Revista Complutense de Historia de América
Revista Complutense de Historia de América (ISSN 1132-8312, ISSN-e 1988-270X) is an annual journal, specialising in topics of Americanist interest, fundamentally concerning History and other relevant disciplines and related areas. It publishes articles in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese.
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Revista Complutense de Historia de América is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
Polo y La Borda, Adolfo: Global Servants of the Spanish King. Mobility and Cosmopolitanism in the Early Modern Spanish Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024, 343 pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Revista Complutense de Historia de América
The controversy over religious tolerance in the Mexican Constituent Assembly of 1856-1857. Rupture or continuity?
This article addresses the controversy surrounding religious tolerance in the Mexican Constitutional Congress of 1856-1857, providing a relevant historical context and an approach that focuses more on continuity with previous disputes than on the rupture brought about by the reform laws. It studies certain connotations of the proposed Article 15 of the Constitution, analyzes some implications of alternative wordings, explores the link between tolerance and federalism, and examines liberal reservations regarding non-Christian faiths. It weighs the positions of the moderates, which were not always opposed to and sometimes aligned with those of the purists. Finally, it examines the trajectory of Ponciano Arriaga, president of the congress, regarding tolerance, as well as the votes of future reformist figures. Thus, it proposes understanding the debate in terms of continuity rather than rupture, emphasizing the points of convergence among liberals less in terms of disagreements and more in terms of points of convergence.
Copyright (c) 2026 Revista Complutense de Historia de América
American Trade in 19th-Century Philippines. The Role of Trading Houses (1832–1861)
This paper examines the role of U.S. consuls in Manila during the 19th century, focusing on their trade relations and the documentation sent to the Department of State. Consular documentation from 1832 to 1861 is particularly interesting in records of ship entries and departures, as well as certificates issued for commercial transactions, providing insight into the consolidation of U.S. trading houses in the 19th century Philippines
The Economic Utility of British Consuls in the Philippines, 1844–1864: The Cases of John William Farren and Nicholas Loney
This article contributes to the historiographical debate on the usefulness of foreign consuls through the study of a specific case: that of the British consuls in the Philippines, a colonial territory, which endowed it with special characteristics. To this end, it analyzes the figures of Consul John William Farren (1844-1864) and Vice-Consul Nicholas Loney (1856-1869) and their involvement in the following issues: the actions they undertook to boost trade, exports, imports, and investments in various fields; the relationships they established with various agencies for these purposes; the transnational networks they fostered; and the assessment the consular agents made of their own work. The article demonstrates, in conclusion, that the British's significant economic involvement in the Philippines was supported not only by commercial, political, and geostrategic approaches linked to India, Southeast Asia, China, and Australia, but also by the dedication and commitment demonstrated by British consular staff in the region and by the local and internationalnetworks created.
El rol económico de los cónsules extranjeros en las Filipinas del siglo XIX
A Valuable Consul: The Economic Importance of the First German Professional Consul in the Philippines (1881-1885)
Among the duties of a consul in the 19th century were the representation of their State, the protection of their nationals, and the communication with their governments, serving their country at both the political and economic levels. This article addresses the function of the German consul from an economic perspective and aims to highlight their usefulness for the government and the economy of their country. The focus is on the first professional consul of the German Empire in the Philippines, Peter Kempermann (1881-1886), who periodically sent reports to Berlin. His texts have great historiographical value because they reveal the commercial considerations of his time and underscore the specific value of a career consul in East Asia. The article will present two types of reports that he regularly wrote, concerning his management and the different commercial opportunities. It will also offer an overview of the most pressing concerns of the consulate in Manila during those years and, in the end, present a specific study by Kempermann on the situation of German export trade, ways to increase it, and possible contributions from the consuls. His analyses and recommendations are highly insightful for understanding the economy of the Philippines and the concerns of overseas trade during Germany’s industrialization boom.
Belgian interests and private business dealings of the last consul in the Philippines during the imperial transition
The article analyzes the figure of the Belgian consul in the Spanish Philippines, a position held by businessmen linked to international commercial firms and Belgian tobacco companies established in the archipelago after the disestablishment. They combined their economic activities with the tasks of the consul, a workload that could be assumed due to the lack of compatriots. But this position also made it possible to come into contact with authorities and handle privileged information that could be used to obtain an important economic return. This was the case with the last Belgian consul of the Spanish period, Édouard André, who went on to create a powerful company before being accused of smuggling and arms trafficking by the United States during the imperial transition.
Much paper for few goods:The economic information produced by French consuls in Manila and its circulation in France (1836-1898)
France never managed, in the last six decades of Spanish rule, to secure a position among the commercial partners of the Philippines that was worthy of its status as a global economic power. This article does not aim to analyze the multiple causes of this failure; rather, it sets three more modest objectives: to assess the volume and quality of economic information gathered by the French consuls in Manila; to measure the dissemination of this data within French economic circles; and to attempt to explain the consuls' inability to reverse the course of events.
Violence and homicides in the Franciscan Missions of Alta California: illicit sexual relations and gender variables (New Spain, 1796-1803)
This paper focuses on the influence of gender relations in the planning and execution of three homicides —two indigenous women and one man— perpetrated by other Indians in the Franciscan missions of Alta or Nueva California at the dawn of the 18th century. The analysis emphasizes the judicial handling of the cases by the military justice system on this frontier as well as the interference of ecclesiastical asylum in the resolution of the cases. On the one hand, this approach examines how gender variables determined the way the homicides were premeditated or not and the manner arguments were presented by the accused, accomplices, and witnesses. On the other hand, it seeks to show how gender configurations influenced the moral and penal categories used to judge and punish the murderers and the role played by illegitimate relationships outside of marriage during the judicial proceedings. We assume that homicidal violence occurred within a missionary context where demands, physical punishment, resistance, outflows, and uprisings formed the basis upon which multiple forms of violence manifested.
The Enrollment of Soldiers for the Revolutionary Wars at the Río de la Plata, 1810-1828. A Historiographical Debt and a Possibility for Public History
Our knowledge about what happened during the wars of the revolution has been enriched in recent years. The incorporation of other analytical perspectives led to the emergence of new research questions, which were, similarly, still worked on using a known corpus of documents, but interrogated in a different way. However, this historiographical renewal still has clear gaps. One of the central topics that has not been fully explored has to do with the recruitment for the revolutionary armies. This paper proposes to reflect on the possibility of carrying out a research project based on the affiliation records found in Sala III of the Archivo General de la Nación. Furthermore, taking into account other experiences, we raise the possibility of developing a Public History project based on the survey of this documentation and the development of a historical research project.
Ciclo de Conferencias sobre Historia de América, 2025-2026. Máster Universitario en Historia y Antropología de América, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
The tribulations of a Spanish American “afrancesado” agent: the rise and fall of the II count of Casa-Valencia, 1808-1816
This article reconstructs the life of Pedro Felipe Valencia, the II count of Casa-Valencia, between 1808 and 1816. The count was a Spanish American imperial agent who transitioned from being an enlightened bourbon to an afrancesado, and from that to a American patriot, according both to his political convictions and to his material and strategic needs of survival. The methodology employed is that of global microhistory, via a biographical study which transcends the local space and moves into the transnational framework. In order to do so, the article compares the count’s personal view of the world, as represented in letters and personal reports, to that of other people of the period who also described and reflected on the significance of their actions. The originality of the paper lies in how it details the imbrications of the global structures of the revolutions of independence in the life of an “afrancesado” who ended up exiled in New Granada.
García Jordán, Pilar: La Chiriguanía en el Museo Nacional de Antropología y Etnología de Florencia. Para una historia de la colección de objetos de cultura material chiriguana. Lima, La Paz: Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, Plural Editores, 2024. 175 pp.
Buonuome, Juan: Un diario para el pueblo. Periodismo de izquierda en la historia argentina. Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 2025. 254 pp.
Niño, Antonio (Ed.): Hispanismo. La cultura hispánica interpretada desde el exterior. Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2024. 464 pp.
Irurozqui, Marta y Macías, Flavia (Eds.): Vientos de Reforma. Hispanoamérica, siglo XIX. Madrid: Sílex Ultramar, 2025. 362 pp.
Perruca Gracia, Marina: Nápoles global. La ciudad capital y los virreyes en la monarquía de Felipe IV (1637-1647). Bruselas: Peter Lang, 2025. 468 pp.
Martínez Torres, José Antonio, Valpuesta Villa, Iñigo, (Eds.): Un Oriente Ibérico. Política, cultura e intercambios mercantiles en el nacimiento de la globalización, 1580-1668. Granada: Editorial Comares, 2025, 283 p.
Tovar, Juan de. Historia mexicana. Edición crítica, estudio y notas por Jaime Marroquín Arredondo y José Luis Nogales Baena. Madrid: Iberoamericana; Frankfurt: Vervuert; Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, 2025. 428 pp.
Di Liscia, María Silvia y González de Oleaga, Marisa (eds.): Memorias en guerra. Colonialismo y resistencia en museos y monumentos, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, 2025.
Graciela Jorge, Carme Martinez, Imma Moratalla (Palimpsesto EIH). Ellas empoderan al Che. Buenos Aires, LP Editores, 2025.
The power disputes in a kingdom that was interested in preserving: Governor Alonso de Ribera, viceroy Luis de Velasco and the local elites in Chile (1598-1605)
This work aims to analyze the confrontations of power between governor Alonso de Ribera, the viceroy of Peru Luis de Velasco y Castilla and the local elites of the governorship of Chile related to the war in the transitional period between the reigns of Felipe II to Felipe III. It’s important to focus on the political war phenomena from a local perspective in dialogue with the central powers that were redefining the objectives to preserve dynastic domains. 1598 marks a milestone in the history of Chile due to the death of the then governor and his host, which at the same time provoked a general crisis in several of the cities of the governorship. In that context, Ribera was appointed governor, because as an experienced soldier of the Royal Thirds he was the ideal man to put an end to the war. However, in 1605 he was displaced from his post by order of the king, due to the complaints and intrigues of various local factions linked to the interests of the viceroy of Peru. In those years, the bases of political management were still being defined. Their construction was not linear or vertical, but rather conflictive and complex, especially because of the confrontation between the same local elements who claimed their own “remedie” and proposals to govern and manage war. Therefore, when focusing on the agents (viceroy, governor, elites), together with a critical reading of a vast documentation (letters, memorials, relationships, instructions, chapter records, among others), it’s possible to understand how the the dynamics of power worked in a kingdom that the king sought to preserve and defend within the Catholic monarchy. Eventhough historians have often pointed out that these dominions were considered worthless, peripheral, poor and unattractive by contemporaries, the existing documents nuances that opinion and even denies it.
Partitions and inventories of assets in 19th century Venezuela: an approach to the study of the legal framework. Canton of Petare. 1820-1899
In the 19th century, the majority of the inhabitants of the canton of Petare and the regions under its administration, Baruta, El Hatillo, Guarenas, Guatire, dedicated themselves to the cultivation of coffee and sugar cane, and built an estate thanks to the exploitation of these items, which, after their death, was divided among their heirs. The objective of this work is to study these partitions that were registered between 1820 and 1899, which are preserved in the General Archive of the Nation, in Caracas, in a repository of notarial protocols organized under the name of the Registry Office of the First Circuit of the Sucre District of the State of Miranda, which includes precisely the localities of the former Petareño canton, to know the mechanics of the partition process and who was involved: the hereditary community on the one hand and the competent authority on the other. another, and establish how the first, interested in legitimizing the process, was related to the second, although it resorted to it from the beginning or after the partition was carried out. In this regard, the study seeks to specify when these were judicial efforts and when they were extrajudicial. Finally, it investigates the work of the notary public when appointing the experts responsible for preparing the inventory that is drawn up prior to the partition. For all these purposes, the study takes into account the legal regulations in force at the time, including the laws of Castile and the nineteenth-century national civil codes.
Social interactions and dynamics of daily life in the Gran Nayar: A look at the end of the 18th century through Captain Calleja’s report
This article studies various aspects of daily life in the province of Gran Nayar at the end of the eighteenth century, focusing on the social interactions between the Cora Indians and the colonial authorities, particularly the missionaries and the military. The proposal that is developed adopts a sociocultural perspective to analyze local transformations through cultural manifestations and social relations. The methodology used is based on historical synthesis, which allowed the reconstruction of a general panorama from the analysis of the information provided by the primary sources reviewed. The results of the research show that relations between the indigenous people and the colonial authorities were marked by the abuse of power, which generated suffering, hunger and a decrease in economic activities such as mining and trade in the area. In addition, the deterioration of the religious and civil infrastructure was documented, as well as the depopulation of this area at the end of the 18th century.
Resistance as a service to restore good government in the kingdoms in Europe and America (16th and 17th centuries)
This study’s goal is to analyse armed resistance in different kingdoms of the Spanish Habsburg’s monarchy under the idea that those could be seen as a service to the king, a way to show him that they are badly governed and that his intervention is needed in order to restore good government. In a way, it would be an extension of the well know concept of “obey, but do not comply”. It would also be clearly distanced from rebellion which, by definition, would be an illegitimate behaviour by the vassals. To carry out this study, we use key concepts of this era, such as good government, justice, council and service. The analysis will be done around the ideas of royal absenteeism, the misinformation of the King and the appeals towards him to restore justice. In order to show the universality of this phenomenon we use examples from different territories of the monarchy and even Crown’s relationship with indigenous people, without intending, in any way, to include the totality of possible cases that could be included.
Discourses on survival and the fight against religion transgression in the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos (Upper Peru, 1691-1720)
The objective of this article is to analyze the discursive character of the phenomenon of religion transgression in the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos, contained in the letters annuities of the Jesuit province of Paraguay, during its first decades of existence (1691-1720), emphasizing the sin of idolatry and the rhetorical means necessary to confront the phenomenon of demonic influence. We consider that the analysis of this documentation at an early stage allows us to reconstruct some narratives concerning the process of indoctrination among the Indians of the Alto Peruvian frontier. We seek to explain the characteristics of an official rhetoric that formed a set of missionary knowledge and wisdom that legitimized the Jesuit project and that were closely in tune with the political dominion exercised by the Hispanic Monarchy in its overseas territories.
The collection of the gracious service and borrowing of 1589 in the Audiencia de Charcas: institutional actors, political diligences and persuasive rhetoric, 1590-1593
Contemporary research has focused on the donations or services provided free of charge that enabled the Crown to generate extraordinary revenue in Spanish America from the 16th century onwards. This was facilitated by the absence in Spanish America of a Cortes, which would have forced negotiations and delayed this tax collection. However, donations were also based on shared social representations of the loyal vassal who had to demonstrate his love for the monarch and repay his protection, particularly in his defence of the Catholic faith, as well as on conceptions of donation. Based on published and unpublished sources from Spanish and Bolivian archives, this article analyses the collection of the gracioso service tax in 1589 in the Audiencia de Charcas —which continued until the early 17th century— examining the participation of institutional actors, political proceedings and persuasive rhetoric aimed at sensitising and persuading Spanish and indigenous subjects to commit to the gracious service and borrowing contributions.
Jurisdiction in the Culture of the Monarchy. Its personal nature in the culture and legal tradition
This study examines the question of jurisdiction in the kingdoms of the Indies from the perspective of a specific approach to reading the sources. Based on the rubric of one of the titles of the Ordinances of Audiences of 1563, the categories of jurisdiction and office, as well as the essentially personal nature of jurisdiction, are reviewed in their cultural context
“He was deprived of reason due to drunkenness”: Negotiating criminal liability for crimes committed under the effects of alcohol y late colonial Chile
This article examines judicial records in which drunkenness and its disturbing effect on reason was used as an argument to plea for a mitigation of sentence during the 18th century in the Capitanía General de Chile. Drunkenness was conceived as a vice, passion and excess typical of the lower sorts, and was associated with incivility and lack of control. The article explains that although the judicial framework of the Spanish Monarchy conceived drunkenness as an extenuating circumstance from legal responsibility, the argument rarely was successful in mitigating penalties. It suggests that drunkenness, understood as a state temporary mental disturbance, was conceived as an illness similar to madness but not completely like it. Judicial records examined in the article show that although it was believed that this illness had begun through the voluntary act of drinking, the effects alcohol had on the mind and rational judgement were beyond one’s control, like any other effects of illness. However, given the negative and dangerous consequences of this behavior on social order, the judicial system was reluctant to accept it as a mitigating circumstance.
The captaincies of Brazil under the gaze of the Spanish Monarchy: reports from ambassadors, spies and the Council of the Indies (1530-1579)
This study will focus on analysing the information gathered by agents of the Spanish Monarchy about the captaincies of Brazil. Through the compilation of the topics covered in the reports produced by ambassadors, spies, cosmographers, members of the Council of the Indies, and officials residing in the Viceroyalty of Peru from the 1530s, when the captaincy system was established, until the years prior to the union of the Iberian crowns. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the knowledge that agents of the Spanish Monarchy had about the captaincies of Brazil throughout the 16th century.