Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies: Simon Bolivar, Foreign Mercenaries and the Birth of New Nations: 8 (Liverpool Latin American Studies) - Softcover

Matthew Brown

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184631044X ISBN 13: 9781846310447

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 2006

Synopsis

There is a crease to the front cover and some shelf wear. Between 1810 and 1825, seven thousand British, Scottish, and Irish mercenaries traveled to Gran Colombia to fight against Spanish colonial rule under the rebel forces of Simn Bolvar. Their motives were mixed. Some traveled for money, others for honor. Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies explores the lives of these men-their encounters with other soldiers, indigenous people, local women, and slaves-as recounted in adventure stories, military histories, and British imperial history. As Matthew Brown illustrates, the history of Britain and its colonial subjects can no longer be easily defined. The colonists were themselves adventurers, penetrating Latin America beyond the formal boundaries of the empire during the early nineteenth century, and even (as these narratives show) fighting for its independence. As Brown demonstrates, these foreigners were an essential part of the revolution that eventually gave Spain's colonies their freedom. Using archival research from England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia, Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies clearly shows the active role these mercenaries played in the creation of Latin America as we know it today.

About this title

Review:

This is a very enjoyable book to read, full of surprising and suggestive insights. Perhaps most importantly, it is an interpretation that adds complexity, and nuances, to long-standing historiographical views of British involvement in the Spanish American Wars of "Independence, of early Spanish American concepts of nationhood and ethnicity, and of the impact these adventurers' actions had in the region. ... this is a noteworthy contribution."--Latin American Studies

"Many people have tried to write this book, but Matthew Brown finally has done it properly. It is a work of astonishing ambition and considerable labor and, through his new methodology, the author arrived at some surprising conclusions. Adventuring through Spanish colonies is an ambitious and successful book. In short, this book is a much needed corrective to earlier, more speculative accounts of the British and Irish recruits in Gran Colombia's independence armies."--Irish Migration Studies in Latin America

"This is a very enjoyable book to read, full of surprising and suggestive insights. Perhaps most importantly, it is an interpretation that adds complexity, and nuances, to long-standing historiographical views of British involvement in the Spanish American Wars of "Independence, of early Spanish American concepts of nationhood and ethnicity, and of the impact these adventurers' actions had in the region. ... this is a noteworthy contribution."--Latin American Studies

"Many people have tried to write this book, but Matthew Brown finally has done it properly. It is a work of astonishing ambition and considerable labor and, through his new methodology, the author arrived at some surprising conclusions. Adventuring through Spanish colonies is an ambitious and successful book. In short, this book is a much needed corrective to earlier, more speculative accounts of the British and Irish recruits in Gran Colombia's independence armies."--Irish Migration Studies in Latin America

Synopsis:

Between 1810 and 1825, seven thousand British, Scottish, and Irish mercenaries traveled to Gran Colombia to fight against Spanish colonial rule under the rebel forces of Simon Bolivar. Their motives were mixed. Some traveled for money, others traveled for honor. "Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies" explores the lives of these men - their encounters with other soldiers, indigenous people, local women, and slaves - as recounted in adventure stories, military histories, and British imperial history. As Matthew Brown illustrates, the history of Britain and its colonial subjects can no longer be easily defined. The colonists were themselves adventurers, penetrating Latin America beyond the formal boundaries of the empire during the early nineteenth century, and even (as these narratives show) fighting for its independence. As Brown demonstrates, these "foreigners" were an essential part of the revolution that eventually gave South America its freedom.

Using archival research from England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia, "Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies" clearly shows the active role these mercenaries played in the creation of Latin America as we know it today.

About this edition

• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 184631044X
• ISBN 13: 9781846310447
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256