Caudillos

A caudillo (Spanish pronunciation: [kawˈdiʎo]; Old Spanish: cabdillo, from Latin capitellum, diminutive of caput "head") is a type of personalist leader wielding political power. There is no precise definition of caudillo, which is often used interchangeably with "dictator" and "strongman". The term is historically associated with Spain, and with Spanish America after virtually all of that region won independence in the early nineteenth century. The term is often used pejoratively by critics of a regime. However, Spain's General Francisco Franco (r. 1939–1975) proudly took the title as his own, during and after his military overthrow of the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). Spanish censors during his rule went after publishers who applied the term to Latin American strongmen.Caudillos' exercise of power is a form considered authoritarian. Most societies have had personalist leaders at times, but Latin America has had many more, the majority of whom were not self-described caudillos. However, scholars have applied the term to a variety of Latin American leaders.

The roots of caudillismo may be tied to the framework of rule in medieval and early modern Spain during the Reconquest from the Moors. Spanish conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro exhibit characteristics of the caudillo, being successful military leaders, having mutual reliance of the leader and their supporters, and rewarding them for their loyalty. During the colonial era, the Spanish crown asserted its power and established a plethora of bureaucratic institutions that prevented such personalist rule. Historian John Lynch argues that the rise of caudillos in Spanish America is rooted not in the distant Spanish past but in the immediate context of the Spanish American wars of independence. Those wars threw off colonial rule and left a power vacuum in the early nineteenth century.Caudillos were very influential in the history of Spanish America and have a legacy that has influenced political movements in the modern era.

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