This chapter deals with the importance of the Cortes of Cádiz from several perspectives. In the first place, it considers its role in the history of Hispanic and Western liberalism. Secondly, it covers its Atlantic dimension, that is, the larger geographical and ideological context in which it took place. Thirdly, it delves into the role the Cortes played in the history of Spanish America, not only through the participation of the numerous Spanish American deputies that participated in the assembly during the four years during which it was in place, but also regarding its application and influence on several of the territories that had constituted the Spanish empire in America for almost three centuries. Considering all the aforementioned elements, the author gives a fairly complete idea of the importance of the Cortes de Cádiz in historical, political, and intellectual terms. Taken altogether, the chapter suggests that the last of the Atlantic revolutions (that is, the Peninsular liberal revolution that Cádiz represents, along with the Spanish American independence movements) has not received the historiographic attention it deserves; a situation that has changed in the last couple of decades.

The escape of the Portuguese royal family to Rio de Janeiro in 1807-8 proved a decisive step towards Brazilian political emancipation. The encounter of the Portuguese court and state with the wealthy slave elite residing in the capital of the colony was a turning point for all players. In the following thirteen years, the Portuguese court would define both the course of liberalism in Portugal and the political independence of Brazil, proclaimed soon after the return of the King of Portugal to Europe in 1821. The relationship between the court and Rio de Janeiro’s aristocracy, which financed the former, occurred through the strict observance of a social etiquette that was indifferent to the conditions of the new tropical setting. The history of both Portugal and independent Brazil throughout the nineteenth century was established there.

Free people of color were major and perhaps inevitable actors during the age of the Atlantic revolutions. Based particularly on the French experience, this chapter seeks to illustrate, in all its varieties, the evolution of the aspirations (equality, civil rights, and suppression of color prejudice) and actions (conspiracies, revolts, and petitions) of free people of color of the Caribbean islands and the consequences for colonial institutions. It also attempts to show the links and the spread of these aspirations and actions between territories. It focuses in particular on the use of free people of color in the military sphere and its impact, the political role of the métissés elites of Saint-Domingue, the effects of the French Revolution and the policies of Victor Hugues in the Caribbean on the aspirations and actions of free people of color in the French, Spanish and English colonies, and the struggles for civic equality and abolition in the 19th century.

Whereas scholars have typically viewed the movements described here in isolation, Friends of Freedom demonstrates how they developed as interconnected social movements that created political organizing as we know it. Friends of Freedom corresponded across movements and nations, seeking to model what a new inclusive regime of liberty could be. Modern social movements still use many of the same tools in building and spreading their campaigns.

Chapter 1 opens with an 1865 rebellion led by the elderly Q’eqchi’ commoner Jorge Yat, who was charged with wanting to return to an era of republican democracy and dissolve caste hierarchy. The chapter uses that event as a window into the social, economic, and cultural worlds of nineteenth-century Alta Verapaz on the eve of coffee capitalism and the 1871 liberal revolution. In particular, it demonstrates how indigenous communities distant from the centers of state power maintained a political and territorial autonomy. It further demonstrates how Q’eqchi’ society was composed of tensions between republican values of representative government and caste hierarchy, between solidarity and individualism, and how Q’eqchi’ patriarchs faced democratic challenges from below.