Abstract

JARA GOMEZ, Ana M.. Blanco White: an activist against absolutism. From liberalism to the colonial matter. Espiral (Guadalaj.) [online]. 2014, vol.21, n.61, pp.87-107. ISSN 1665-0565.

José María Blanco White is one of the most attractive figures at the beginning of Spanish contemporary history and one of the most unfairly reviled. Even though his writings and his thought are still today largely undiscovered, this controversial and unorthodox liberal portrays a critical exponent of the most important crisis of conscience that Spain has known in its history, the Old Regime crisis, the Enlightenment breakdown, and the emergence of the new liberal era in the years of the War of Independence. His exile in England (1810-1841) enabled him not only to relate to some of the most prominent British thinkers, but also to realize America. There is where he will find out that a part of Spain is able and actually must get rid of the yoke of tyranny and misrule.

Keywords : Blanco White; Semanario Patriótico; El Español; constitutionalism 1812; Jeremy Bentham; Hispano-American Enlightenment.