Insurgent news. Politics, slavery and the periodical press in Cuba in the context of Latin American independence (1810-1823)

Abstract

The research aims at the relationship between slavery and independence in Cuba in the early decades of the nineteenth century. The main objective is to analyze how the news on the political unrest that started to rise in the America of Iberian colonization from 1810 (when the Napoleonic occupation of the peninsular territory gave rise to a series of events that would transform the relations between the two parts of the Spanish Empire) were received there. The aim is to understand Cuban loyalty to the monarchy and the prolongation of the Spanish colonial system on this island in a context of intense political transformation in the Western world - with special attention to the Ibero-American world -, a way that contrasts with the insurgency and separatist wars observed in many of the former colonial domains in the Iberian New World. The sources encompass the periodical press to identify how news concerning those events were perceived and reported in Cuba. The peculiarity of slavery in Cuba forms the prism through which to see and understand Cuban political future in light of the above events. (AU)