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Independence of Chile
San Martin was not discouraged anddecided 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. 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 of Maipú (5-04-1818), assuring the independence of Chile -
San Martin and Bolivar
In their meetings in Guayaquil, Bolivar and San Martin, talked about whatwas missing to complete the freedom of America: the defeat of the last realistic bastion in Peru.San Martin gave Bolivar the initiative of the war. He returned to Lima, resigned from the government of Peru, and returned to his home in Mendoza, Argentina. A year later, discouraged by the death of his wife and the internal fights between Unitarians and Federals, he emigrated to Europe, where he died in 1850. -
The Independence of Latin America
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. -
Causes of the Latin America independence
In the independence of Latin America, as in any complex process, many causes can be distinguished, among them:
Economic, social, ideological, Influence of US independence and the French Revolution and Napoleon names king of Spain -
From the boards to the wars
The Spanish authorities fiercely repressed the first of the cities to form a Sovereign Board. They tried to prevent contagion.
But the reaction of the Spanish led to the polarization of positions and the Creole elites multiplied, since 1811, the proclamation, without ambiguity, of independence. The military reaction of the colonial authorities was immediate. The Creole reaction was increasingly strong and organized, which turned the process into a true continental war that lasted several years. -
Mexican Independence
The priest Miguel Hidalgo stood in front of the Indians and peasants and launched the "cry of independence" in the town of Dolores. Frustrated in their desire for autonomy and free trade, a group of conservative creoles proclaimed independence in 1821, but only when Antonio López de Santa Anna was proclaimed President of the Republic in 1833 did Spain only recognize Mexico's independence in 1839. -
Central America
Guatemala with its provinces declared its independence from the Spanish Crown and, shortly after, Mexico was annexed to better defend itself from Spain. A year later, Guatemala and its provinces formed an independent state, of a federal nature, with the name of United Provinces of Central America, its capital city being Guatemala. This led to a civil war, in which Guatemala could not win. -
Independence of Cuba
José Martí organizes the Cuban Revolutionary Party and searches for the old leaders of the revolution, unifies the different currents, builds a small army and lands in Cuba. The United States does not want to lose the possibility of seizing the largest island in the Antilles and, in 1898, after the explosion of the battleship Maine in the port of Havana, it declared war on Spain. -
The case of Puerto Rico
On September 23, 1868, the scream of Lares, of independence againstSpain, 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. -
Brazil: Monarchical independence
When Napoleon invaded Portugal, John VI took refuge in Brazil and later promoted legal reform by declaring Brazil the territorial base of the "Empire of Brazil, Portugal and the Algarve." Thus, Rio de Janeiro becomes the seat of an absolute monarchy, as well as those of Europe, and ceases to be a colony. 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. -
Independence of South America
When Fernando VII returned to the throne in 1814, patriotic military campaigns continued in Venezuela and the Río de la Plata.
First, Simón Bolívar, a member of the Caracas junta in 1811, was named the 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", united forever to his Christian name. -
New Granada and Venezuela
Morillo soon regained control of Venezuela and New Granada. Bolívar faced and defeated Morillo in Calabozo, in 1818. Then Bolívar crossed the Andes and defeated the royalists in the battle of Pantano de Vargas. that sealed the independence of New Granada. One more year of skirmishes and Morillo and Bolívar sign the War Regularization Treaty, which ends the period of the «War to the Death». -
Independence of Ecuador
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 (06-16-1822) and, later, he waited for the president of Peru, to discuss the strategy toend the war against the royalists -
Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay
The first Junta of Buenos Aires organized three military campaigns to subdue the Spanish forces in the interior, but they were not successful. In the Banda Oriental, the rural population rose up against the Spanish authorities in Montevideo. José Artigas commanded the revolutionary troops that defeated the royalists in the Battle of Las Piedras and besieged the walled Montevideo, where the viceregal government had moved. -
Peru
Together with O'Higgins, and with 200,000 pesos obtained from Buenos Aires, San Martín managed to buy a naval squadron to attack the Spanish in Peru by sea. He landed in Pisco, and forced the royalist army to retreat towards the mountains. -
End of the war of Independence
In 1823, Bolívar was authorized by the Congress of Gran Colombia to take command of an expedition to Peru. Bolívar and Sucre defeated the Spanish army at the Battle of Junín. Sucre went to Alto Peru in 1825, where there was no resistance, and made it independent as a sovereign state that adopted the name of Bolivia in honor of Simón Bolívar. -
The lack of a king, ocassion of American boards
When proclaiming the Sovereign Boards, the South American Creoles held three theses:
The rejection of Napoleon's claims to America, the loyalty to Ferdinand VII and, most importantly, the illegitimacy of both José 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, its own government, not designated by the Crown. -
Haiti and Santo Domingo
François Dominique Toussaint-Louverture took charge of a slave revolt on the French side of the island of Hispaniola and led it between 1793 and 1802. He faced Spanish, English, and French, until his capture, exile, and death in France.
In 1803, Jean Jacques Dessalines finally defeated the French troops and, in 1804, declared the independence of Haiti.
