How does caudillo leadership account for turbulence in early republican spanish america?

Get help with access

Institutional access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Sign in through your institution

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth / Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

1. Click Sign in through your institution.
2. Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
3. When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
4. Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Sign in with a library card

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

1. Click Sign in through society site.
2. When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
3. Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

Personal account

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

Institutional account management

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

19th Century CaudillosNatalia Sobrevilla Perea

• LAST REVIEWED: 19 January 2021
• LAST MODIFIED: 30 September 2013
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766581-0141

Introduction

The term caudillo originates from the Spanish word for head, cabeza, and describes the leader of a political faction, often linked to a band of armed men. Used in Spain since the time of the Reconquista, the term became increasingly common in Spanish America during the wars of independence. It initially had the positive connotation of a man fighting in defense of his land, but it gradually became linked to authoritarian rule by a strongman and was used pejoratively. Caudillos began their careers at the local level, and some garnered national support. Many took over the government of a country and were successful in maintaining it, while others faced strong opposition. In some areas they derived their power from the army, while in others they counted on their dependents. In his biographical essay Facundo, Argentine author and politician Domingo Faustino Sarmiento made a seminal characterization of a 19th century caudillo that is still relevant today. In the article, he describes the life and times of the leader of the pampas and makes reference to the authoritarian political system developed by the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires Juan Manuel de Rosas, who controlled the Río de la Plata for nearly three decades with the support of his henchmen. One of the most enduring images of 19th century caudillos, particularly in the English-speaking world, is that of men on horseback who ruled vast swaths of the Spanish American hinterlands with the support of their makeshift militias. This was the view presented by authors such as Charles Chapman in the 1930s and Richard Morse in the 1950s. Subsequently, in the work of scholars such as John Lynch, Eric Wolf, and Eduard Hansen, caudillos have been understood as local Latin American variants of patrons, while others authors, such as Hugh Hamill, refer to them as dictators. However, most concur that the caudillos’ most salient characteristic was charisma, following Max Weber’s definition. Recent work has aimed to understand what made them charismatic and what their real sources of political power were. The literature on 19th century caudillismo is most abundant in Argentina, where it remains central to current historiographical debate. Caudillos are also regarded as significant in Bolivia and Peru, with new work appearing in the early 21st century. In the cases of Mexico and Venezuela, where caudillos were also noteworthy in the 19th century, the experience of the 20th century has overshadowed their former centrality.

General Overviews

19th century accounts of caudillos focus strongly on personality. Domingo Sarmiento attempts to come to terms with his contemporaries and make sense of the realities in which they lived. His book Facundo (Sarmiento 1978) is a commentary on the Argentine leader Juan Manuel de Rosas, who, according to Sarmiento, controlled the province of Buenos Aires through violent means and who eschewed the notion of becoming president of the whole of Argentina or of creating a constitution. One of the most influential early works on caudillos was Chapman 1932, which portrayed them as “men on horseback” who provided crucial backing to elites. Most scholars writing in English have interpreted 19th century caudillos as charismatic leaders who were able to attain power because they had a large following of clients. Charisma was understood, according to Max Weber, as the ability of one person to rule others by sheer strength of personality. It remains one of the most popular explanations of caudillismo, even though many of the leaders were not really that charismatic. Another widely accepted account, Morse 1954, correlates local Spanish-American culture and the legacy of the colonial period with the development of caudillos. A more structural analysis was put forward from the 1960s onwards in works such as Wolf and Hansen 1967, linking caudillismo with economic realities as well as the vacuum of power left over from the wars of independence. John Lynch is one of the most influential authors to have worked on caudillismo (Lynch 1992). He bases his interpretations on extensive archival material looking at the cases of Juan Manuel de Rosas from Buenos Aires, José Antonio Páez from Venezuela, Antonio López de Santa Anna from Mexico, and Rafael Carrera from Guatemala. He concludes that caudillos began as local heroes in the regions where they owned land. Hamill 1992 is a very useful collection of short texts on 19th and 20th century caudillos that collects some of the most classical writing on the topic by Sarmiento, Wolf, and Hansen, as well as Morse 1954 (albeit with a different title). More recent work, such as Sobrevilla Perea 2011 (cited under Bolivia and Peru), aims to understand the reasons why caudillos were powerful and charismatic, as well as to establish the differences between the caudillos that originated in the prairie areas of the pampas of Argentina and the llanos in Venezuela and those that came from the Andean regions of Peru and Bolivia. Scheina 2003 is a study of war and how caudillos took power; it will be very useful for those interested in understanding different areas.

• Chapman, Charles. “The Age of the Caudillos: A Chapter in Hispanic American History.” Hispanic American Historical Review 12.3 (August 1932): 281–310.

  DOI: 10.2307/2506672

  Chapman describes caudillos as “men on horseback” who received support from the land-owning wealthy creoles if they could offer peace and security in exchange. He is convinced that even if they claimed to fight revolutions in the name of principles such as liberty, equality, or constitutionalism, the only substantive change that occurred under their tenure was in the person who governed and the ritual that was followed.

• Hamill, Hugh, ed. Caudillos: Dictators in Spanish America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.

  Hamill understands caudillos as the equivalent of dictators and an enduring characteristic of Latin America and Spain. Hamill’s introduction sets the texts into context and expands on his idea that caudillos are very particular to Latin America and part of the social fabric from the 19th century, and that their legacy continues today, after the intense experience of dictatorship during the 20th century.

• Lynch, John. Caudillos in Spanish America, 1800–1850. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.

  DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198211358.001.0001

  Caudillos derived their authority from their land, living in agrarian societies where the relationship between landowner and peasants was that between a patron and a client. They owed obedience to no one and did not share their absolute power with any other person or institution. Caudillos emerged when there was an institutional vacuum, where formal rules were absent and political confrontation was resolved through conflict.

• Morse, Richard. “Toward a Theory of Spanish American Government.” Journal of the History of Ideas 15.1 (January 1954): 71–93.

  DOI: 10.2307/2707650

  Richard Morse explains caudillos from a cultural perspective. He believes that the history and culture of the Hispanic people made them more prone to this kind of government. Although not dealing in detail with caudillos, this article is important because it reflects the kind of thinking on Spain and Latin America typical of the 1950s, which saw caudillos as cultural phenomena.

• Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino. Facundo. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Huemul, 1978.

  This political tract, directed against Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, describes the life and times of Facundo, a provincial leader who ruled through terror. Sarmiento argues that caudillismo developed because of the influence of geography over the people, race, and culture. He was the first author to use the term, linking it to the pampas that, inhabited by gauchos, could only be governed by caudillos. Originally published in 1845, it has been extensively reprinted, with English editions in 1998 and 2003.

• Scheina, Robert. Latin America’s Wars. Vol. 1, The Age of the Caudillo, 1791–1899. Dulles, VA: Potomac, 2003.

  This book studies war. Concentrating on a series of episodes in chapter-length essays that set a wide canvas in which to analyze caudillismo, Scheina concludes that these military men, the caudillos, often took power only to be revealed as corrupt leaders. This introduction to the topic will be particularly useful for those seeking to understand the trajectory of the term in different locations.

• Wolf, Eric, and Edward C. Hansen. “Caudillo Politics: A Structural Analysis.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 9.2 (January 1967): 168–179.

  DOI: 10.1017/S0010417500004448

  Caudillismo began, in the 1960s, to be understood as a Latin American variant of patronage. Relationships were seen as structured around the exchange of benefits and protection. The patron provided for the client, who in return remained bound to the patron. For these authors, this explained the structure of power and the rise to power of caudillos, as well as their eventual fall and replacement by an ambitious former protégé.

back to top

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.

How to Subscribe

Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.

Article

Up

• Abolition
• Abortion and Infanticide
• Agricultural Technologies
• Alcohol Use
• Ancient Andean Textiles
• Andean Contributions to Rethinking the State and the Natio...
• Andean Music
• Antislavery Narratives
• Arab Diaspora in Brazil, The
• Arab Diaspora in Latin America, The
• Argentina in the Era of Mass Immigration
• Argentina, Slavery in
• Argentine Literature
• Army of Chile in the 19th Century
• Asian Art and Its Impact in the Americas, 1565–1840
• Asian-Peruvian Literature
• Asunción
• Atlantic Creoles
• Baroque and Neo-baroque Literary Tradition
• Beauty in Latin America
• Bello, Andrés
• Black Experience in Colonial Latin America, The
• Black Experience in Modern Latin America, The
• Bogotá
• Bolaño, Roberto
• Borderlands in Latin America, Conquest of
• Borges, Jorge Luis
• Bourbon Reforms, The
• Brazilian Northeast, History of the
• Buenos Aires
• Cali
• California Missions, The
• Caracas
• Caribbean Philosophical Association, The
• Caribbean, The Archaeology of the
• Cartagena de Indias
• Caste War of Yucatán, The
• Caudillos, 19th Century
• Cádiz Constitution and Liberalism, The
• Central America, The Archaeology of
• Chaco War
• Children, History of
• Chile's Struggle for Independence
• Chronicle, The
• Church in Colonial Latin America, The
• Chávez, Hugo, and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela
• Cinema, Contemporary Brazilian
• Cinema, Latin American
• Colonial Central America
• Colonial Latin America, Crime and Punishment in
• Colonial Latin America, Pilgrimage in
• Colonial Legal History of Peru
• Colonial New Granada
• Colonial Portuguese Amazon Region, from the 17th to 18th C...
• Contemporary Indigenous Film and Video Production
• Contemporary Indigenous Social and Political Thought
• Contemporary Maya, The
• Cortés, Hernán
• Costa Rica
• Cárdenas and Cardenismo
• Cuban Revolution, The
• de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Fernando
• Dependency Theory in Latin American History
• Development of Architecture in New Spain, 1500–1810, The
• Development of Painting in Peru, 1520–1820, The
• Drug Trades in Latin America
• Dutch in South America and the Caribbean, The
• Early Colonial Forms of Native Expression in Mexico and Pe...
• Economies from Independence to Industrialization
• Ecuador
• Ecuador, La Generación del 30 in
• Education in New Spain
• El Salvador
• Enlightenment and its Visual Manifestations in Spanish Ame...
• Environmental History
• Era of Porfirio Díaz, 1876–1911, The
• Family History
• Film, Science Fiction
• Football (Soccer) in Latin America
• Franciscans in Colonial Latin America
• From "National Culture" to the "National Popular" and the ...
• Gaucho Literature
• Gender and History in the Andes
• Gender during the Period of Latin American Independence
• Gender in Colonial Brazil
• Gender in Postcolonial Latin America
• Gentrification in Latin America
• Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe
• Guaraní and Their Legacy, The
• Guatemala and Yucatan, Conquest of
• Guatemala City
• Guatemala (Colonial Period)
• Guatemala (Modern & National Period)
• Haitian Revolution, The
• Havana
• Health and Disease in Modern Latin America, History of
• History, Cultural
• History, Food
• History of Health and Disease in Latin America and the Car...
• Honor in Latin America to 1900
• Honor in Mexican Public Life
• Horror in Literature and Film in Latin America
• Hospitals
• Human Rights in Latin America
• Immigration in Latin America
• Independence in Argentina
• Indigenous Elites in the Colonial Andes
• Indigenous Population and Justice System in Central Mexico...
• Indigenous Voices in Literature
• Japanese Presence in Latin America
• Jesuits in Colonial Latin America
• Jewish Presence in Latin America, The
• José María Arguedas and Early 21st Century Cultural and Po...
• Las Casas, Bartolomé de
• Latin American Independence
• Latin American Theater and Performance
• Latin American Urbanism, 1850-1950
• Law and Society in Latin America since 1800
• Legal History of New Spain, 16th-17th Centuries
• Legal History of the State and Church in 18th Century New ...
• LGBT Literature
• Literature, Argentinian
• Machado de Assis
• Magical Realism
• Maroon Societies in Latin America
• Martí, José, and Cuba
• Menchú, Rigoberta
• Mesoamerica, The Archaeology of
• Mestizaje and the Legacy of José María Arguedas
• Mexican Nationalism
• Mexican Revolution, 1910–1940, The
• Mexican-US Relations
• Mexico, Conquest of
• Mexico, Education in
• Migration to the United States
• Military and Modern Latin America, The
• Military Government in Latin America, 1959–1990
• Military Institution in Colonial Latin America, The
• Mining
• Mining Extraction in Latin America
• Modern Decorative Arts and Design, 1900–2000
• Modern Populism in Latin America
• Modernity and Decoloniality
• Montevideo
• Musical Tradition in Latin America, The
• Mystics and Mysticism
• Native Presence in Postconquest Central Peru
• Natural Disasters in Early Modern Latin America
• Neoliberalism
• New Conquest History and the New Philology in Colonial Mes...
• New Left in Latin America, The
• Novel, Chronology of the Venezuelan
• Novel of the Mexican Revolution, The
• Novel, 19th Century Haitian
• Novel, The Colombian
• Nuns and Convents in Colonial Latin America
• Oaxaca, Conquest and Colonial
• Ortega, José y Gasset
• Painting in New Spain, 1521–1820
• Paraguay
• Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance)
• Pastoralism in the Andes
• Paz, Octavio
• Perón and Peronism
• Peru, Colonial
• Peru, Conquest of
• Peru, Slavery in
• Philippines Under Spanish Rule, 1571-1898
• Photography in the History of Race and Nation
• Piracy
• Political Exile in Latin America
• Ponce de León
• Popular Culture and Globalization
• Popular Movements in 19th-Century Latin America
• Portuguese-Spanish Interactions in Colonial South America
• Post Conquest Aztecs
• Post-Conquest Demographic Collapse
• Poverty in Latin America
• Preconquest Incas
• Pre-conquest Mesoamerican States, The
• Pre-Revolutionary Mexico, State and Nation Formation in
• Printing and the Book
• Prints and the Circulation of Colonial Images
• Protestantism in Latin America
• Puerto Rican Literature
• Quipu
• Religions in Latin America
• Revolution and Reaction in Central America
• Rosas, Juan Manuel de
• Sandinista Revolution and the FSLN, The
• Santo Domingo
• Science and Empire in the Iberian Atlantic
• Science and Technology in Modern Latin America
• Sephardic Culture
• Sexualities in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Slavery in Brazil
• São Paulo
• South American Dirty Wars
• South American Missions
• Spanish American Arab Literature
• Spanish and Portuguese Trade, 1500–1750
• Spanish Caribbean In The Colonial Period, The
• Spanish Colonial Decorative Arts, 1500-1825
• Spanish Florida
• Spiritual Conquest of Latin America, The
• Sports in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Telenovelas and Melodrama in Latin America
• Textile Traditions of the Andes
• 19th Century and Modernismo Poetry in Spanish America
• 20th-Century Mexico, Mass Media and Consumer Culture in
• 16th-Century New Spain
• Tourism in Modern Latin America
• Transculturation and Literature
• Trujillo, Rafael
• Tupac Amaru Rebellion, The
• United States and Castro's Cuba in the Cold War, The
• United States and the Guatemalan Revolution, The
• United States Invasion of the Dominican Republic, 1961–196...
• Urban History
• Urbanization in the 20th Century, Latin America’s
• Uruguay
• US–Latin American Relations during the Cold War
• Vargas, Getúlio
• Venezuela
• Venezuelan Literature
• Women and Labor in 20th-Century Latin America
• Women in Colonial Latin American History
• Women in Modern Latin American History
• Women's Property Rights, Asset Ownership, and Wealth in La...
• World War I in Latin America
• Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas

Down

How did Europe's Napoleonic Wars set the stage for independence in Latin America?

What occurred as Mexico's liberal reform period began to wane?