The question of defense: reflections on the militia in nineteenth century Latin America

Resumo

This essay centers on a single subject: the role of the armed forces in nineteenth century Latin American republics. The purpose is to discuss the Spanish-American militia experience, its coexistence with the regular professional forces and its place in the frame of politics. First, I re-examine the militia’s pathway from colonial to republican institution, considering not only the impact of war but also the political practices inaugurated in the process of revolution and independence. Second, I revisit the National Guard from the point of view of state construction. I discuss its role in the framework of the mixed defensive system, paying attention to the modes of organization and the distribution of military power that this institution embodied. I consider its often tense coexistence with the standing army and ask, in the framework of these new nation-states, what issues, and solutions did the National Guard represent, in defensive, military and political terms. Finally, building off of recent historiography, I re-examine the relationship between politics and violence through the principle of the “citizenry in arms,” a concept embodied in the militia tradition and institutionalized through the National Guard. Although historiography has made significant progress in its understanding of the "citizenry in arms" principle -and its impact on both the republican construction and political practices-, key questions remain regarding how the exercise of the “right to bear arms” was shared with-or disputed- by members of the standing army: How did republican institutions react to the participation of professional soldiers in revolutions and armed uprisings? How might we understand the tension between a so-called “crime of sedition” and the instituted “right and obligation” of citizens to take up arms in defense of the nation? I will examine these questions at the end of the nineteenth century, a time when the issue of defending the republic was reactivated in several cases.