A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/104927 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications THE BRITISH LIBRARY BRITISH THESIS SERVICE THE RESTORATION AND FALL OF ROYAL TITLE GOVERNMENT IN NEW GRANADA 1815-1820 AUTHOR Rebecca A. EARLE DEGREE Ph.D AWARDING Warwick University BODY DATE 1994 THESIS DX184477 NUMBER THIS THESIS HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the original thesis submitted for microfilming. Every effort has been made to ensure the highest quality of reproduction. Some pages may have indistinct print, especially if the original papers were poorly produced or if awarding body sent an inferior copy. If pages are missing, please contact the awarding body which granted the degree. Previously copyrighted materials (journals articles, published texts etc.) are not filmed. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that it's copyright rests with its author and that no information derived from it may be published without the author's prior written consent. Reproduction of this thesis, other than as permitted under the United Kingdom Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under specific agreement with the copyright holder, is prohibited. The Restoration and Fall of Royal Government in New Granada 1815- 1820 Rebecca A. Earle Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Warwick for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History September 1994 Summary This thesis studies Spain’s failure to halt the revolution which led to Colombia’s independence in 1822. After Napoleon’s occupation of the Spanish peninsula in 1808, most of Spain’s South American colonies removed themselves from European control and functioned as sovereign states. The thesis explores, first, the activities of royalists in the Viceroyalty of New Granada during this period. It then turns to events after 1815. In that year, following the defeat of Napoleon, Spain’s restored monarchy despatched a substantial army to Venezuela and New Granada, in an effort to return the viceroyalty to Spanish control. This expedition, while initially successful, failed ignominiously in its task. The thesis examines the reasons for Spain’s defeat, which was more the result of Spanish error than Colombian patriotism. To begin with, Spain’s policies for solving the American problem suffered from several fundamental defects. All attempts at ending the American insurgencies were based on an inadequate understanding of American realities. Moreover, the only policy to which Spain committed itself wholeheartedly, namely military reconquest, was seen by many as merely exacerbating the problem, and was further restricted by financial considerations. Spain thus lacked a coherent policy for counter-revolution, and failed to carry through those plans it succeeded in putting into operation. New Granada saw the effects of this non-policy. Colonial officials there, like officials in Spain, disagreed profoundly in their proposed cures for the insurgency. Furthermore, mutual distrust between members of the civil administration and the royalist army at times overshadowed efforts to defeat the insurgents. Disagreement over policy was but one strand of the royalist crisis in New Granada. Equally serious was the chronic shortage of money suffered by both the army and the civilian administration. Their continual demands for food, funding and supplies wore away Neogranadans’ initial support for Spain’s reconquest, as did the arrogant and offensive behaviour of royalist troops. Perennially short of cash, the army and the administration relied on forced loans and confiscation to keep afloat. These proved an unstable base for a re­ imposition of Spanish control. The effect was that the inhabitants of New Granada, most of whom had welcomed the royalist army in 1816, by 1819 gave enthusiastic support to Simón Bolivar’s campaign against Spain’s General Morillo. The thesis examines these issues, setting them in the context of Spain’s effort to restore its authority in New Granada. It then charts the consequent collapse of royal government from 1819 to 1822. It concludes with an assessment of the Spanish response to the loss of the American colonies. / Contents Acknowledgements i Maps of New G ranada ii List of Abbreviations iii Introduction 1 PART I: WAR Chapter 1. War in Spain and America 1 9 The Peninsular War American Juntas Chapter 2. Royalist Enclaves in New Granada 4 4 Benito Pérez in Panama Royalist Santa Marta Royalist Pasto PART II: RECONQUEST Chapter 3. The Reconquest of New Granada 7 7 The Organization of Morillo’s Expedition Morillo in Venezuela The Siege of Cartagena Consolidating the Conquest The Expeditionary Army Chapter 4. Conciliation or Conflict? 112 Spain and the lnfidentes Political Repression and Punishment Conciliation and Pardon The Viceroy and the General Chapter 5. Responses and Representations 154 Spain’s Response to the War The Views of Royalists in New Granada Chapter 6. The Reconquest of the Economy 1X6 The Effect of the War on New Granada’s Economy Reestablishing Colonial Fiscal Structures Specie and Sorteos The Free-Trade Dilemma in Cartagena PART III: CRISIS Chapter 7. Spaniard and Reinoso 223 Soldiers and Civilians Royalist Atrocities Women and the Royalist Army Chapter 8. The Cost of Reconquest 256 Paying for a War The Effect of Chronic Under-Funding Chapter 9. Health and Disease in the Army 282 Disease and Mortality Health Care The Smallpox Vaccine Health and the Population at Large PART IV: COLLAPSE Chapter 10. The Battle of Boyaca 3 08 The Campaign of 1819 Military Repercussions Spain’s Institutional Response Chapter 11. The 1820 Revolution in New Granada 332 Revolution in Spain The Constitution in Cartagena The Anti-Constitutionalists Chapter 12. Armistice and Surrender 35 1 The Peace Commission The Armistice of 1820 The Surrender of Cartagena Royalist guerrillas in Pasto Chapter 13. Spain and the Loss of New Granada 377 Spain and the Loss of America Displaced Officials APPENDIX Royal Officials, 1810-1822 396 Bibliography 400 Acknowledgements Many individuals assisted me in preparing this thesis, but there is no one whom I take greater pleasure in thanking than my supervisor, Anthony McFarlane. I continue to feel honoured that he accepted me, first as a master’s student, and then as a doctoral candidate, and that he so unstintingly shared his time and knowledge with me. I could not have wished for a better supervisor. I need hardly add that this thesis owes a tremendous debt to Dr. McFarlane, and that any errors that remain in it are, without doubt, the consequence of my obstinate refusal to heed every piece of his good advice. Other debts, too, must be acknowledged. The British Academy kindly provided me with a studentship, and also funded an extra trip to Madrid. In Madrid, the staff of the Biblioteca de la Real Academia de Historia were affable and very helpful, once they overcame their suspicion of someone who claimed to be a British resident, yet had an American passport, and, to confuse things, a recommendation from the British Council. In Seville, the staff at the Archivo General de Indias, from the archivists to the photocopiers, all did much to make my research in their archive pleasant and fruitful. In Oxford, the librarians at the Bodleian Library have proved remarkably willing to check references over the telephone. To all of them I am very grateful. Finally, there remains the happy task of thanking my family. Both my husband David and my parents have provided every sort of support, indeed, perhaps, more than they realise. Little Gabriel, too, has contributed in his own way. I thank them all with great sincerity. / i Maps 1. New G ranada iv 2. Sites of Important Battles v 3. The Caribbean Coast 50 4. Southern New Granada 61 5. The Campaign of 1819 307 11 List of Abbreviations ACC Archivo Central del Cauca AGI Archivo General de Indias AGS Archivo General de Simancas AHNC Archivo Histórico Nacional de Colombia AHNM Archivo Histórico Nacional de Madrid BHA Boletín de Historia y Antigüedades BRAH Biblioteca de la Real Academia de Historia BL British Library HAHR Hispanic American Historical Review JLAS Journal of Latín American Studies PRO Public Record Office $ The silver peso de a ocho reales Introduction In “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage”, Lord Byron’s 1812 travelogue cum political commentary, the poet remarks on the ironic culmination of Spain's three hundred years as a imperial power. Byron was struck by the coincidence of Napoleon’s invasion of the Iberian peninsula with the outbreak of insurrection in Spanish America. Harking back to the defeat of “Quito’s sons”, the Incas, he wrote: Strange retribution! now Columbia’s ease Repairs the wrongs that Quito’s sons sustain’d, While o’er the parent clime prowls murder unrestrained.1 Indeed, as Byron suggests, the years from 1808 to 1825 were truly difficult ones for Spain. During these eighteen years Spain was invaded, and indeed conquered, by the troops of Napoleonic France, and furthermore lost virtually all of its overseas colonies. The peninsula experienced four entirely different types of government during the period, and Spanish troops participated in some five different wars of liberation, yet triumphed in only one, namely the fight against Napoleonic France. By 1820, Spain was widely regarded as a spent force.