Centre for the History of Ibero-America - CHIA

15/05/2023

CHIA Annual Lecture with Professor Eduardo Posada-Carbo (University of Oxford)
‘Historicizing the global history of democracy: Latin America in the nineteenth century’.


Abstract

If there is something that can be called the ‘Global history of democracy’, how has the topic been historicized? And if so, what is the place of Latin America in such a narrative? These are two distinct questions, which merit separate attention. By looking at the latter, I hope to be able to throw some light on the former. This lecture proposes therefore to examine various ways of approaching the subject by selectively looking at the narratives of democracy in 19th century Latin America produced in three moments: the 1930s, the 1990s, and the present.


Date: Wednesday 17 May 2023
Time: 4-5.30 PM GMT
Online via TEAMS

Message here for connection details, please.

All welcome!

01/12/2020

On Friday 4, December, we'll be talking to three leading historical journalists, YouTubers, and podcasters. For details visit

Gregorio Alonso, associate professor at the University of Leeds, will speak with three Spanish History communicators, well known both in conven

13/05/2019

TOMORROW, 14 May 1t 18:00, CHIA is delighted to welcome Professor Will Fowler (St. Andrew's), presenting the paper: "Mass murder in Mexico. The Civil War of Reforma, 1857-1861”. An abstract for the paper is below.

The talk, as ever, will be held in MSB, 3.11 (The Grant Room) and everyone is welcome. Afterwards, all attendees are welcome along for a drink nearby.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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The War of Reforma was the worst civil conflict to hit Mexico between the 1810 War of Independence and the 1910 Revolution. According to one source, over 200,000 people died. It witnessed, moreover, a crucial clash between two fundamentally opposed views of what Mexico was and should be about, and marked the beginning of the end of Mexico’s resilient colonial legacies. It saw Mexico’s first ethnically indigenous president – Benito Juárez – rise to power and witnessed the drafting of Mexico’s reform laws, which, in turn, changed church-state relations forever. And yet, remarkably, it is a war that has been forgotten by the historiography, overshadowed by the French Intervention that followed it (1862-67), with its imposition of Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian on the Mexican throne. The purpose of the talk is to offer an overview of the conflict and, in so doing, rescue it from oblivion.

30/04/2019

TONIGHT, 6PM in the Grant Room, CHIA are pleased to host Stephen Jacobson (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), with the paper: "Republican Imperial Pretensions in the Atlantic World: Southern European Legionnaires in Buenos Aires during the 1850s". An abstract is below. All are welcome to what looks to be a very interesting talk, and for a drink afterwards.

ABSTRACT:

The historiography of democratic political movements in the mid nineteenth century has been decidedly Eurocentric. After the end of the First Republic in France in 1851, survey histories ordinarily move to Garibaldi's landing in Sicily in 1860. Under this lens, the interceding period of the "Democratic International" of the 1850s is portrayed as a phase of clandestine organization coordinated by Mazzini. This standard account, however, ignores the Atlantic and Hispanic worlds where democratic political culture was by no means driven underground. Shortly after the European revolutions of 1848 had fizzled out, Spanish Republican began to thrive with the Revolution of 1854. What is more, the Río de la Plata was undergoing a major change. In 1851, a "Grand Alliance" of Latin American states freed Montevideo from a nine-year siege, and sent the Argentine dictator Juan Manuel Rosas -- the antichrist of worldwide republicanism -- into exile. In 1852, a liberal and republican Buenos Aires underwent a non-violent "September Revolution" and then successfully defended itself from a siege by the Confederation of Argentina. What is more, the state of Buenos Aires then launched an aggressive campaign against the Indians in south, commencing what would be later called the "conquest of the desert."



Many European migrants who arrived to Buenos Aires in the 1850s enlisted in the Argentine Army either as volunteers or legionnaires. By so doing, they rallied to the cause of a republican and imperial state in its quest to populate and colonize the southern cone. Those that enlisted as legionnaires joined what became known as the "Military-Agricultural Legion," initially led by Silvino Oliviere, a veteran of the Italian Legion of Montevideo. The Military-Agricultural Legion was a utopian community, consisting only of men, who founded the town, "New Rome," near Bahía Blanca, the southern outpost of the State of Buenos Aires. It consisted primarily of Italian, Spanish, and French migrants, though it also included North America, German, British and Irish. In addition to the Military Agricultural Legion, many other Europeans enlisted as "volunteers" in the Army and participated in the campaign against the Indians of the 1850s.



The presentation is based upon an analysis of database of some 400 European migrants who jointed the Military-Agricultural Legion or other battalions of the State of Buenos Aires. By exploiting enlistment archives, it is possible to extract valuable information concerning social class, professions, literacy, and even anthropomorphic measurements. This data is complemented by a discussion of a jingoist press that portrayed the State of Buenos Aires as the civilizer of Argentina, and the vanguard of transatlantic republicanism. By exploring events in Río de la Plata, this paper challenges traditional narratives that have characterized the Democratic International as a romantic manifestation of "Italian idealism", and explores the transatlantic and imperial strength of the movement.

17/04/2019

CHIA's annual Postgraduate Research Symposium is now calling for papers for the event, to be held on Friday, 31st May.

Open to PGRs and ECRs working on Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American History, it is a wonderful opportunity to meet and building connections with researchers from across the discipline.

Proposals should be up to 250 words and be sent to [email protected] by 1st May.

Please do pass on the CfP to anyone who might be interested in attending.

26/03/2019

Tomorrow and Thursday, CHIA is proud to be involved in this conference, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War. Bringing together leading experts on refugees and exiles after the War, this is a totally free event which is open to all. Full details, including registration, can be found via the eventbrite link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/refugees-and-exile-commemorating-the-80th-anniversary-of-the-end-of-the-spanish-civil-war-tickets-56827597875

Pictured are Scott Ramsay and Dr. Peter Anderson at the recent opening of the IBMT and Basque Childrens Association Exhibition at Leeds Central Library, which is still on display to the public.

We hope to see many of you there over the next two days.

19/03/2019

Tonight, 5:30PM at Leeds Central Library, is the exhibition launch for the "Eightieth Anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War". Featuring exhibitions from the International Brigade Memorial Trust and one from the Basque Children of ’37 Association.

Introducing the two presentations and giving some historical background are Dr. Peter Anderson and Scott Ramsay, Associate Professor and PhD Research in the School of History respectively. Talks begin at 6PM.

There are still a handful of tickets left here:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/leeds/leeds-central-library-leodis-room-3rd-floor/eightieth-anniversary-of-the-end-of-the-spanish-civil-war-exhibition-launch

We look forward to seeing many of you there!

Tickets are now available for Eightieth Anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War - Exhibition Launch at Leeds Central Library, Leodis Room, 3rd Floor, Leeds on Tuesday 19 March 2019. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!

11/03/2019

Tomorrow, 6PM, CHIA is pleased to welcome Pol Dalmau, (Leibniz Institute of European History) giving the talk: "Press, Politics and National Identities in Catalonia". An extract of the talk is below; all are welcome, both for the talk and drinks afterwards.

March 12, Grant Room (MSB 3.11), 6PM.

For more than three generations, the members of the Godó family controlled Barcelona's top-selling newspaper La Vanguardia, navigating it through the country's turbulent 20th century. Whether under the corrupt politics of the Bourbon Restoration, the takeover of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, or the radical transformations of the Second Republic, La Vanguardia remained Barcelona's journalistic benchmark. Central to this success was the Godó family's capacity to turn their newspaper into an active mouthpiece for Catalan interests in the rest of the Spain. In parallel, ownership of the newspaper allowed the family members to expand their interests into other fields, such as politics, business, and colonial rule in Cuba and Morocco.

This presentation will use the case of this renowned family in Barcelona to examine the changing relations between press and politics during the crisis of Liberalism in Europe. Thus, while contemporaries often noted the powerful influence that newspapers exerted over public affairs, historians have not systematically examined the role of press owners as "political actors". Additionally, La Vanguardia provides a unique gateway to examine the role of civil society in the shaping of national identity/identities, as well as the emergence of Spanish nationalism in Catalonia.

05/03/2019

"Religion, Medicine, and Blackness in the Iberian Atlantic", TOMORROW, Wednesday March 6th, 10am-12PM, Baines Wing SR (4.12)

Alongside the Health, Medicine and Society Research Group and the Baines Research Group, CHIA is hosting a workshop on black histories in the Iberian Atlantic world. All are most welcome. Details below:

Dr. Iona McCleery – ‘Using Disease to Differentiate: Fevers and Fluxes on São Tomé in the mid-sixteenth century’

Dr. Chloe Ireton – ‘Entangled Histories: Black Africans’ Visions of Just War and Just Slavery in the Early Spanish Empire’

Dr. Bethan Fisk- ‘“What filth are you to raise up an altar?”: Afro-Catholic Materialities in the Spanish Caribbean’

Prof. Manuel Barcia – ‘African healers in the final years of the transatlantic slave trade’


This workshop brings together three members of the School of History and Dr. Chloe Ireton (UCL) to talk about their current work on black histories in the Iberian Atlantic world. People of African descent in the early modern Atlantic world had an adaptive approach to religious knowledge, medicine, and illness. The construction of pluralistic and efficacious religious and medical epistemologies and methodologies, sourced from diverse traditions was an on-going process of transformation across time and space. Papers explore religion and medicine across the Iberian Atlantic—from Seville, to São Tomé, to Cartagena de Indias, and Cuba—throughout the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. This workshop showcases the growing field of interconnected histories of the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds and trajectories particular to the Iberian Black Atlantic.

Tea, coffee and cake will be served.

25/02/2019

Tomorrow at 5PM we're delighted to welcome Dr. Maggie Torres, giving the paper 'The Reconstruction of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo during the political transition to democracy in Spain, 1976-1979'.

Dr. Torres' paper examines the increasing polarisation between ‘radical anarchists’ and ‘reformist syndicalists’, the ostensible reason for the split in the organisation at the CNT Congress in December, 1979. It examines the factors which exacerbated divisions during these years, within the context of the specific nature of the political transition to democracy in Spain.

All are welcome - as ever, there will be a trip for a post-talk drink.

18.00-19.30 MSB 3.11 (The Grant Room)