ABSTRACT
THE PHILOSOPHER HANNAH Arendt (1963: 27) argued that all revolutions have two things in common: They are characterized by a striving for freedom against repression, and this quest for freedom must be connected to “novelty,” that is, an attempt to create a new social order. Since Marx wrote in the middle 1880s, said Arendt, these themes have been tied to the “social question,” that is, the makers of revolution seek freedom but believe that it cannot be fully achieved without radical changes in social and economic conditions (ibid.: 55-61). As we have seen, the Creole elite in Latin America successfully resisted addressing the social question when Latin America achieved its independence from the Iberians. Hence, although the break from Spain was a political revolution accompanied by violence and social upheaval, in the end it was not fully a revolution in the terms defined by Arendt. Bolívar’s frustration and bitterness reflect that fact.
