Francisco de Miranda: Exile and Enlightenment

Abstract

Coming from colonial Venezuela, he is the only known person to have fought in the U.S. Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Spanish American revolutions, and was probably the best-known Spanish American throughout the United States and Europe at the time. John Lynch's essay explores Miranda's efforts in London and how his project was enmeshed in the complexity of the French Revolution and British imperial interests. Deas also investigates Miranda's military competence and shows that, despite his final ignominious defeat against Spanish forces in 1812, Miranda was a skilled, disciplined, and brave commander who enjoyed success serving both the Spanish and the French.

- Francisco de Miranda: Exile and Enlightenment, edited by John Maher. (Nineteenth-Century Latin American Series) London: Institute for the Study of the Americas, 2006.

Amongst the crowd of remarkable characters that composed the Age of Revolution, Francisco de Miranda (1750-1816) stands as one of the most dynamic and intriguing. Miranda's life encapsulated many of the principal tensions of this age, being marked by the colliding forces of Enlightenment idealism, political realism, and imperialism. Coming from colonial Venezuela, he is the only known person to have fought in the U.S. Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Spanish American revolutions, and was probably the best-known Spanish American throughout the United States and Europe at the time. He dedicated his adult life to one great project - to secure Spanish America's independence with the help of British and/or U.S. military support. From 1790 until his death in a Spanish prison in 1816, he actively struggled for this cause, and nearly brought it to fruition on several occasions. During these years, he lived mostly in Europe, mixed with some of the Atlantic world's most powerful and learned people, and participated in numerous political struggles. This book covers several aspects of Miranda's life with a series of short, well-written, fascinating essays, and will appeal to readers interested in Miranda, as well as those who study this period more generally.

In his introduction, John Maher presents a clear discussion of the principal complexities one faces when attempting to understand Miranda's life, and highlights the lamentable lack of attention paid to Miranda by U.S. historians. David Bushnell provides a meaty examination of Miranda's travels through the fledgling the United States in 1783-84 and 1805. This essay focuses both on Miranda's observations of the young republic as well as how it influenced his plans to liberate his homeland. Nonetheless, Bushnell handily shows that Miranda drew his political blueprint for an independent Spanish America more from the British example than from the United States.

John Lynch's essay explores Miranda's efforts in London and how his project was enmeshed in the complexity of the French Revolution and British imperial interests. This largely diplomatic story explores Miranda's relationships with various British intellectuals, politicians, and officers, as well as other Spanish American ex-patriots. The British government nearly launched Miranda's project more than once, but the right political and military conditions never quite coalesced. Lynch also elucidates the delicate relationship between Miranda and the government, which frequently degenerated into mutual manipulation, distrust, and exploitation.

The issue of Miranda's competence, both on the battlefield and within high society, played a crucial part in his career. For decades he lived with no real source of income, but rather garnered generous support from the upper political and social strata. Insight into his success within high society comes through Edgardo Mondolfi Gudat's essay, which concentrates on Miranda's relationship to music. He played the flute and frequently attended musical performances, which helped secure his position as a gentleman and gained him access to the social gatherings that surrounded the arts. Malcolm Deas' essay shows that, through his experience as a colonel in the Spanish army, Miranda knew how to comport himself within elite society. Though a commoner by birth, his ability to move within these circles enabled him to make friends, lovers, and political allies on both sides of the Atlantic. Deas also investigates Miranda's military competence and shows that, despite his final ignominious defeat against Spanish forces in 1812, Miranda was a skilled, disciplined, and brave commander who enjoyed success serving both the Spanish and the French.

In the final essay, Karen Racine examines the condition of women through exploring Miranda's active romantic life and his comments on women. Racine disputes the depiction of Miranda as a crude or superficial Casanova. His irreverence towards traditional sexual rectitude was consistent with his embrace of Enlightenment ideals and rejection of many traditional values. He enjoyed numerous brief encounters, but he also pursued long-term, substantive relationships with women who were noted for their intellect and energy. He also supported far more gender equality than was typical at the time, advocating women's political rights in revolutionary France and Venezuela.

The one improvement the book could have used would have been to include a bit more context or background to be more accessible to those not previously familiar with Miranda's career. The brief biography of Miranda's life and career, which we need at the beginning, actually appears in the last essay (by Racine). Furthermore, some of the essays could explain overtly how their particular topic fits into the larger themes of revolution, society, and imperialism. These slight additions would have helped the book be more cohesive and appealing to a wider audience. Nonetheless, each essay in this book seamlessly blends previous studies and archival gems to offer a well-researched, fresh, and enjoyable perspective on a compelling topic.