The Struggle For Power In Post-independence Colombia And Venezuela

This book is a collective biography of the veterans of the battle of El Santuario (1829), which examines the history of the imperial conflicts that shaped politics and society in Colombia and Venezuela after independence from colonial rule. After the battle, an Irish mercenary in the Colombian service, Rupert Hand, murdered a rebel general, Jose Maria Cordova.

The analysis, stretching from 1820 to 1854, situates this imperial murder and the battle it followed within its regional, national, and Atlantic contexts, and shows how local processes and imperial ambitions shaped the history of nation-building in the nineteenth century. Using the lives and writings of soldiers, lovers, diplomats, explorers, slaves, librarians and murderers, Brown here uncovers the history of nation-building and imperial expansion in Latin America during the nineteenth century.

Review: All too often, historians have let ideologies or identities speak for actors' motivations and explain their actions. Brown reminds us that personal interests were at stake as well. Piecing together this level of detail is an impressive effort and Brown should be congratulated for his reconstruction. - The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History Matthew Brown once again provides a deftly-handled collective biography of the many people, nationalities and power struggles that collided in a battlefield situation during Colombia's independence.

Carefully-researched, engagingly-written, fast-paced and historiographically-complex, the book is destined to become the standard work on the Battle of El Santuario. A truly impressive account that manages never to lose sight of the real people underneath the uniforms. - Karen Racine, associate professor of History, University of Guelph A wonderful tale of espionage and strange bedfellows. - Rebecca Earle, professor of History, University of Warwick