LOS NEXOS MASÓNICOS DEL SIGLO XIX EN LA POLÍTICA IBEROAMERICANA Y ECUATORIANA DEL PRIMER LIBERALISMO

Abstract

Freemasons have influenced historical movements through their ideas, values and objectives in the modern revolutionary periods through the political constitutions of European and American states, in the transition from absolutist to federalist and republican states, with economic and social impacts. These ideas were applied in the northwestern part of South America with Bolívar and San Martín and later, in Ecuadorian politics with Olmedo, Flores and Rocafuerte.

The issue of Freemasonry in Ecuador, at different times, has caused controversy. In the national history books are pejorative references about their malignancy and harmful influence. As a researcher in History I was interested in this topic, I sought to know what this entity was, I never found the answer in national publications; However, through the study of José Joaquín Olmedo, I was able to find the common thread to contribute and fill a gap in the vision of the history of the country, in the conformation of the State.

This essay will review the following aspects: 1) Background; 2) The first years of the nineteenth century; 3) The society of ideas in the Cortes of Cádiz: freedom; 4) The freethinkers of Cádiz in America and Ecuador, 5) The formation of lodges and liberal constitutional projects; 6) A lodge in Guayaquil expands its influence to the country; 7) Bolívar in the liberal split and trend formation; 8) Olmedo, civil founder of the Republic; 9) External influences in the first Floreana administration; 10) The internal regional contradictions between the liberal groups; 11) Crises within the lodges and influence of the church; 12) Rocafuerte, application of Masonic ideas in the ecclesiastical reform and education; 13) External influences and ruptures of the internal lodges, 14) The ambitions and the decline of Flores.