Clément Thibaud, From the republics in arms to the armed Republic: revolutionary war, federalism, and centralism in Venezuela and in Nouvelle-Grenade, 1808-1830 The Spanish Empire understood the concept of the common welfare in its providential form. In its legal dimension, the « respublica Christiana » provided the fundamental organization of the corporate society of the Indes de Castille. When the liberal Spanish Revolution initiated the process of indépendance in Nouvelle-Grenade (present-day Colombia) and in Venezuela, these republican bodies were replaced by republics composed of equal citizens. This article examines the causes and means by which a pluralistic and corporative order is transformed into a sovereign nation. Federalism enabled the varied heritage of the Empire to be expressed in language and in modern practices while the warlike dynamic tended to centralize the government and to permit the formation of a national community.