The “American question” and the Constitution of Bayonne (1808)

Authors

  • Antonio-Filiu Franco Pérez Universidad de Oviedo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17811/hc.v0i9.145

Keywords:

Constitution of Bayonne 1808, American deputies, political colonial organization, Spanish America, Spanish constitutionalism.

Abstract

The Constitution of Bayonne of 1808 was the first constitutional Spanish text that tried to articulate the bases of a model of political colonial organization on the principle of territorial equality. The study emphasizes the special treatment given by Napoleon to the American problem in Bayonne, and in particular to the representatives of Spanish overseas territories, in order to neutralize potential pretensions of independence in these domains. These circumstances propitiated a relation of symbiotic nature between Napoleon and the group of representatives of Overseas. Both parts extracted profit in favour of their respective interests from this relationship.

Submission date: 14/03/2008
Acceptance date: 01/05/2008

Author Biography

Antonio-Filiu Franco Pérez, Universidad de Oviedo

Profesor Asociado de Derecho Constitucional de la Universidad de Oviedo y Secretario adjunto de la Revista electrónica Historia Constitucional. Es asimismo Investigador Titular del Seminario de Historia Constitucional “Martínez Marina”, de la Universidad de Oviedo, y Secretario de la Biblioteca Virtual de Historia Constitucional “Francisco Martínez Marina”, integrada en el Seminario homónimo. Ha publicado diversos estudios sobre esta disciplina, los últimos de los cuales aparecen en el volumen que codirigió con el profesor Ignacio Fernández Sarasola, Asturias y los orígenes del constitucionalismo en España (1808-1814), Seminario de Historia Constitucional Martínez Marina, Oviedo, 2008 (ISBN: 978-84-612-5131-5).

Issue

Section

The Constitution of Bayonne and the reign of Joseph I Bonaparte