Distinctive Features of the Peruvian Representation in the General Courts of Cádiz and Madrid (1810-1814)

Abstract

The Peruvian delegates assumed the common defence of American interest as opposed to metropolitan ones, but they also tried to defend specifically Peruvian attitudes conceming geographic, economic, political and administrative matters, revealing their latent pre-nationalist tendencies. The delegates from the Peruvian provinces arrived late, and the representatives from Lima habitually spoke on behalf of the "kingdom of Peru": there was little expression of "provincialism". The delegates reflected the reality of a colonial society based on the opposition of "castes", while the union with Spain, never questioned, would guarantee the permanence of a precarious balance in a non-integrated plural society.