Liberal ideas and thought in Cuenca between 1809 and 1814 and the Cádiz Constitutional principles legacy and application

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the liberal ideas, thoughts and political culture, in the territories of the Spanish monarchy, with special interest in the Government of Cuenca or in Cuenca Province (Quito), as well as the implementation and praxis of the political ideas of the liberal Constitution of Cadiz (1812) in all these territories between 1809 and 1814. And also this article aims to review and understand the period which Cuenca became the seat of the Presidency of the Royal Audience of Quito, and also became an important demographic, political and economic area.

This research focuses on the political cultural changes and the possible interpretations related with liberalism and its ideology present during this period, specially the way it was accepted and lived by different social actors like the “elites”, military forces, royal functionaries, and indigenous people. It is important also to study the innovations and changes that the application of the new constitutional rights brought to those territories, in particular in relation to new charges and elective and “representative” charges like: “constitutional mayor”, attorneys, deputies: provincial and “national”.
in relation to the innovation and application of new constitutional rights in the territories, and also free press, and elimination of Indian tributes and the “Mita” system.
The article studies the creation of constitutional councils or “Ayuntamientos constitucionales”, both in urban and rural areas, these latest predominantly indigenous (cañari Indians), and the impacts and changes of these new political ideas and “democratic” participation in the province of Cuenca area.