Region, Race, and Class in the Making of Colombia

Mainstream historiography depicts Colombian independence as the achievement of European-descendent elites only, downplaying the role and importance of regional subaltern classes. Múnera's well-researched account challenges theoretical, political, and cultural interventions and shows that these subaltern groups were pivotal to achieving independence from Spain. It was their organizing and pressing for freedom from colonial domination that ultimately brought about independence in Cartagena and later to the whole country. Yet Múnera demonstrates that these differing regional elites meant that a single, coherent unity across New Granada was not possible, a point that would ultimately doom subsequent nation-building efforts.
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