In Los juegos de la política, Marcela Ternavasio invites the reader to ponder what would have happened to the Spanish American processes of independence if the Portuguese and Spanish armies had formed an alliance to defeat them. While Luso-Spanish alliance never came to fruition, the question allows the author to dwell on “what happened in the context of what could have happened” (p. 13). Sitting at the intersection of Atlantic politics, war, and diplomacy, Los juegos de la política unearths the history of expectations, fears, and calculation that the move of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil, the restoration of Ferdinand VII to the Spanish throne, and Napoleon's defeat in France generated on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
The book is divided in three parts, each addressing one specific conjuncture and the potential scenarios that this conjuncture enabled. In the first part, Ternavasio compares and contrasts the diplomatic...
