philosophy , epistemology , statistics , mathematics , algorithm , computer science
This article proposes introducing the concept of total war into the study of Latin American Independence in the 1810s and 1820s. We argue that total war was not an exclusively North Atlantic phenomenon, but an experience that also manifested itself at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Granada. To prove it, we analyze the social militarization caused by the enlightened reforms of the eighteenth century, the impact of political revolution in the Atlantic world and the decisive role of religion in creating an enemy that should be exterminated. The article concludes by pointing out two topics that underline the uniqueness of total war in a region of Latin America: the spatial and temporal unity of different forms of regular and irregular warfare, and the fact that total war was not the consequence of state action, but the starting point for State-building.