A Junta () was a form of extraordinary government established in Spain and Spanish America during the crisis of the Spanish Monarchy that began in 1808. In Spanish America, juntas were generally formed in urban centers and frequently developed from existing cabildos(municipal councils), enlarged by the participation of other prominent members of the local community.

Overview

Juntas emerged following the Abdications of Bayonne and the resulting absence of a generally recognized legitimate monarch. Spanish Americans initially responded to the crisis in ways similar to those adopted in Peninsular Spain, drawing on traditional institutions and legal concepts to justify the creation of extraordinary governments.

The Siete Partidas provided a legal precedent for assemblies of local notables to resolve situations not covered by existing law ("vacatio legis"). However, applying this mechanism to the absence of the legitimate king ("vacatio regis") was an innovation of the crisis of 1808. The resulting concept of retroversion of sovereignty held that the authority exercised by the king reverted to the "pueblos" (local communities represented by their "cabildos"), which could establish juntas to exercise government.

The establishment of juntas did not initially imply independence from the Spanish Monarchy. Many juntas claimed to exercise authority in the name of Ferdinand VII, while disputes developed over which institutions could legitimately exercise central authority during his absence. In Spanish America, the dissolution of the Supreme Central Junta and its replacement by the Council of Regency in 1810 contributed to the establishment of new local juntas.

The "sovereignty of the pueblos" that emerged from the crisis of 1808 should not be equated with the later principle of popular sovereignty. Historian Antonio Annino distinguishes between the "sovereignty of the pueblos" (plural) and the "sovereignty of the pueblo" (singular), associated with representative government; both concepts continued to coexist during the nineteenth century.

Political positions within Spanish America subsequently diverged. Some groups continued to favor self-government within the Spanish Monarchy, while others increasingly supported absolute independence and the creation of new sovereign states. Self-government therefore did not initially imply absolute independence; independence developed gradually during the revolutionary process.

Chronology

Year Date Name Place Current country Heads of Junta 1808 August 5 Junta 1808 México Viceroyalty of Nueva Spain Francisco Primo de VerdadMelchor de TalamantesJosé de Iturrigaray 1808 September 21 Junta de Montevideo Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Francisco Javier de Elío 1809 May 25 Junta of Chuquisaca Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Bernardo de MonteagudoJaime de Zudáñez 1809 July 16 Junta Tuitiva (created by La Paz revolution) Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Pedro Murillo 1809 August 10 Junta of Quito Viceroyalty of New Granada Juan Pío Montúfar 1810 April 19 Junta Suprema de Caracas Captaincy General of Venezuela José de las LlamozasMartín Tovar Ponte 1810 May 22 Junta de Cartagena Viceroyalty of New Granada José María García de Toledo 1810 May 25 Primera Junta de Buenos Aires Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Cornelio SaavedraMariano Moreno/Juan José PasoJuan José Castelli/Miguel de Azcuénaga/Manuel Belgrano/Manuel Alberti/Domingo Matheu/Juan Larrea 1810 July 3 Junta extraordinaria de Santiago de Cali Viceroyalty of New Granada Joaquín de Caycedo y Cuero 1810 July 20 Junta de Santa Fe Viceroyalty of New Granada Francisco José de CaldasCamilo Torres 1810 September 16 (created after the Grito de Dolores) Viceroyalty of New Spain Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla 1810 September 18 Government Junta of Chile (1810) Captaincy General of Chile Juan Martínez de RozasMateo de Toro y Zambrano 1811 February 27 (created after the Cry of Asencio) Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Pedro José VieraVenancio Benavides 1811 May 15 Junta del Paraguay Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Pedro CaballeroFulgencio YegrosGaspar Rodríguez de Francia 1811 November 5 Primera Junta de San Salvador, in 1811 Independence Movement Captaincy General of Guatemala José Matías DelgadoManuel José ArcePedro Pablo CastilloJuan Manuel Rodríguez 1814 August 3 Junta de Gobierno del Cuzco Viceroyalty of Peru Mateo PumacahuaDomingo Luis AsteteTomás MoscosoHermanos Angulo

See also Junta (Peninsular War) Retroversion of the sovereignty to the people Spanish colonization of the Americas

References

John Lynch. The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808–1826 (2nd edition). New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1986.