Latin American Wars of Independence

Latin American Wars of Independence

Causes of the Revolutions

The Latin American Wars of Independence were the various revolutions that took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries in the Latin American region. These revolutions followed the American and French Revolutions, which had profound effects on the Spanish, Portuguese and French colonies in the Americas. Haiti, a French slave colony, was the first to follow the United States to independence after a war that lasted from 1791 to 1804. Thwarted in his attempt to rebuild a French North American empire, Napoleon Bonaparte turned his armies to Europe, invading and occupying many countries including Spain and Portugal in 1808. Napoleon’s occupation of Spain caused Spanish creoles to question their allegiance to the government there, stoking independence movements that culminated in bloody wars of independence after Spain's liberation: Hispanic American wars of independence. The Portuguese monarchy relocated to Brazil while Portugal was under French occupation. After the royal court returned to Lisbon, the Prince Regent, Pedro, remained in Brazil and in 1822 declared himself emperor of a newly independent Brazil.

Venezuela

Simón Bolívar

Venezuela declared its independence from Spain on July 5, 1811, beginning its wars against that country. In 1812 Spanish forces led by defeated the Venezuelan revolutionary army, led by Francisco de Miranda, which surrendered at La Victoria in July 12, 1812, effectively ending the first phase of the revolutionary war.

After his defeat in 1812, Simón Bolívar fled to New Granada. He later returned with a new army, while the war had entered a tremendously violent phase. After much of the local aristocracy had abandoned the cause of independence, blacks and mulattoes carried on the struggle. Elites reacted with open distrust and opposition to the efforts of these common people. Bolívar's forces invaded Venezuela from New Granada in 1813, waging a campaign with a ferocity captured perfectly by their motto, "guerra a muerte" ("war to the death"). Bolívar's forces defeated Juan Monteverde's Spanish army in a series of battles, taking Caracas on August 6, 1813 and besieging Monteverde at Puerto Cabello in September 1813.

Battle of Carabobo

With loyalists displaying the same passion and violence, the rebels achieved only short-lived victories. In 1814, heavily reinforced Spanish forces in Venezuela lost a series of battles to Bolívar's forces but then decisively defeated Bolivar at La Puerta on June 15, took Caracas on July 16, and again defeated his army at Aragua on August 18, at a cost of 2,000 Spanish casualties out of 10,000 soldiers as well as most of the 3,000 in the rebel army. Bolívar and other leaders then returned to New Granada.

The army demonstrated the key military role that the llaneros came to play in the region's struggle. Turning the tide against independence, these highly mobile, ferocious fighters made up a formidable military force that pushed Bolívar out of his home country once more. Bolívar returned to Venezuela in December 1816, again leading a largely unsuccessful insurrection against Spain from 1816 to 1818.

Bolívar again returned to Venezuela in April 1821, leading an army of 7,000 from New Granada. At Carabobo on June 24, his forces decisively defeated Spanish and colonial forces, winning Venezuelan independence, although hostilities continued.

The Battle of Boyacá sealed Colombia's independence

Colombia

By 1815, the independence movements in Venezuela and almost all across Spanish South America seemed moribund. A large military expedition sent by Ferdinand VII in that year reconquered Venezuela and most of New Granada. Yet another invasion led by Bolívar in 1816 failed miserably.

Then in June and July 1819 Bolívar's forces crossed the Andes into New Granada. At the Battle of Boyacá on August 7, his army of 3,000 defeated a Spanish and colonial force of 2,500. In the spring of 1820 Bolívar's republican forces took Bogotá; he then became the first president of the Gran Colombia.

Ecuador

The first uprising against Spanish rule took place in 1809, but only in 1822 did Ecuador fully gain independence and became part of the Federation of Gran Colombia, from which it withdrew in 1830. Luz de America was the nickname given to Ecuador's capital Quito which saw the first revolt against Spanish occupation. The nickname served the urge for the call of independence that was heard around the continent, and inspired the eventual domino collapse of the crown throughout Latin America.