Revolutionen in Lateinamerika. Wege in die Unabhängigkeit 1760-1830 (review)
Stefan Rinke has written a noteworthy synthetic history of Latin American paths to independence. This is no small feat given the recent outpouring of research generated during the bicentennial period, or rather, what many celebrated as such. Rinke draws on an impressive array of scholarship in five languages. By tapping into this vein he provides a solid narrative geared toward the German-reading student and general audience. Scholars of independence have largely moved away from seeing narrow violent upheavals as the foundries of nations. Rather, the temporal scope has been widened to open the perspective onto the origins and the consequences of independence, stressing continuities and arguably placing the ordeal within the Age of Revolutions that shook the Atlantic World. Meanwhile, some historians of popular movements maintain that especially men of more humble and casta origin enjoyed a cautious democratic spring as a result of independence. In this way they are reapproaching the original paradigm of significant change within a short period but from a very different angle.