Another Rebellion? The Participation of the popular sectors
to the Spanish-American Wars of Independence
The participation of the subaltern groups to the Spanish-American
independent movements is at the centre of this article. Though
historiography has always underestimated their contribution to the
wars that liberated Spanish American territories from Spain, subaltern
sectors (indigenous, free coloured people and slaves) played indeed a very
important and active role during this period. Not only they participated
to the armies that defeated the Spanish, but they also had significant
political objectives to be attained. Like the elites, they understood that the
collapse of the Spanish monarchy opened some possibilities of action that
were unimaginable before 1808. Wars led de facto to an improvement of
the social and political conditions of popular groups: for the free coloured
meant the access of citizenship; for slaves, the acquisition of freedom; for
the indigenous people, the defence of their lands.
Keywords: Subaltern groups, Latin America, insurrection, monarchy
collapse