Conservatism After Latin American Independence

Despite gaining independence from Spain and Portugal in the early 1800s, governments were predominately conservative.  During many independence struggles, so many leaders promised to fight for equality, for freedom against oppression and for democracy, all things associated with liberal ideology at the time.  Yet, the same liberals that offered these promises, fought and spilled blood for the opportunity to change Latin America, gave up quietly to the surge of conservative mentalities after the struggles were over.  What allowed this to occur is by no means a simple answer; the United States had fought their revolution against England and Succeeded and created a stable government, but why could this not occur in South America, and if it could, then why did it fail?  To best analyze why the conservatives dominated the era before 1850, it should first be looked at as to why the liberals failed.

                To start, unlike the United States, South America was divided into a rigid class system based off of race.  While the U.S. also discriminated against people who weren’t white, in Latin America however, race, or “how white” one was determined a person’s role and position in society.  This had existed for nearly three hundred years prior to the liberation of the Latin American States (Chasteen 84).  That said, the hopes of liberals were a clear and dangerous break in traditional society.  While this may have gained the support of people of the lower classes, it threatened the position of the Creoles who held much of the wealth in Latin America outside the church which also had invested interests in maintaining the status quo.

                Secondly, liberalism called for individuals to rise up and make a profit by the individuals’ own talent.  However, society was often arranged at the time so that many people lived communally and had no desire leave their lands for entrepreneurship (Chasteen 123).  Socially, transcending these values was too much to accomplish for new states with poor economies and little government experience.

                Politically, liberals failed for several reasons.  First, in order to fight the wars against Spain, large armies were needed to accomplish this task.  Because of oversized armies and generals with large salaries, the state had to focus on paying for the army which at the same time delegitimized the ruling government (Chasteen 124).  This aside, Liberals had had virtually no political experience prior to their independence.  The highest positions in colonial Latin America were held by Spaniards and only local governments were controlled by a small minority of creoles.  Further, while governance was mostly in maintaining order, it is critical to note the difference in local governance in Colonial Latin America and that of Colonial United States.  In the latter, there was an established history of constitutions, political participation and compromise by the citizens which could be drawn upon in making of the larger government.  However, in Latin America, making their original constitutions was completely new and virtually made as a trial basis.  This would be demonstrated as conservative caudillos routinely eliminated constitutions and rewrote new ones to suit their needs (Chasteen125).