"Defensores de la humanidad y la civilización". Las legiones extranjeras de Montevi deo, entre el mito cosmopolita y la eclosión de las 'nacionalidades' (1838-1851)

Abstract

The following paper analyzes the recruitment of militias and volunteer legions, composed of foreign residents, in order to defend Montevideo between 1838 and 1851 during the Guerra Grande. This process created a very complex transnational space with considerable political and cultural consequences. On the one hand, to justify the armament of the foreign population, the local authorities plotted a cosmopolitan rhetoric which presented the legions as symbols of the fight between humanity and civilization against despotism and universal tyranny. On the other, the daily dynamics of these militias generated intense social disputes between the combatants of the different "fatherlands", threatening to provoke a "civil war" inside the city.