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The participation of the subaltern groups to the Spanish-American independent movements is at the centre of this article. Though historiography has always underestimated their contribution to the wars that liberated Spanish American territories from Spain, subaltern sectors (indigenous, free people of colour and slaves) played indeed a very important and active role during the this period. Not only they participated to the armies that defeated the Spanish, but they had significant political objectives to attain. Like the elites, they understood that the collapse of the Spanish monarchy had opened some possibilities of action, unimaginable before 1808. Wars implied de facto an improvement of the social and political conditions of popular groups: for the free coloureds meant the access of citizenship; for slaves, the acquisition of freedom; for the indigenous people, the defence of their lands.

No obstante que la historiografía haya siempre considerado el 10 de agosto de 1809 —fecha de la creación de la primera junta quiteña— como la «fecha-símbolo» del movimiento independentista ecuatoriano, este ensayo subraya la importancia de la experiencia de la segunda junta quiteña —la que se formó en septiembre de 1810 y que duró dos años— en tanto momento de transición fundamental entre la época colonial y la republicana. Mientras que la Junta de 1809 había intentado reafirmar su supremacía sobre el territorio de la Audiencia, la de 1810 se constituyó con un objetivo diferente: intentar reconstruir un territorio que se estaba fragmentando, a causa de la crisis de 1808 y de los acontecimientos que habían tenido lugar tanto en la Península como en las regiones vecinas. ; Although historiography has always considered the 10th of August 1809 —date of the creation of the first Junta of Quito— as the symbolic date of Ecuadorian independence, this essay underlines the experience of the second Junta —created in September 1810 and defeated two years later— as a key transitional moment between the colonial and the republican eras. Whereas the 1809 Junta attempted to restore its supremacy on the territory of the Audiencia, the Junta of 1810 was created to fulfil another objective: restructuring a territory which was under a fragmentation process, due to the 1808 crises, to the peninsular events and to those that took place in the neighbouring regions.

A través del estudio de la sublevación del departamento de Guayaquil en 1827, provocada por el amotinamiento de la Tercera División del Ejército de Colombia, acantonada en Lima, este artículo pone en evidencia cómo los habitantes de la ciudad y sus instituciones percibían la república colombiana, a la que la provincia había sido incorporada en 1822. El análisis de actas, proclamas e informes de este acontecimiento, así como del material relativo a su incorporación, nos revela no solo la fuerza de las instituciones municipales, sino también que la Gran Colombia se basó en una concepción contractualista del poder. La república colombiana era, en efecto, considerada una "gran asociación de pueblos" donde la soberanía estaba compartida entre estos últimos y la nación.

This essay examines the impact of the 1812 Spanish Constitution on the Italian peninsula during the 1820s. It proposes further explanations, in addition to the classic vision that considers Spanish liberalism as an example that was able to unite the struggle for independence from a foreign power with the fight for political freedom with respect to absolutism. Focusing on recent interpretations of the Spanish Constitution, the essay points to aspects that could have been more appealing in the Italian context, where intellectuals and politicians debated the form that the new nation — more than the new State— should take. It contends that the Atlantic dimension of the 1812 Constitution is essential to clarify some elements concerning its adoption and adaptation in Piedmont and Two Sicilies in 1820-1821.

Il passaggio dell'America spagnola all'indipendenza non è semplicemente una guerra di liberazione coloniale. È un processo frammentato e complesso, contraddistinto da continuità e discontinuità, da violenze e vendette collettive, in cui le esperienze al di là e al di qua dell'Atlantico si influenzano a vicenda. È la prima dissoluzione di uno di quei grandi insiemi multicomunitari, i sistemi imperiali dell'età moderna, che nel corso dell'Otto e del Novecento daranno vita a una pluralità di stati nazionali. Restituendo centralità alla dimensione imperiale, il libro propone una nuova interpretazione dell'indipendenza e della nascita degli stati ispano-americani: le rivoluzioni politiche e sociali non sono la causa del crollo della monarchia spagnola, ma la sua conseguenza. Solo molto lentamente, attraverso violente guerre e continue negoziazioni, si andranno configurando quegli spazi attorno a cui si formeranno le nuove nazioni.

The essay investigates the political importance of the cabildo in the period between the Bourbon reforms, the crisis of the Spanish monarchi and the process of the creation of the republican states. OIt analyses the consolidation of jurisdictional Powers by the cabildos during the final phase of the colonial period and the manner in wich they became the legitimate representatives for local interests. The case of the Audiencia de Quito shows how the municipality successfully resisted efforts bye the state of Grancolombia to be converted into a purely administrative entity. The munipality retained ist positions as an autonomous entity in relation to the state, as well as its entitlement to partial sovereignty. ; Este ensayo se ocupa de investigar la importancia política que tuvo el cabildo entre el período de las reformas borbónicas, la crisis de la monarquía española y el proceso de formación de los estados independientes. Se analiza la consolidación de los poderes jurisdiccionales de los cabildos durante la última fase de la época colonial y la manera en que éstos se convirtieron en representantes legítimos de todos los intereses de su espacio territorial. El caso de la Audiencia de Quito muestra cómo el cabildo o municipio resistió con éxito los intentos de convertirlos en entes puramente administrativos por parte del aparato estatal grancolombiano. El municipio se mantuvo como órgano autónomo de la sociedad frente al Estado y titular de una parte de la soberanía.

El ensayo aborda el tema de la administración de justicia, especialmente de la justicia local, en el Ecuador entre Antiguo Régimen y liberalismo. Afirma que los problemas de la justicia sufridos por los ciudadanos durante las primeras décadas republicanas fueron el resultado de tres factores: 1) el papel de los cabildos coloniales americanos como instituciones a la vez judiciales y de gobierno; 2) los caracteres del liberalismo gaditano -e hispánico más en general- que no cambia la idea de justicia y que además confirma la naturaleza judicial de los municipios contribuyendo a su multiplicación en el territorio; 3) el papel de las guerras y la transformación de muchos jueces locales en milicianos. Así, de un modelo basado en la confianza en las calidades de las personas se pasa a otro basado en las armas. ; This essay deals with the administration of justice, and especially local justice, in Ecuador between the Old Regime and Liberalism. It claims that the judicial problems suffered by citizens during the first republican decades were the consequence of three major factors: 1) the role of colonial municipalities as legal and governmental institutions at the same time; 2) the character of Cadiz liberalism –and more generally Hispanic liberalism–, which did not change the idea of justice, confirming the legal nature of municipalities and furthermore increasing their number in the territory; 3) the role of the wars of independence and the transformation of many local judges into militiamen. Thus, from a model based on confidence in personal qualities, local justice changed toward a model based on arms.