Peoples and Nations. The Subjects of the Independence

Abstract

This article proposses an interpretation of the crisis of the Spanish monarchy iniciated in 1808 based on the setting up of a diversity of political subjects. Far from the understanding of the crisis as the cnfrontation among emerging nations and a decadent monarchy, in this article I propose to interpret it as the result of a clash of empires (Spanish and French) resulting in a variety of political subjects —pueblos and nations— contending for the political control of local and national spaces. This result will determine the evolution of constitutionalism and liberalism in the Spanish Atlantic.