Abstract
What were the financial and geopolitical networks behind the independence of Spain’s colonies in the Americas in the early nineteenth century? Two iconic independence leaders, Francisco de Miranda (1750-1816) and Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), attempted without success to obtain official British Government support for their quest to break from Spain. This failure was compensated for by the development of a network of private individual merchants and partnerships that supplied the independence movement with large quantities of arms, equipment and men. This dissertation builds on the work of Racine, Blaufarb, McFarlane, Brown and others to provide a greater understanding of how this network was constructed, who the key players were and how it operated. These merchants came from the distinctive business culture that had developed in the British Atlantic world, described by Haggerty, Buchnea and others as being built on the inter-related elements of risk, trust, credit andnetworks. Analysing the behaviour of these merchants through the lens of risk, trust, credit, and networks enables a more nuanced understanding of how events unfolded in the way they did and provides an insight into the wider process of independence in Gran Colombia.
| Date of Award | 25 Jan 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Matthew D Brown (Supervisor) & Jo E Crow (Supervisor) |