From Madrid to Rome: The Dismantling of Colonial Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions in Río de la Plata and Alternatives for their Recontruction 1810-1825

IGNACIO MARTÍNEZ

Cambridge, Massachussets, EE. UU

Workshop; International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World; 2006

Universidad de Harvard

This paper deals with the effects of the monarchic crisis on the ecclesiastical jurisdictions in Río de la Plata between 1810-1825. It reviews the solutions proposed by different positions that tried solving the problems that emerged after the break of relations with metropolitan authorities. The principal aim of this work is to analyze how preexisting elements of ecclesiastical and juridical doctrine, and the modern ways of thinking political power, were used to adopt and defend those positions arising from an unprecedented political context, namely, the creation of independent republics in the former Spanish American colonies. I shall attempt to show that the varying degrees of adherence to papal authority are closely related to the various proposals to solve the political crisis starting in 1810. This situation was used by the Roman curia to begin a slow but relentless advance on the ecclesiastical world of the River Plate.