عنوان

Caudillismo in the age of Guano :

Number

TLets417144

Title Proper

Caudillismo in the age of Guano :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Sobrevilla Perea, Natalia.

Title Proper by Another Author

a study in the political culture of mid-nineteenth century Peru : 1840-1860

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of London

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2005

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of London

Text preceding or following the note

2005

Text of Note

This dissertation studies the political culture of a period plagued by recurrent instability asefforts to create a stable government were hampered by warring caudillos and deeplyentrenched regional differences. This period has evaded analysis, dismissed as a meaninglesspersonalistic scramble for spoils, utter chaos which only began making sense with the arrivalof guano in the 1840s, when Peru became very rich very suddenly. Recent historical workhas re-evaluated this vision focusing primarily on economics, but reducing the debate to theissue of free trade and concluding that guano ushered a more stable polity that resulted fromthe opening of the domestic market.My thesis argues that instability was not simply due to economic fragility, but had deepercauses. Funds from guano had allowed for a more tranquil period between 1845 and 1850,but regional and ideological conflicts came to the fore in the uprisings of 1854 and 1857, wellafter the introduction of free trade in 1852. The two most important issues to inform thepolitical culture of this period were the efforts to counter regionalism by imposing afunctioning centralised government and the ideological conflict between liberalism, whichwas radicalised after 1848, and the conservative reaction to it. Regional differences betweenthe north and the south were more complex than has been hitherto assumed as the south, inparticular, was not monolithic but instead mired with intra regional conflicts. Rivalry was notreduced to the competition for resources, but was linked to the ambition for local politicalpower. The first part of my dissertation analyses the regional dynamics, as well as the initialdifficulties for centralisation and the later more successful experiments. The second partcharts the radicalisation of liberalism and its surge as a political force at mid-century opposedby a resurgence of conservatism. This makes it possible to show how the political culture ofthis period developed and functioned.

Sobrevilla Perea, Natalia.

University of London

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y