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Monarchism in Uruguay is a loosely organized historicalpolitical movement advocating for the restoration, preservation or creation of amonarchical regime inUruguay.
Uruguayan monarchism was born after theMay Revolution, and has been historically defended by different ideologies and political trends such asreactionary royalism orliberal conservatism. Most of them focused on the preservation of order and the rejection of revolution or social unrest. Seeing the monarchy as a powerful institution to oppose "anarchy" and social upheaval, the movement was prevalent among both aristocratic and popular classes of early Uruguayan society.[1]
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According to theMaddison Project, Uruguay was the wealthiest region of the Spanish Empire by 1800.[2] This positive economic situation caused the Montevidean elite to be particularly supportive of theSpanish monarchy. The city promptly declared its loyalty to the crown and refused to join the May Revolution, which ended up in thedeclaration of Independence of Argentina.[1]
Montevideo's governor Francisco Javier de Elío declared himself the lastviceroy of the Río de la Plata, making the Uruguayan territory arealista stronghold until its capitulation to GeneralArtigas' revolutionary militias after theSecond Siege of Montevideo. Even after the fall of the city most Montevideans expected a Spanish restoration to happen sooner or later, and many worked actively for it.[3] Elío, a staunch supporter of absolutism, would afterwards fly to Spain and be executed by liberals during theTrienio Liberal. The royal navy used Montevideo as a military base from where commandersJuan Ángel Michelena andJacinto de Romarate led numerous attacks and raids on the Buenos Aires junta territory.
Royalist resistance in Montevideo was mainly led bysergeant majorDiego Ponce de León. Through active propaganda he managed to secure royalist adherence in the city, and was made a member of the ruling junta that supported Elío's rule. Popular militias known as "empecinados" (lit. 'stubborn'), name taken from theguerrilla regiments who fought underJuan Martín Díez against theNapoleonic Empire in theSpanish War of Independence, were born for the defense of strict loyalism toFerdinand VII and acquired widespread reputation. Deeply influential among the poor classes,empecinados used violent tactics to intimidate those sympathetic to the revolutionaries. The faction became rapidly amass movement and had a great relevance among the defenders of the city, but it was quickly dissolved after the siege and the emigration of most royalists.[1]
One of the most important Uruguayan monarchist thinkers wasAfro-UruguayanfreedmanJacinto Ventura de Molina. A fervent Catholic and devotee of SaintBenedict the Moor, de Molina rejected democracy and was a defender of thedivine right of kings. He defended absolute monarchy from aCounter-Enlightened perspective, advocating for the religious virtues of obedience and loyalty. De Molina consideredChristianity as a pillar for social equality, as the possibility of redemption open to both black and white people should promote an equal respect between all races. De Molina promoted Catholic devotion to SaintBalthazar as a unifying figure for the black community that could be shared with white citizens.[4]
De Molina criticized slavery from a Christian point of view, but didn't take part in the Uruguayan abolitionist movement due to its links with liberalism.[4]
Despite originally expecting a Spanish restoration after the end of thePortuguese conquest of the Banda Oriental, de Molina accepted the occupation and carried out extensive intellectual work during the luso-Brazilian rule, becoming an important collaborator of theViscount of Laguna. After the independence he worked as a lawyer, continued his political activism among the black population of Montevideo and tried to sponsor a school for black children.[4]
Most Spanish loyalists did not collaborate with the occupation, and many were persecuted or banished from the province.[1] A minority, however, expected the Portuguese to return the province to Spain after a process of "pacification" and supported the invasion eagerly.[5]
After thePortuguese conquest of the Banda Oriental, most of the Uruguayan wealthy elites sided with thePortuguese Empire as an alleged restorer of a lostsocial order destroyed by the Independence War. After GeneralCarlos Frederico Lecor's entry into Montevideo, the newly formed Cisplatine Congress by renowned Uruguayan citizens voted in favour of an annexation of the province to the Empire under the name ofCisplatina.[6]
Those supportive of the union were mainly organized in a political circle called the "Baron's Club", through which most intellectuals and aristocrats collaborated with the newly established regime.[1]
The Cisplatine Congress was given the possibility to form an independent state or to join the empire, but chose the latter option. Nevertheless, the Congress set a number of conditions for the annexation of the province, which included the preservation ofSpanish language,free trade with the rest of the Empire, political autonomy to designate civil and military authorities, exemption of new taxes, parliamentary representation atRio de Janeiro and the preservation of all traditional "privileges, exemptions,fueros, practices, titles and rights" the province had had.[6]
Lecor entered Montevideo without resistance and was welcomed by the localCabildo thanks to his previous negotiations with local authorities.[7] The baron promoted political marriages between Portuguese military commanders and Montevidean aristocratic women in order to improve relations with Uruguayan high society. Soon before thecry of Ipiranga and theindependence of Brazil the Portuguese monarchy had considered the possibility of returning Cisplatina to Spain, but the refusal of Lecor sided him withPedro I and the province became a part of the Brazilian Empire.[8]
Despite their initial support, however, the ruling classes were soon disappointed by Lecor's policies, and most aristocrats sympathized with theThirty-Three Orientals rebellion in 1825.[8]
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In 1831, one year after thefirst constitutional oath, Uruguayanliberal-conservative diplomatNicolás Gregorio Herrera offered the Spanish monarchy to enthroneInfante Sebastián as "King of the Oriental State". His proposal was rejected by the King of Spain.[9] A similar initiative had been suggested byJohn VI as a neutral solution to the Banda Oriental conflict.[5]
Argentine unitarianism had historically been favourable to the creation of aliberalconstitutional monarchy in theUnited Provinces of the Río de la Plata. This project, commonly known asCarlotism, was an influential political movement in the early days of Argentine Independence. Carlotist presence is documented among the Uruguayan elites since 1808, but was quickly overcome by Spanish loyalism.[1] The project was revitalized in Uruguay after 1818 but was never implemented.[5]
After the declaration of Independence of Uruguay and the outbreak of theUruguayan Civil War, many Unitarian exiles sought refuge in theDefense Government of Montevideo against the political persecution started by dictatorJuan Manuel de Rosas. Montevideo became a Unitarian bulwark under the rule of theColorado Party, which was also close to the Brazilian Empire.[10] Many members of the Baron's Club, such asJosé Longinos Ellauri orNicolás Gregorio Herrera joined the Defense Government, which was closer to their constitutional and liberal ideas.Fructuoso Rivera, the president of such faction, had been a member of the Club[11] and advocated for a "relative independence" from Brazil in contrast to an "absolute independence" that would make the country "fall into anarchy".[1]
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In the context of the Uruguayan Civil War, some politicians of the Defense such as Francisco Muñoz,Florencio Varela or Francisco Vidal tried to diplomatically annex Uruguay to theBritish monarchy as aprotectorate, while other members of the political elite wanted to make the country a French colony. Both empires sided with the Defense in the war and asserted a great influence on the government through their embassies in Montevideo, to the point many French diplomats were supportive of the initiative. These proposals were exploited by theCerrito Government's propaganda to portrait their enemies as traitors and colonialists. The Cerrito newspaperEl Defensor de la Independencia Americana stated that the defense government "stinked to aristocracy and monarchism".[12]
Many Uruguayan liberals were fond of monarchical ideals, but wanted to preserve the republic as a matter ofnational identity.Chancellor Ellauri, admiring the stability of the European constitutional monarchies that he had visited on his trips, proposed Uruguayan presidents to serve for 10-years terms as a way to make the republican regime as similar to the monarchical as possible.[12]
The weight of monarchist thought among platinean liberals was emphasized by Uruguayan intellectualFrancisco Bauzá, who stated that up to his time, "the official history of the Revolution has been written by monarchists".[13]
Although the Cerrito Government was explicitly against monarchy and considered it an "anti-American" institution,[12]Carlistémigrés to theRiver Plate after theFirst Carlist War became active supporters of the faction due to their shared anti-liberal positions.[14]
Unlike liberals loyal to Rivera, Carlists rejected constitutionalism and sought the restoration of a traditional monarchy akin to the medieval Spanish kingdoms. An ultra-royalist andreactionary movement, Carlists had sided withInfante Carlos María Isidro against Spanish constitutionalists and led an uprising against Ferdinand VII's successor, queen Isabella II. The movement had had an immense influence on the Basque Country and Catalonia.[14]
Since 1833, many defeated Carlists had arrived to Uruguay and Argentina. They had initially fought on both sides, but the clear identification of the Defense Government with liberal and constitutionalist ideals sided them finally with the Cerrito besiegers. In 1842, Carlist guerrilla fighter Gerónimo de Amilivia placed himself and his troops at the service ofManuel Oribe during theGreat Siege of Montevideo.[14] Nearly 40,000 Carlist émigrés arrived to Uruguay after the First War,[15] of which 4,000 would take part in the so-called "Basque Battalion" that besieged Montevideo.[16] All members of the Battalion kept their original Carlist ranks and refused to surrender their weapons to the government after the peace treaty, leaving them at the barracks as a sign of protest.[17]
Amilivia and other Carlists would later renounce theirBlanco adherence, defining themselves as "blancos of Cerrito" and regretting the liberal pathway the party had followed afterwards.[14] A minor group of Carlists such as José Machín or Juan Pablo Goyeneche had fought with the Colorados. Both were made colonels of theUruguayan army and held important political positions afterwards.[16]
A new wave of Basque migrants arrived to Uruguay after theThird Carlist War, as rebel Carlists were banished from the Spanish territory. In order to aid the large amount of impoverished immigrants, theLaurak Bat society was founded in Montevideo in 1877 as amutual aid foundation.[17] Its members rose to more than one thousand immigrants, but the society's Carlist ties were widely criticized.[15] Carlists took part in the foundation of many mutual aid societies in Argentina and Uruguay, contributing to the popularization of the model inLatin America.[18]
Carlos VII visited Uruguay on his trips to Latin America, and had meetings with some local Catholic figures such as bishopInocencio María Yéregui and landownerHipólito Gallinal.[18]
Carlist media was present in Uruguay during the early 20th century and theSpanish Civil war through the Central Commission of Carlist Propaganda in South America, that published a series of monarchist newspapers from Argentina.[19] Most Carlist associations were dissolved or lost their Carlist identity at the early 20th century.[17]
Juan María Bordaberry was the constitutional president of Uruguay from 1972 to 1973, and acivilian dictator from the1973 Uruguayan coup d'état to his ousting by the military hierarchy in 1976. After he assumed dictatorial powers with the support of the armed forces, Bordaberry's political ideas slowly shifted towards reactionary and monarchical positions.[20]
Despite originally aneoliberal technocrat,[21] Bordaberry'sintegralist Catholicism[22] and distrust towards political parties gradually brought him closer toSpanish traditionalism andIntegrist monarchism. Inspired by theFrancoist regime, he proposed the creation of acorporatistauthoritarian system to the military junta with the objective of definitively abolishing partisan politics and democracy. This new regime, called "organic democracy" by Francoists, would be supposedly based on the "Christian principles of political order".[23] His idea was rejected in 1976 by the military elite and he was removed from the presidency.[24]
The constitutional imperative to call an election in November 1976 forced us to realize that there was no other path but to consolidate institutionally the situation of peace and order the country was living. An in that situation there was authority, there were no political parties, nouniversal suffrage; there was freedom, but not freedom to propagate error and evil. Put simply, the liberal foundations of our political system was not valid anymore. I think the Uruguayan people was mature enough to accept this change. The military elite was not, however, and, infected byfreemasonry, they rejected my proposal.[24]
After his ousting from power, Bordaberry came out publicly as a Carlist. The ex-president wrote many articles for international Carlist media, becoming a revered figure of the movement.[24] After his imprisonment, theTraditionalist Communion issued a statement asking for his release, praising Bordaberry as a ruler who "followedorganicist principles, restored authority and fostered economic and social progress".[25]
In 2004 he was visited while in prison by Spanish Carlist pretender,Sixtus Henry. In May 2006 he was made a knight of theOrder of Prohibited Legitimacy by the Duke of Aranjuez.[24]
Álvaro Pacheco Seré (1935-2006) was a Uruguayan lawyer and close friend of Bordaberry, designated by him as his personal secretary. Pacheco resigned his position after Bordaberry's removal and followed him in his Carlist affiliation. He joined the Buenos Aires Traditionalist Brotherhood Carlos VII and was a member of the Society of Traditionalist Studies Juan Vázquez de Mella. He served as an editor of the society's magazine and worked for the Institute for Genealogical studies of Uruguay.[26]
