From Colony to Nation: Essays on the Independence of Brazil by A. J. R.

Russell-Wood
Review by: Dauril Alden
The American Historical Review, Vol. 81, No. 3 (Jun., 1976), pp. 701-702
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1852661 .
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 Latin America 701

NICOLAS CHEETHAM. New Spain: The BirthofModern impressive contribution by J. I. Israel scholars
Mexico. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.; distributed have a major contribution in both informationand
by International Publications Service, Collings interpretation. The terms race, class, and politics
Inc., New York. 1974. Pp. 336. $15.00. in the title convey only a partial idea of the book's
This work, written by a British scholar and dipl- intricate and intermeshirngtopics, which include
ecclesiastical hierarchies, the seventeenth cen-
omat, is in this reviewer's opinion, the best syn-
tury's economic crises, illegal profit-making by
thesis of early MNIexicanhistory in English. The
viceroys,and many others. With respect to the title
author has digested, synthesized, and organized
the dates 1621-1664 more accurately reflect the
most of the relevant secondary and some primary
book's contents than 161o-1670.
source material. He is familiar with and makes
Race and class are first analyzed in separate
excellent use of both English- and Spanish-lan-
chapters on Indians, Spaniards, and others, with a
guage material. Yet, despite the general excellence
valuable chapter on some minority groups that
and readability of the book, he provides no new
material for professional historians interested in have been generally overlooked: Basques, Portu-
guese, Italians, and Jews. The author then moves
the historyof Nlexico.
T he work is divided into fiveparts. The sections to the section on political life,especially the upper-
level political lifeof the viceregal capital. Here the
include pre-Colombian nations, the conquest, the
early period of Spanish rule under Cortes, vice- controversies that so frequently disturbed the life
regal government,and the attempts of the Spanish of the colony, together with the rumors, threats,
scandals, and related incidents, are recounted in
governmentand church authorityto bring about a
cultural, social, and political integration of the detail. Not since H. H. Bancroft-who receives
Indian subjects. The weakest chapters are the praise as a great" historian-has this kind of
early ones on pre-Colombian civilization and the material been taken so seriously. But what Israel
does that Bancroft failed to do is to impose order
conquest. MIuch of this material has been covered
in greater detail in other works. Reading Chee- and system on a history that has seemed to most
tham's book is no substitute for reading Bernal students a miscellany of unrelated or superficial
Diaz's account or Robert Padden's study of several squabbles. Conflicts between viceroy and arch-
bishop are shown to have an unexpected continu-
years ago. TIhe section on Spanish colonial govern-
ity over time, with the secular clergy, largely
ment and the Spanish attempts at cultural in-
Creole, functioning as the viceroy's opposition.
tegration contains much material that is otherwise
The tumult of 1624, which a generation of histo-
unavailable to the lay reader. The author not only
rians, following C. L. Guthrie, has attributed to
uses the most recent scholarly material to explain
shortages and high prices, is assigned here to polit-
this period, but he uses it in a remarkably exciting
ical causes. The development of topics in the local
way. His approach to the Aztec government and
NMexicanscene is clarified, wherever possible, by
that of the Spanish colonial authority is
reference to the particular circumstances of the
even-handed and scholarly. His general inter-
parent country. Thus readers learn, for the first
pretation is obviously influenced by Hanke, Gib-
time so far as this reviewer is aware, of the con-
son, and Ricard.
nection between the Portuguese independence
This is a very welcome and useful edition to the
movement of 1640 and the rivalry in Mexico be-
general literature on New Spain. I would recom-
tween the D)uque de Escalona and Juan de Palafox
mend it to anyone going to 1Mexico or to anyone
y N4endoza. T here are many other examples.
with a general interest in Mexican history, colo-
In recent decades the tendency among historians
nialism, or the anthropology of indigenous peo-
of Nlexico has been toward social, socioeconomic,
ples. It would be very helpful for this work to be
or even anthropological interpretations. Israel's is
made available in paperback so that it could be
a socio-political interpretation, with emphasis on
used in general courses on Mlexican and Latin
the political, and its revisionary implications are
American history.
far-reaching.
ALBERT L. MICHAELS
CHARLES GIBSON
ofNew York,
StateUniversity
University
ofMichigan
Buffalo
J. R. RUSSELL-WOOD, editor. FromColonytoNation:
A.
Essays on theIndependence ofBrazil. (The Johns Hop-
J. I. ISRAEL. Race, Class and Politicsin ColonialMexico, kins Symposia in Comparative History, volume 6.)
i6io-i67o. (Oxford Historical Monographs.) New Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
York: Oxford University Press. 1975. Pp. xiii, 305. 1975. Pp. xi, 267. $12.50.
$25.00.
Ihe years 1750-1822 were of decisive importance
We are gradually learning more about the seven- for Portugal and Brazil, beginning with the as-
teenth century in Mexican history, and with this cendancy of the strong-minded reformerand fu-

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
702 ReviewsofBooks
ture Mlarquis of Pombal and ending with political
separation. On the sesquicentenary of Brazilian
independence an international symposium of
scholars met at Johns Hopkins University to reas-
sess the preconditions and meaning of Brazilian
independence. Of the eight papers published here,
three have already appeared elsewhere.
Ihe stage is set with an overly long, somewhat
repetitiveintroduction by A. J. R. Russell-Wood,
well-known Brazilianist and organizer of the sym-
posium, who analyzes the nature of "the colonial
pact" between Brazilians and the metropolitan
regime and provides a detailed survey of the so-
cioeconomic development of late colonial Brazil.
Emilia Viotti da Costa examines the breakdown of
the colonial pact during the Court's thirteen-year
residency in Brazil (1808-1821). As she per-
ceptively demonstrates, Regent and later King
John VI was torn between a desire to dismantle
long-standing restrictions upon Brazilian eco-
nomic activities and a need to safeguard tradi-
tional Portuguese interests in his nation's most
valuable colony. Another Brazilian scholar, Maria
Odilia Silva Dias, emphasizes that the independ-
ence movement was neither revolutionary nor na-
tionalistic and did not produce a national con-
sensus until mid-century. Stanley E. Hilton
attacks the not very widely held "myth" that be-
tween i8o8 and 1824 Brazil and the United States
shared common ideals and values by demonstrat-
ing that the contrary was true.
The next pair of essays focus upon social themes.
Stuart B. Schwartz contends that after 1750 the
social structureof Brazil became increasingly com-
plex, in part because of the growthof an independ-
ent peasantry, and that a major task of the Brazil-
This content downloaded on Mon, 28 Jan 2013 07:02:09 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ian empire after 1822 was to find a satisfactory
formula "to accommodate the social tensions
created in the late colonial era" (p. 134). In a
characteristically graceful and informativepaper
Richard M. Morse tells us much about the urban
development of Brazil from the sixteenth to the
late nineteenth century but nothing about the
communities' involvement in the imperial crisis of
1820- 1822.
The last essays are concerned with intellectual
topics. In his elegantly writtenstudy Manoel Car-
dozo analyzes the significance of the passing of the
Baroque mood in Portugal and seemingly believes
that Brazilian independence was hastened by the
declining influence of the Church and the nobility
and by unwise Luso-Brazilian acceptance of un-
tried liberal dogmas. In an equally well-docu-
mented essay E. Bradford Burns assesses the in-
fluence of Brazilian urban intellectuals who were
leading advocates of change. Well read though
they may have been, it is difficult to see from
Burns' discussion how such a group helped engi-
neer Brazil's independence.
It is unfortunatethat the editor did not indicate
major areas of agreement and divergence among
his authors or summarize ways by which our
knowledge of the causes and consequences of Bra-
zilian independence has been advanced by these
essays. It is likewise regretable that the essayists
did not examine more closely internal develop-
mentswithinPortugalbetween 1807 and 1820 or
the impact upon Brazil of revolutionary move-
ments in Spanish America and in Europe. A useful
but not vital volume.
DAURIL ALDEN
of Washington
University