Enlightenment and Latin American independence: a historiographic and literary controversy

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to revise the historiographic and literary debates genera­ted by the ideological character of the Latin‑American Independence. There are three basic perspectives regarding the influence of the Enlightenment in the emancipation of the former Spanish territories overseas: the two traditional standpoints based on either a progressive or conservative understanding of the ideological side of the Independence, and a third group of historians who, following the «New History», have denied any ideological interpretation of the Independence. The final part of this paper considers the Antillean historical counter­point, in order to illustrate the contradictory influence of the Enlightenment in this process.