Educating the subjects? Modernity and tradition in a revolutionary era: El investigador [of Peru] (1813-1814)

Contemporary historiography on independence has prioritized the analysis of political culture in the passage from the societies of the Ancien Régime to nineteenth-century political modernity. This renewed interest focuses primarily on analyzing the press, the configuration of public spaces, and networks of communication. This article examines the political discourse of the elite and the image that they constructed of the popular sectors. It does so by using the daily Peruvian newspaper, El Investigador, between the years 1813 and 1814 as its main primary source. The systematic reading and analysis of this newspaper allows us to show the elite's fear regarding the popular sectors, the conflicts between Church and State, and the conflicts within the state apparatus over the degree to which authority should be centralized, all of which reflected the break down of the viceroyal order.