Narrating National History in the Global «Springtime of the Peoples». The People as Historical Character in mid-19th Century Mexican and Brazilian Conservative Historiography

Abstract

Mexican and Brazilian mid-19th century historiographies have been conventionally interpreted considering the national circumstances in which they were written. This article aims to transcend this point of view, placing those texts –specifically Historia de México by Lucas Alamán and História Geral do Brasil by Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen– in the framework of the global revolutionary context triggered by the events of February-June Paris 1848. I argue that the negative role that both national histories assigned to “the people” in their respective narratives of the Mexican and Brazilian independence revolutions is closely linked to the mid-19th century global ascent of popular classes to political life and to their global incorporation as key characters of historiographical discourses.