Forging parliamentary space: revolutionary assemblies in New Granada and Spain, 1810–31

SUMMARY

This article analyses the making of space in modern parliamentarism from a transatlantic perspective. By considering the case studies of New Granada and Spain between 1810 and 1831, this article focuses on the differences in shaping parliamentary space during the revolutionary period in Europe and the Americas. This study considers the multiplicity of spaces in the construction of parliaments as modern institutions. It also discusses the influences of early modern estate parliaments in the construction of new institutional space in revolutionary times. In the process, several elements will be considered, such as the choice of the town where parliaments convene and the internal organization of the assembly hall. It is argued that, despite similar issues beyond the construction of a new institution, the influence of the king’s presence in Spain led to a different shape of internal parliamentary space compared to New Granada. Such an approach makes an original contribution to the debates on the transformation of sovereignty during this period and it therefore reshapes the interpretation of the revolutionary process from a cultural perspective.

KEYWORDS:

• Parliament and space
• cultural history of politics
• age of revolutions
• Atlantic history
• Spanish history
• Colombia

Notes

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3 P. Manow, In the King's Shadow. The Political Anatomy of Democratic Representation (Oxford, 2014).

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5 A. Beihammer, ‘Comparative Approaches to the Ritual World of the Medieval Mediterranean’, in A. Beihammer (ed.), Court Ceremonies and Ritual of Power in Byzantium and the Medieval Mediterranean (Leiden, 2013), p. 8.

6 J. Paulmann, ‘Grenzüberschreitungen und Grenzräume: Überlegungen zur Geschichte transnationalen Beziehungen von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhundert bis in die Zeitgeschichte’, in E. Conze, U. Lappenküper and G. Müller (eds), Geschichte der internationalen Beziehungen: Erneuerung und Erweiterung einer historischen Disziplin (Cologne, 2004), pp. 169–96.

7 J. Adelman, ‘An Age of Imperial Revolutions’, The American Historical Review 113, (2008), pp. 319–40.

8 B. Stollberg-Rilinger, ‘Symbolische Kommunikation in der Vormoderne. Begriffe, Thesen, Forschungsperspektiven’, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 31, (2004), p. 503. From the same author, see also Ritualen (Frankfurt am Main, 2013), p. 14.

9 A.R. MacDonald, The Burghs and Parliament in Scotland, c.1550–1651 (Aldershot, 2007), ch. 7; S.M. Rai and R.E. Johnson (eds), Democracy in Practice: Ceremonial and Ritual in Parliament (Basingstoke, 2014).

10 Stollberg-Rilinger, Rituale, p. 132.

11 W. Paravicini, ‘Zeremoniell und Raum’, in W. Paravicini (ed.), Zeremoniell und Raum. 4. Symposium der Residenzen-Kommission der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen (Sigmaringen, 1997), pp. 11–36.

12 S. Wilentz (ed.), Rites of Power. Symbolism, Ritual, and Politics Since the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 1985); D.I. Kertzer, Ritual, Politics, and Power (New Haven, 1988).

13 L. Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (Berkeley, 1984); K. Herding and R. Reichardt, Die Symbolik der Französischen Revolution in ihrer Bildpublizistik (Frankfurt am Main, 1989); M. Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution (Cambridge, 1991).

14 Some exceptions in Ozouf, Festivals, ch. 6; C.T. Goodsell, ‘The Architecture of Parliaments: Legislative Houses and Political Culture’, British Journal of Political Science 18, (1988), pp. 287–302.

15 J. Paulmann, Pomp und Politik. Monarchen Begegnungen zwischen Ancien Régime und Erstem Weltkrieg (Paderborn, 2000); M. Schwengelbeck, Politik des Zeremoniells. Huldigungsfeiern im langen 19. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt am Main, 2007). For the early modern period, see B. Kümin (ed.), Political Space in Pre-industrial Europe (Farnham, 2009) and C. Windler (ed.), Kongressorte der frühen Neuzeit im europäischen Vergleich: der Frieder von Baden (1714) (Cologne, 2016).

16 R. Bourke, ‘Introduction’, in R. Bourke and Q. Skinner (eds), Popular Sovereignty in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, 2016), p. 12.

17 D. Bushnell, The Santander Regime in Gran Colombia (Westport, 1954), p. 50; J.H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World. Britain and Spain in America, 1492–1830 (New Haven, 2006), p. 329.

18 J. Hort, Architektur der Diplomatie: Repräsentation in europäischen Botschaftsbauten, 1800–1920 (Göttingen, 2014), p. 9; N. Puwar, ‘The Archi-texture of Parliament: Flaneur as Method in Westminster’, Journal of Legislative Studies 16, (2010), pp. 298–312.

19 D. Gutiérrez Ardila, Un nuevo reino. Geografía política, pactismo y diplomacia durante el Interregno en Nueva Granada (1808–1816) (Bogotá, 2010), ch. 5; M.T. Calderón and C. Thibaud, La majestad de los pueblos en Nueva Granada y Venezuela, 1780–1832 (Bogotá, 2010), pp. 103–6.

20 G. Loaiza Cano, ‘Las primeras constituciones de Colombia, 1811–1821’, Historia y Espacio 39, (2012), pp. 142–59.

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22 I. Jaksic and M. Leiras, Life Without the King: Centralists, Federalist, and Constitutional Monarchists in the Making of the Spanish American Republic, Working Paper (University of Notre Dame, 1998), p. 17.

23 N. Pérez-Serrano Jáuregui, En un lugar de las Cortes (Madrid, 2009), p. 99.

24 V Decret, 22 October 1813, Colección de los Decretos y Órdenes que han expedido las Cortes ordinarias, vol. V (Seville, 1821), pp. 7–8.

25 M. Chust (ed.), 1808, la eclosión juntera en el mundo hispano (Mexico City, 2007).

26 Federation Act, article 11, 1811, in Congreso de las Provincias Unidas, 1811–14, 2 vols (Bogotá, 1989), vol. 1, p. 4.

27 Bushnell, Santander Regime, p. 17.

28 Bushnell, Santander Regime, p. 21.

29 Archivo General de la Nación (Bogotá), Congreso, Leg. 912, fols 1–10, especially fols 2, 7 and 8.

30 Quoted in M. Ruiz Jiménez, ‘Los Salones de Cortes entre 1810 y 1814’, Cuadernos de Ilustración y Romanticismo 11, (2003), p. 107.

31 Quoted in Ruiz Jiménez, ‘Salones de Cortes’, p. 108.

32 C. Clemente Travieso, Las esquinas de Caracas (Caracas, 2007), pp. 111–12.

33 J.M. Groot, Historia Eclesiástica y Civil de Nueva Granada, 3 vols (Bogotá, 1869), vol. 2, p. 218; P.M. Ibáñez, Crónicas de Bogotá, vol. II (Bogotá, 1952), ch. XXXIX.

34 Quoted in S. Acosta de Samper, Biografía del General Antonio Nariño (Pasto, 1910), p. 91.

35 F. Duque Betancur, Historia del Departamento de Antioquia (Medellín, 1967), pp. 434–5.

36 G. Mollien, Viaje por la República de Colombia en 1823 (Bogotá, 1944), p. 185.

37 Manow, King's Shadow, pp. 1–7.

38 Chust (ed.), la eclosión juntera; A. Moliner Prada, Revolución burguesa y movimiento juntero en España: la acción de las juntas a través de la correspondencia diplomática y consular francesa (Lleida, 1997).

39 C. Schröer, Republik im Experiment. Symbolische Politik im revolutionären Frankreich (1792–1799) (Cologne, 2014), p. 171.

40 J.M. Gentil Baldrich, ‘La tipología arquitectónica de las salas parlamentarias doceañistas: una hipótesis de origen y significación’, in J. Cano Bueso (ed.), Materiales para el estudio de la Constitución de 1812 (Seville, 1989), pp. 313–41; from the same author, ‘Paper on the Symbolism of the Architectonic Structure of Spanish Parliamentary Rooms and Some Andalusian Examples’, in El edificio sede del Parlamento de Andalucía. El hospital de las Cinco Llagas (Seville, 2007), pp. 255–71.

41 Manow, King's Shadow, pp. 37 and 34.

42 C. Sanz de Miguel, ‘Los proyectos de Silvestre Pérez para el foro de José Napoleón I Bonaparte en Madrid: un nuevo urbanismo para una nueva monarquía ilustrada’, in Hacia 1812 desde el siglo ilustrado. Actas del V Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Española de Estudios del Siglo XVIII (Gijón, 2013), pp. 753–70.

43 In the case of Napoleonic assembly rooms for Spain, Figure 1 still presents a seating plan with division or social orders.

44 T. Weller, Theatrum Praecedentiae. Zeremonieller Rang und gesellschaftlicher Ordnung in der frühneuzeitliche Stadt: Leipzig 1500–1800 (Darmstadt, 2006), ch. III; from the same author, ‘War Kastilien anders? Zeremoniell und Verfahren des kastilischen Cortes’, in T. Neu, M. Sikora and T. Weller (eds), Zelebrieren und Verhandeln. Zur Praxis ständischer Institutionen im frühneuzeitlichen Europas (Münster, 2009), pp. 61–88.

45 T. Tackett, Becoming a Revolutionary: The Deputies of the French National Assembly and the Emergence of a Revolutionary Culture (1789–1791) (Princeton, 1996), p. 121.

46 M.P. Fitzsimmons, The Remaking of France: The National Assembly and the Constitution of 1791 (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 42–3.

47 Manow, King's Shadow, p. 11.

48 Manow, King's Shadow, p. 23.

49 F.A. Mignet, History of the French Revolution, from 1789 to 1814 (London, 1873), p. 33.

50 Actas de Instalación del Segundo Congreso Nacional de Venezuela. Angostura, 15 February 1819; Spanish Parliamentary Proceedings, 9 July 1820, Diarios de Sesiones de la Legislatura de 1820, 1 DVD (Madrid, 2000), p. 16.

51 P. Rosanvallon, The Society of Equals (Cambridge, 2013), pp. 42–4; K.M. Baker, ‘Defining the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-century France: Variations on a Theme by Habermas’, in C. Calhoun (ed.), Habermas and the Public Sphere (Cambridge, MA, 1992), pp. 181–211.

52 S.M. Rai, ‘Analysing Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament’, The Journal of Legislative Studies 16, (2010), pp. 284–97.

53 I. Castells Oliván and E. Fernández García, ‘Las mujeres y el primer constitucionalismo español (1810–1823)’, Historia Constitucional. Revista Electrónica de Historia Constitucional 10, (2009), pp. 63–136; G. Espigado Tocino, ‘Mujeres y ciudadanía en el primer liberalismo español’, Revista HmiC: Història Moderna i Contemporània 1, (2003), pp. 171–94.

54 Manow, King's Shadow, pp. 56–66.

55 Mollien, Viaje a Colombia, p. 154.

56 Gutiérrez Ardila, Un nuevo reino, pp. 216–29.

57 Archivo Histórico Restrepo, vol. 11, fol. 1.

58 Congreso de las Provincias Unidas, vol. 1, p. 53, 4 October 1812.

59 Acta de Instalación del Segundo Congreso Nacional de Venezuela, 15 February 1819.

60 Ruiz Jiménez, ‘Salones de Cortes’, p. 100. This author states that the works took place during the first 19 days of September.

61 Cortes Generales y Extraordinarias, 24 de Septiembre de 1810: noticias y sucesos dignos de mención referentes a esta época (Cadiz, 1896), p. 7.

62 Mollien, Viaje a Colombia, p. 185.

63 Mollien, Viaje a Colombia, p. 185.

64 Archivo General de la Nación (Bogotá), Congreso, Leg. 28, fols 650–654.

65 Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia, PL 196, Num. 43.

66 Mollien, Viaje a Colombia, p. 185.

67 Quoted in Ruiz Jiménez, ‘Salones de Cortes’, p. 101.

68 Quoted in J.M. Gentil Baldrich, ‘Noticia de Antonio Prat, arquitecto del Salón de Cortes de 1813’, Boletín de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando 85, (1997), p. 466.

69 Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia, PL 196, Num. 32.

70 Manow, King's Shadow, p. 10.

71 Constitution of Cundinamarca, Title III, article 5.

72 Spanish Parliamentary Proceedings, 9 July 1820, p. 16.

73 Archivo del Congreso, P-01-76-19, fols 30–35, 20 April 1814.

74 Col. W.M. Duane, A Visit to Colombia in the Years 1822 & 1823 (Philadelphia, 1826), p. 514.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jorge Luengo

Jorge Luengo is currently a Beautriu de Pinós postdoctoral fellow at the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. He studied history at the universities of Valladolid and Münster. In 2011 he obtained a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence. In 2013 he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, where he also held a Humboldt research fellowship in 2014–15. He has also been a visiting researcher at the Berliner Kolleg für Vergleichende Geschichte Europas in Berlin, at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. His research interests focus on modern Spanish, European and Latin American history, transnational and transatlantic history, the social and cultural history of politics, and symbolic communication. His current research focuses on the Spanish–Catalan conflict of national identities throughout the twentieth century, and the role of symbolic politics on the emergence of modern parliaments in the Hispanic Atlantic during the age of revolutions. He has published Una sociedad conyugal: las élites de Valladolid en el espejo de Magdeburgo en el siglo XIX (Valencia, 2014) and several articles in journals and edited volumes.