Spain. Junta Suprema Central Gubernativa del Reino. La Junta Suprema del Reyno a la nacion española. Lima,1810.
The Cortes was dominated by Liberals, and their debates on the proper form of government eventually produced a Liberal constitution in 1812. It was one of the most advanced of its time, and served as a model for other, later constitutions. It established the principles of universal male suffrage, national sovereignty, constitutional monarchy and freedom of the press, as well as supporting land reform and free enterprise. This pamphlet, issued early in the process, sets out some of the broad philosophical ideas that would influence the constitution. In the constitution, however, there were conflicting tendencies. According to traditional legal thought, Spanish colonies in the New World were not possessions of the mother country but independent kingdoms sharing the same monarch as Castile. While the new constitution made Spaniards on both sides of the Atlantic (including mixed race populations) equal under the law, Peninsular Spaniards nonetheless rejected co-equal status for New World kingdoms such as Peru, preferring a centralized government in which the colonies were seen as mere provinces, subject to rule from Madrid.