Love and politics: two ways of understanding patriotism in the transition from viceroyalty to republic in Peru

Abstract

The enlightened elite of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries understood the concept of patriotism in two different ways; the term “utilitarian patriotism” is proposed to refer to the patriotism promoted by the Sociedad de Amantes del País and “republican patriotism” to the option spread by Hipólito Unanue in the newspaper Nuevo Día del Perú (1824), which could be extrapolated to the rest of supporters of the republican regime after the Peruvian declaration of independence. The exploration of  the ethical foundations and models of society and government ideals related to both forms of patriotism, makes evident the complexity of this concept´s reception by a particular social group, and its relevance within the history of Peruvian political thought is recognized.