Caudillo is a Spanish (caudilho in Portuguese) word usually used to designate "a political-military leader at the head of an authoritative power." It is usually translated into English as "leader" or "chief," or, more pejoratively, "dictator" or "strongman." "Caudillo" was the term used to refer to charismatic populist leaders among the people.

Origin

The related caudillismo is a cultural phenomenon that first appeared during the early 19th century in revolutionary South America, as a type of militia leader with a charismatic personality and enough of a populist program of generic future reforms to gain broad sympathy, at least at the outset, among the common people. Effective caudillismo depends on a personality cult. Lexington Minuteman representing militia minuteman John Parker. ... Adolf Hitler built a strong cult of personality, based on the Führerprinzip. ...

The root of caudillismo lies in Spanish colonial policy of supplementing small cadres of professional, full-time soldiers with large militia forces recruited from local populations to maintain public order. Militiamen held civilian occupations but assembled at regular times for drill and inspection. Their salary from the Crown was a token; their recompense was in prestige, primarily because of the fuero militar ("military privilege"), that exempted them from certain taxes and obligatory community work assignments (compare the feudal corvée), and more significantly, exempted them from criminal or civil prosecution. Away from colonial capitals, the militias were at the service of the criollo landowners. Corvée, or corvée labor, is a term used in feudal societies. ... Criollo is a Spanish term (feminine criolla, plural criollos/criollas) which may refer to: The Criollos, a caste in the Spanish colonial caste system. ...

Leadership

Charismatic image

Typically, the caudillos took it upon themselves to attain power over society and place themselves as its leader. Caudillos were capable of commanding large numbers of people and holding the attention of large crowds with growing excitement. In the late Roman Republic men like Gaius Marius, Julius Caesar and Octavian were populist commanders who had strong personal ties with their soldiers, and imagery of revived Roman values is often brought to bear in support of caudillismo. A similar phenomenon in Italy from the 13th to the 16th century repeatedly brought the condottiere, the charismatic leader of a band of mercenaries, to power, when institutions of power temporarily failed. Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ... Gaius Marius Gaius Marius (Latin: C·MARIVS·C·F·C·N)[1] (157 BC–January 13, 86 BC) was a Roman general and politician elected Consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. ... Gaius Julius Caesar [1] (Latin pronunciation ; English pronunciation ; July 12 or July 13, 100 BC or 102 BC – March 15, 44 BC), was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in classical antiquity. ... For other uses, see Augustus (disambiguation). ... Condottieri were mercenary leaders employed by Italian city-states from the late Middle Ages until the mid-fifteenth century. ...

Gaining of support

In the upheavals of the decades of revolution and its aftermath, leaders who were able to draw to themselves bands of loyal followers and keep them well armed and otherwise well cared for could assume the title of "general." Caudillos began to attain this power in the course of the South American Wars of Independence, where the militias did much of the fighting and earned a heroic reputation. The caudillos used their small armed bands to overthrow the vulnerable newly independent states in South America. If these caudillos were not always welcome, also they were not generally publicly condemned. Some were large landowners (hacendados) who sought to secure their private interests, but more typically they began as vigilantes keeping the local peace for the hacienda, then gained independence of action and developed an anti-oligarchic public stance and finished by supporting an acquiescent establishment that included the Catholic Church. The South American Wars of Independence were fought in the 1810s and 1820s by colonies of Spain and Portugal that desired to break free from the nations that ruled them. ... Hacienda is a Spanish word describing a vast ranch, common in the Pampa. ... For the aircraft, see A-5 Vigilante. ... Hacienda is a Spanish word describing a vast ranch, common in the Pampa. ...

Government structure

Since the caudillo typically held power by controlling a patronage network that brooked no rival structure, some caudillos took up an anti-clerical stand. Many of the caudillos used their newly gained power, which was unchecked because it was extra-constitutional, to promote their own wealth and interests. At the height of caudillismo, as in Venezuela, the national army was rendered superfluous by the personal armies of the caudillos: in 1872 Venezuela's federal troops were dismissed entirely. Generally, patronage is the act of a so-called patron who supports or favors some individual, family, group or institution. ...

Some famous caudillos

Juan Vicente Gómez (1857 – 1935)

A few examples of powerful Caudillos in the Americas during the early 1800s include Juan Manuel de Rosas and Juan Facundo Quiroga in Argentina, José Gervasio Artigas in Uruguay, Antonio López de Santa Anna in Mexico, José Rafael Carrera in Guatemala, and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, "El Supremo," in Paraguay. In Venezuela, a century of caudillismo was initiated with the 1848 coup of José Tadeo Monagas who ruled Venezuela in partnership with his brother, followed after the Federal War by the rule of Antonio Guzmán Blanco, but the tradition of caudillismo has lingered; after the coup by which the designated vice-president Juan Vicente Gómez overthrew the elected president, Gómez ruled Venezuela by his personal authority until his death. Image File history File links Portrait of Juan Vicente Gómez, dictatorial ruler of Venezuela from 1908 to 1935. ... Image File history File links Portrait of Juan Vicente Gómez, dictatorial ruler of Venezuela from 1908 to 1935. ... General de Rosas Juan Manuel de Rosas (born Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio, 1793-1877) was a conservative Argentine politician who ruled Argentina from 1829 to 1852. ... Juan Facundo Quiroga (1790–1835) was an Argentine leader who supported federation. ... José Gervasio Artigas (June 19, 1764 - September 23, 1850) was a national hero of Uruguay and is sometimes called the father of Uruguayan independence. This is an ironic turn of events, considering that during his life he never sought the absolute independence of Uruguay as a separate State, but the... Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876), also known simply as Santa Anna, was a Mexican political leader who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government, first fighting against independence from Spain... José Rafael Carrera Turcios (24 October 1814 – 14 April 1865) was the ruler of Guatemala from about 1839 until his death. ... José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, El Supremo Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco (January 6, 1766 – September 20, 1840) was the first leader of Paraguay following its independence from Spain. ... José Tadeo Monagas was President of Venezuela 1847-1851 and 1855-1858. ... Antonio Guzmán Blanco (1829–1899) President of Venezuela, a caudillo who dominated the nation from 1870 to 1888. ... Juan Vicente Gómez. ...

Well-known later caudillos have included Gabriel García Moreno in Ecuador and Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The strongman with a military following who controls political developments continues to be an unsettling factor in Latin American societies. Gabriel García Moreno (1821 — 1875) was an Ecuadorian statesman who twice served as President of that country (1859-1865 and 1869-1875). ... This article is about Rafael L. Trujillo, former president of the Dominican Republic. ...

The Spanish ruler Francisco Franco used from 1936 the title "Caudillo de España, por la gracia de Dios," echoing (as usual at that times) the titles "Führer" and "Il Duce." English speakers are reluctant to use the term "caudillo," which they imagine must have pejorative connotations; in Spain, it resounded of the old warriors of history. The word had already been used for key men like the Cid Campeador and, in retrospect, Viriathus. Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde (4 December 1892–20th (or possibly 19th) November[1] 1975), commonly abbreviated to Francisco Franco (pron. ... By the Grace of God, as well as the various equivalent phrases in other languages thus rendered in English, is not a title in its own right, but a common introductory part of the full styles of many Monarchs, preceding the actual princely styles in chief of the specific realm...   (Fuehrer when the ü-umlaut is not used, but never just Fuhrer) is a proper noun meaning leader or guide in the German language. ... Duce was an Italian word meaning leader, derived from Latin word dux of the same meaning. ... El Cid (1045?–July 1099), also called El Cid Campeador, is the name commonly used for the important Castilian knight and hero, Rodrigo (or Ruy) Díaz de Vivar, who was born in Bivar (Vivar), Burgos, Castile, and died in Valencia. ... Statue of Viriathus, at Viseu, Portugal Viriathus (known as Viriato in Portuguese and Castilian) (180 BC - 139 BC) was the most important leader of the Lusitanian tribe that resisted Roman expansion into the regions of Western Iberia, where the Roman province of Lusitania would be established (in the areas comprising...

Franco's contemporary Juan Domingo Perón, however, had to fight the connotation of the uncultivated Argentinian caudillos of the 19th century. In spite of the nationalism of Peronism, the supporting press used the Anglicism líder (from English "leader"). Juan Domingo Perón (October 8, 1895 – July 1, 1974) was an Argentine military officer and the President of Argentina from 1946 to 1955 and from 1973 to 1974. ...

The death of Cirilo Vázquez, a cacique from Acayucan, Veracruz, made headlines in newspapers in Mexico and the United States. Cirilo Vázquez Lagunes, nicknamed Cacique of the South, was a Mexican rancher and businessman. ... Acayucan is a city and its surrounding municipality of the same name, located in the southeastern part of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. ... The state of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave is one of the 31 states that compose Mexico (does not include the Mexican Federal District). ...

Final comments

Caudillos are remembered with admiration in popular nationalist histories: Rosas rose from being one of the largest and most productive ranchers in the area; Santa Anna was Mexico's greatest military leader, as well as a tyrant, best known for his triumph at the Alamo; the Monagas brothers abolished slavery; Dr. Francia was a creole with an advanced law degree who used only three men in his leading of the country. Alamo may mean: The Battle of the Alamo, a battle fought during the Texas Revolution Alamo Mission in San Antonio, a building in Texas which was the focus of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 Alamo Beer, a brand from King of the Hill TV series Alamo Rent A...

See also

• Dictator
• Generalissimo
• Facundo

Dictator is originally the title of a magistrate in ancient Rome appointed by the Senate to rule the state in times of emergency. ... A generalissimo is a commissioned officer of the highest rank; the word is often translated as Supreme Commander or Commander in Chief. It is an Italian superlative substantive, which grammatically would actually be disallowed in Italian (superlatives can be made with adjectives only). ... Facundo (subtitiled civilization and Barbarism) A book written by Argentinian Domingo Sarmiento in 1845, it was written partly in protest to the regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas who ruled Argentina from 1835-1852. ...

External links

• "Venezuela: a century of caudillismo"
• "Venezuela: history of the Armed Forces"