-
Economic. The Bourbon reforms drowned the economy of the
colonies by preventing intraregional trade and imposing excessive
taxation.
Social. was resentment over the prerogatives of the Spaniards. The
disputes between Spaniards and creoles for management positions
extended to all areas. -
Ideological. The forerunners of independence became aware of the
differences between the colonies and the metropolis, highlighted the
value of their own and raised the alternative of the fatherland as a
separate entity from Spain.
Influence of US independence and the French Revolution.
Napoleon names king of Spain
To the causes, we must add
the events that precipitated the
independence. One of them is
that on May 5, 1808 Napoleon
imprisoned -
The independence of Latin America was the historical process of the
rebellion of its inhabitants against Spanish colonial rule and the formation of
independent national states. It began with the proclamation of Sovereign
Boards in 1809. Some of them - especially the first that of Quito - were
repressed by fire and blood by the Spanish authorities. The process
continued until it became a true continental war. -
Ferdinand VII and,
most importantly, the illegitimacy of both
Joseph Bonaparte and the colonial
authorities appointed by the Spanish king,
who no longer had any power.
Quito was to be the first in the history of
Spanish America to proclaim, on August 10, 1809, a government of its own,
not appointed by the Crown. Soon they would proclaim their meetings,
immediately, throughout 1810, -
The Spanish authorities fiercely repressed the first of the cities to form a
Sovereign Junta. They tried to prevent the contagion. The viceroys of Lima
and Bogota immediately sent troops with the order to besiege Quito and not
allow "a grain of salt" to enter. After the defeat, the armies of Lima and
Bogota occupied the city, and a year later, on August 2, 1810, they murdered
300 patriots and citizens, which shook entire America. -
The first Junta de Buenos Aires (25-051810) organized three military campaigns
to subdue the Spanish forces in the interior, but they were not successful.
However, a revolution spontaneously broke out in Asuncion (14-05-1811), and
the resulting government-held independent. This is how the Republic of Paraguay
was created.
In the Banda Oriental, the rural population rose against the Spanish authorities in
Montevideo. -
When Fernando VII returned
to the throne in 1814,
patriotic military campaigns
subsisted in Venezuela and
the Río de la Plata. In the
first, Simón Bolívar -Member
of the Caraqueña boards of
1811- was named new military
leader, and in 1813 he liberated Mérida and Caracas in the so-called
Admirable Campaign, cities that gave him the title of "Liberator" -
Morillo soon resumed control of Venezuela and New Granada. But, in 1817,
Bolívar, Piar, Páez, and other Venezuelan leaders reactivated the war. Bolivar
faced and defeated Morillo in Calabozo, in 1818. However, later, Morillo
counterattacked and defeated Bolivar in the valley of Aragua. Then Bolívar
crossed the Andes and defeated the royalists in the battle of Pantano de Vargas
(25-07-1819). which sealed the independence of New Granada. -
San Martin was not discouraged and
decided to continue with his plans,
only now he first had to liberate
Chile. For that he spent years
making weapons, bullets and all
kinds of equipment, and organizing
the Army of the Andes. The
crossing was epic, but, as they had
planned, the six columns met less
than a month later in the Aconcagua Valley and although it suffered a serious
defeat in Cancha Rayada (19-03-1818), it triumphed in the decisive battle -
Together with O'Higgins, and with
200,000 pesos that he obtained from
Buenos Aires, San Martín managed to
buy a naval squadron to attack the
Spaniards in Peru by sea. San Martin
sailed from Valparaíso (20-08-1820)
with a fleet of eight warships and 16
transport ships, and 4,500 men from
the armies of the Andes and Chile. It
disembarked in Pisco (8-09-1820), and forced the realistic army to retreat towards
the mountain range. -
It was, thus, the
second independent country in America, in this case, led by blacks.
In 1822, Haitian troops subdued the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola,
which would regain its independence from Haiti in 1844. But what will be
called the Dominican Republic will not achieve independence from Spain
until 1865, after a war that left the country devastated. -
Let us remember how the independence of
Guayaquil was proclaimed (9-10-1820), the
arrival of the patriot army commanded by
Antonio José de Sucre, and its triumph in
Pichincha (24-05-1822), which culminated
the independence of the Great Colombia.
Let us remember, also, that Bolivar defeated
the royalist pastures in the battle of
Bomboná, and entered triumphant Quito (16-06-1822) and, later, he waited for
the president of Peru, -
In their meetings in Guayaquil (26 and 27- 07-1822), Bolivar, liberator, and
president of Gran Colombia, and San Martin, protector of Peru, talked about what
was missing to complete the freedom of America: the defeat of the last realistic
bastion in Peru. Surprisingly, San Martin gave Bolivar the initiative of the war
completely. He returned to Lima, resigned from the government of Peru (20-
091822), and returned to his home in Mendoza, Argentina (01-1823). -
In 1823, Bolívar was authorized
by the Congress of the Gran
Colombia to take command of
an expedition to Peru. In
September of that year, he
arrived in Lima and met with
Sucre and the Peruvian leaders
to plan the attack. Bolivar and Sucre defeated the Spanish army at the Battle
of Junín (6-08-1824). -
Provinces of the Center of America, being its capital city of Guatemala.
However, local oligarchies promoted separation. This led to a civil war (1838-
1840), in which Guatemala could not prevail. England invaded Nicaragua
but was rejected, although it remained with the enclave of Belize. -
On September 23, 1868, the scream of Lares, of independence against
Spain, was produced. The rebellion is crushed in a short time. Puerto Rico
continues within the Spanish system until the war between EE. UU and
Spain. After the defeat of this, the island of Puerto Rico happens to be
administered by EE. UU and is currently an associated free state of that
country. Consequently, it is not an independent country. -
. The command
was taken by another priest, José Maria Morelos, who led the second stage
of the revolution (1811-1815). He introduced a liberal state and agrarian
reform. But he had him shot in 1815. Frustrated in their desire for autonomy
and free trade, a group of conservative creoles proclaimed independence in
1821, but only when Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was proclaimed
president of the Republic in 1833 Spain only recognized Mexican
independence in 1839 -
In 1821, Juan VI returned to Portugal, leaving his son
Pedro de Braganza as governor of Brazil, but the following year he
proclaimed himself emperor of Brazil. In 1831 he abdicated and was
succeeded by his son, Pedro II, who reigned until 1889 when the first
republic was proclaimed. -
The USA does not want
to lose the possibility of taking over the largest island of the Antilles and, in
1898, after the explosion of the battleship Maine in the port of Havana, he
declares war on Spain. The intervention of EE. UU precipitated the Spanish
defeat and Cuba proclaimed its independence in 1899, although it suffered
the American occupation.
