Resistance

WP 1: Outbreaks of Resistance

This WP focuses on actions of direct resistance carried out by groups that were generally popular, excluded, subordinated and dominated in the Iberian empires and home countries from the sixteenth century to the first half of the nineteenth century. This is a topic for which there is a long tradition of scholarship in history and other fields of the social sciences. There are multiple case studies on popular revolts, and also works of social theory on the role of conflict, and negotiation, in challenging the social order.

The work hypothesis is that violent confrontation, as a manifestation of the demands of these groups and communities from the established order had a significant impact on two levels: a) the reinforcement of mechanisms of domination by the state; b) the politicisation and social awareness of the rights of these groups and communities.

In what regards the former, the objective is to provide an understanding of the potential threat that this type of conflict posed for the Iberian authorities, suggesting that in most cases the consequences were negative for the rebels, as they led to the worsening of the conditions of domination (for example, visible punishment and repressive waves) and the strengthening of institutional structures of social control. WP1 therefore hopes that this research will help to trace the connections between local conflicts and the global structures of domination imposed by the Iberian monarchies and the characteristics of their development.

With regard to the latter, it is argued that outbreaks of resistance against the established order in America, Asia, and Europe - slave and native revolts, tax riots, peasant uprisings, Moorish rebellions, struggles against the local political authorities and disputes over the possession of natural resources - were not disorganised, isolated or contingent expressions of social dissatisfaction. On the one hand, they demonstrated the capacity for leadership and political mobilisation of these groups and communities and, on the other hand, the complexity of the social arrangements of the Ancien Régime, since relations between the dominant and the dominated were changeable and almost always criss-crossed by loyalties, allegiances, interests, asymmetrical interdependencies and ties of an extremely diverse nature.

To achieve these objectives and test these working hypotheses, this WP proposes research on:

1. Significant actions of revolt in European spaces and colonial territories and their chronological evolution;

2. The capacity for leadership of their protagonists;

3. The persistence of traditional pre-colonial practices of resistance, peasantry, ritual violence and also corporate or community motivations.

WP 1: Outbreaks of Resistance

Work Package Leaders

Verónica Undurraga Schüler

José Vicente Serrão

Graça Almeida Borges

Marina Torres de Arce