Patriot Politics and Tactics in Spanish America, 1815
New Politics and New Tactics: Patriot Strategy in Spanish America
International Context in 1815
In 1815, the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte and the restoration of Ferdinand VII strengthened Spanish power in America. Shipping and new logistics facilitated the arrival of Spanish troops to reestablish the colonial regime. On February 18, 1815, the expedition reached Margarita Island with an army of about 15,000 men, led by field marshal Pablo Morillo.
The Patriot Tactical Change
The Creoles, weakened politically and militarily, had by 1815 only small groups of resistance, and these were largely dispersed. The strategy now was clear: they had to win over or neutralize the popular sectors, whose differences with the Creole elites were immediately resolvable by gaining their cause or neutralizing them before confronting the structure of colonial society.
Effects of the Patriot Strategy
The emergence of José Antonio Páez, a popular caudillo among the Venezuelan llaneros, who identified with the cause of independence, was decisive. The popular sectors fought for independence: the patriots offered freedom to slaves who joined the army and equal status to others, which popularized the Venezuelan army among them. Unlike the Creoles, who relied on the support of slaves and of a majority of free people of color, the royalists were limited in their support. The struggle in Venezuela was thus a war of independence against Spain.
Conclusions
The Libertador Simón Bolívar understood the necessity of winning popular support, not only as a means of ending the war in favor of a republican triumph, but also to achieve the independence for which the people longed. Their social background and the continuing war after 1815, when Bolívar became convinced that the Creoles' aristocratic character and inability to recruit masses would doom the independence effort, led him to take a transcendental step: the distribution of land to the people as part of the project of emancipation. This strategy consolidated Bolívar's position. He returned to Venezuela in May 1816 after exile in Jamaica, landed on Margarita Island on May 3, and was accepted as supreme leader. From Carúpano, on June 2, he issued a decree granting freedom to the slaves, which in practice secured the support of the popular sectors.