Carta de Jamaica

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The Carta de Jamaica (German: Letter from Jamaica ) is a letter written in Kingston on September 6, 1815 , in which the South American independence fighter Simón Bolívar explains the current situation of the Latin American independence struggles to the British Henry Cullen. The Carta is one of Bolívar's most important writings.

Historical context

When New Granada no longer provided the young Bolívar with any troops for the war of independence of the Latin American people against the Spanish crown after the conquest of Cartagena , he went into exile in Jamaica in May 1815 . There he wrote the Carta in response to a letter from the British Henry Cullen that had not been received, apparently asking him for a description of the current situation in South America. Although the letter was addressed to Cullen, its main recognized aim was to win Britain, the most powerful liberal nation of the 19th century, to the side of the insurgents.

content

In the letter, Bolívar describes the current situation of the Latin American struggle for independence and provides an assessment for each region of how promising the further struggle will be. Although at the time of writing the Spanish army predominates in most areas, he is optimistic about the eventual success of the uprisings. Characteristic is the verbose rejection of any Spanish influence, although he emphasizes the partly Spanish origin of the Latin American people.

Bolívar criticizes the Europeans for their passive attitude towards the clashes in Latin America and calls on Great Britain (which had already fought previous colonial conflicts with Spain) to stand against Spain in this conflict. In the Carta there are numerous comparisons that should convince the British: Spain resembles France under Napoleonic rule and the crumbling Hispano-American colonies are a world empire which - like the Roman Empire once against invading Germanic peoples - could not defend itself badly because of its size.

When asked by Cullen about the desired political structure of the liberated Latin America, Bolívar replied in great detail: The Spanish colonies would have left the inhabitants even less freedom of co-determination than the European monarchies. At this point, Bolívar advocates political and economic liberalism and distances itself from anarchism , which however prevailed during the revolutionary phase. Bolívar writes to what extent the formation of the republics sought by the insurgents has already been completed and names the problems that the continent would face in its process of detachment and identity formation. From this he deduces the organizational means that can be used to resolve this: The new republics should neither be democratic nor too large, since both endanger the stability that is necessary in the fight against the Spaniards.

In the letter, Bolívar also developed his idea of Greater Colombia and a Hispano-American unit, which he later called Congreso Panamericano ( Pan-American Congress ).

meaning

In the letter, Bolívar, as he writes, represents the interests of those who lie between the legitimate owners ( legítimos propietarios ) of the lands and the Spanish occupiers ( usurpadores españoles ). The appeal to their common cultural and linguistic origins meant a far-reaching exclusion of the native and black population from the newly established republics. Citizens ( ciudadano ) should become those who were male and belonged to the Creole ruling class.

Bolívar rejected a democratically led union of Hispanic American countries because he feared a multitude of wrong decisions because of an assumed low level of education of the ciudadanos . However, he conceded that democracy might work elsewhere. The model he pleaded for in the Carta is a mixed constitution based on the Aristotelian model.

effect

The attempt to induce the British to join the Spanish American War of Independence, which was forced by this letter, failed. The Pan-American Congress, as Bolívar introduced it, met in 1826 as the Panama Congress and produced a treaty ratified only by Greater Colombia (which had since been established). Greater Colombia broke up into individual states as early as 1830, shortly after Bolívar's death.

literature

  • Simón Bolívar: Cuatro textos. Manifiesto de Cartagena, Discurso de Angostura, La carta de Jamaica, Mi delirio sobre el chimborazo. With an introduction by Arturo Garbizu Crespo. Oscar Todtmann Editores, Caracas 1999, ISBN 980-6028-50-3 .

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Simón Bolívar: Carta de Jamaica. = List z Jamajki (= Colección Ideas y Semblanzas. Volume 1). Universidad de Varsovia - Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos CESLA, Warsaw 1990, pp. 7, 10, 12, 22.
  2. ↑ Catherine Davies: Colonial Dependence and Sexual Difference: Reading for Gender in the Writing's of Simón Bolívar (1783-1830). In: Catherine Davies (Ed.): Latin America. History, war and independence (= Feminist Review. 79, 2005). Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2005, ISBN 1-4039-9421-8 , pp. 5-19.
  3. ↑ Tulio Halperin Donghi: Hispanoamérica en el espejo. (Reflexiones hispanoamericanas sobre hispanoamérica, de Simón Bolívar a Hernando de Soto). In: México e Hispanoamérica. A reflexión historiográfica en el quinto centenario. (= Historia mexicana. Vol. 42, No. 3, ISSN  0185-0172 ). Volume 2. El Colegio de México, México 1992, pp. 745-787, here p. 749.