The democracies of South America, then, are Spanish, although the _élite_ has always been inspired by French ideas. Democracies by proclamation and in their anarchy, equalitarian and of mixed blood, the individual often acquires a heroic significance like that of the supermen of Carlyle; mediæval republics divided into irreducible families and factions, governed by enriched merchants; Greek republics, hostile to their own leaders, jealous of the virtue of Aristides and the wisdom of Themistocles, but without the plebiscitary ardour of the Hellenic community. [1] The cold region of lofty table-lands. [2] _La Civilisation en Italie au temps de la Renaissance_, Paris, 1885, vol. i. pp. 165 _et seq_. [3] _Les lois psychologiques de l'Evolution des peuples_, Paris, 1900, pp. 13 and 71. {99} BOOK II _THE CAUDILLOS AND THE DEMOCRACY_ The history of the South American Republics may be reduced to the biographies of their representative men. The national spirit is concentred in the _caudillos_: absolute chieftains, beneficent tyrants. They rule by virtue of personal valour and repute, and an aggressive audacity. They resemble the democracies by which they are deified. Without studying the biographies of Paez, Castilla, Santa-Cruz, and Lavalleja, it is impossible to understand the evolution of Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, and Uruguay. {101} CHAPTER I VENEZUELA: PAEZ, GUZMAN-BLANCO The moral authority of Paez--The Monagas--The tyranny of Guzman-Blanco--Material progress. Two central figures, Paez and Guzman-Blanco, dominate the history of Venezuela. The first founded a republic in spite of the Unitarian aims of Bolivar; the second established a long autocracy over the factions and the quarrels of half a century. Paez was an individualist, a nomadic leader, an impassioned champion of the district, of the native country, as against any vast political concentration. As the Argentine pampa gave birth to Quiroga, and the Arabian desert engendered the mystic adventure of the Khalifs, so the _llanos_ of Venezuela created Paez.