 Despite important differences in the social and political conditions across the region, liberal Hispanic American intellectuals shared some common themes and concerns. Chief among them was their commitment to carry out a radical break with the past that required the profound transformation of their own societies. Central to this enterprise was the replacement of the religiously grounded monarchical form of government with secular republics based on popular sovereignty. In light of this commitment, liberal political actors debated how best to carry out this transformation in political structures and social practices: whether constitutional design could be sufficient to produce the desired republican order (i.e., non-monarchical) with full protection of individual liberties and a market economy; or whether it was also necessary to engage in social and economic reform with the power of a strong centralized State that was still in the making. They asked what was to be done with inherited colonial institutions that fiercely resisted the new liberal order (especially the Catholic Church); and how to transform ex-colonial subjects with little if any experience in political representation and participation in a market economy into industrious citizens of the republic. A central concern was how to maintain social and political stability in the process of a deep transformation premised on the rejection of long established colonial institutional structures and social practices. Not surprisingly, liberal political actors disagreed deeply among themselves about how best to answer questions such as these and what exactly liberalism entailed. They disagreed on matters of constitutional design, the extent of individual liberties, the proper functions of the State, who was entitled to full active citizenship, how to deal with the Catholic Church, among other issues. For all their disagreements, they took for granted that the “Indians” and mestizos, who were in the majority, had to be transformed into industrious citizens, by force if necessary.