The name is absent

South American Independence 243
military qualities and military leaders—not all men of con-
structive qualities. But even when great administrators
did appear, they lacked the solid support enjoyed by the
colonial organizers, and were bound to fail in a struggle
determined by personal rivalries and amid constant anarchy.

The greatness of the War of Independence and the
amount of sacrifice made to achieve it presents a great
contrast with the pettiness and selfish struggles that fol-
lowed it. This contrast is by no means a mystery, precisely
because the war of independence must be followed by a
period of exhaustion and depression. The difference be-
tween the republican South American countries that
achieved very early some political progress, and the others
that were the prey of anarchy for a long period, lies in the
conditions and consequences of the struggle for indepen-
dence rather than in geographical and racial causes. The
countries in which the war did not last very long and did
not destroy entirely the economic basis of society and the
social structure of colonial times, were fit for the establish-
ment of more solid and more democratic institutions. On
the contrary, in nations like Venezuela, in which the con-
tinuous fighting almost annihilated social institutions and
national wealth, an entire generation will suffer without
remedy the consequences of these losses. The personal
regime of the Caudillos or leaders will be unavoidable, and
perhaps necessary. The degree of anarchy and the degree
of intensity of the personal regime will appear in propor-
tion to the damage done by the war in the economic or-
ganization and the social structure of these countries. With
this point of view completed by others concerning the geo-
graphical factors, impartial historians ought to assume a
more comprehensive and sympathetic attitude towards
South American history.

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