Latin American Wars of Independence

At issue: Latin American independence from Spain

Date: 1808–1826

Location: Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador

Combatants: Royalists vs. insurgents; Spanish vs. Spanish American revolutionaries

Principal commanders:Royalist, General Félix María Calleja del Rey (1755?-1828); Insurgent, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (1753–1811), Father José María Morelos y Pavón (1765–1815); Revolutionary, Simón Bolívar (1783–1830), José de San Martín (1778–1850), Antonio José de Sucre (1795–1830), Bernardo O’Higgins (1778–1842)

Principal battles: Guanajuato City, Las Cruces, Aculco, Calderón, Zitácauro, Cuautla Amilpas, Oaxaca City, Acapulco, Valladolid, Chacabuco, Boyacá, Carabobo, Mount Pichincha, Ayacucho

Result: Regional instability; political life dominated by charismatic military leaders known as caudillos; victory by the revolutionaries and the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Americas

Background

Three elements created the conditions for Latin America’s independence movements. The first was a growing nationalism among creoles (elite of European descent), characterized by extreme dislike of peninsular officials sent to rule them. The second was the spread of Enlightenment philosophies; the third was the inspiration of the American Revolution. Support for independence was dampened by deep-seated loyalty to the Crown, revulsion at the excesses of the French Revolution, and fear of a Haitian-style slave insurrection. Indeed, the Napoleonic Wars were the necessary catalyst of independence, and it is unlikely the colonies would have pursued it otherwise.

When Napoleon Bonaparte closed European ports to English shipping, Portugal refused to cooperate with his continental system. In 1807, Napoleon invaded Portugal through the territory of his ally, King Charles IV of Spain. Portuguese emperor João VI fled with his court to Brazil. Meanwhile, Spaniards attacked French garrisons and rioted in Madrid, forcing Charles to abdicate in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. When, in 1808, Napoleon was forced to abdicate in favor of his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, the Spanish resisted and established loyalist juntas allied with England. By 1810, Napoleon’s army held most of the peninsula, although the Spanish were still conducting guerrilla war. In Cádiz, the Regency Council and Cortes (parliament), meeting under British protection, enacted a liberal constitution in 1812, creating a limited monarchy and inviting colonial participation in government. With Napoleon’s defeat, Ferdinand returned, restored absolutism, and dispatched troops to the colonies. In 1820, the army revolted, forcing Ferdinand to reinstate the constitution and accept radical reforms. Although royalist forces still held New Spain (Mexico) and Peru, the revolt made Latin American independence inevitable.

Action

The events of 1808 led peninsular Spaniards to oust New Spain’s pro-creole viceroy in anticipation of the arrival of Viceroy Francisco Javier de Venegas. Mexico City’s creole aristocracy accepted the peninsular action, but regional creole elites, such as Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, did not. On September 16, 1810, warned of his imminent arrest, Hidalgo summoned his followers and gave a famous speech, known as “El Grito de Dolores,” in which he said, “Death to bad government; long live King Ferdinand and the Virgin of Guadalupe!” As Hidalgo’s army mushroomed to 60,000, the movement became less creole and more mestizo and Indian.

Heading south toward the capital, Hidalgo’s horde sacked Guanajuato (September 28, 1810), executing its gachupín residents. Creoles, fearing a race war, left the movement. Armed mostly with homemade lances, slings, and machetes, Hidalgo’s forces moved on Mexico City. At the Battle of Las Cruces (October 30, 1810), 2,500 royalist troops with muskets and cannons inflicted 2,000 casualties. The insurgents held the field, but 40,000 deserted. The following weeks saw royalist victories at Aculco (1810) and Guanajuato. Hidalgo was routed at Calderón (January 11, 1811) and fled northward, where he was captured, tried, and shot.

The focus shifted southward, where insurgents commanded by another radical priest, José María Morelos y Pavón, fortified the towns of Zitácauro (1812) and Cuautla Amilpas (1812). Royalist general Félix María Calleja del Rey easily took the first, but the Siege of Cuautla lasted seventy-two days before Morelos y Pavón evacuated on May 1, 1812. Morelos y Pavón rebuilt his forces, took control of the countryside between Veracruz and Mexico City, and captured Oaxaca City (November, 1812). Now in control of the south, Morelos y Pavón took Acapulco in the summer of 1813. Meanwhile Calleja del Rey, who became viceroy in March, 1813, reorganized royalist forces and, beginning with the Battle of Valladolid (December, 1813), inflicted a series of defeats on Morelos y Pavón culminating in his capture on November 5, 1815. From 1816 to 1820, a stalemate existed. Royalists held the cities, and insurgents held the countryside. In 1820, however, rebels in Spain imposed a constitution abolishing the privileges for which Mexican royalists had fought. Thus, General Agustín de Iturbide sought out insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero. On February 24, 1821, the two joined forces under the Plan de Iguala, promising an independent monarchy, the supremacy of the Catholic Church, and civil equality for native and Spanish-born. In September, Iturbide proclaimed Mexican independence, and in May, 1822, the new Mexican congress proclaimed him emperor of Mexico.

In South America, the wars of independence proceeded on three fronts: the viceroyalties of La Plata (Buenos Aires), Peru (Lima and Potosí), and New Granada (Bogotá, Quito, and Caracas). Peru, having put down an Inca rebellion in 1782, was a royalist bastion, dragged into independence by the patriot movements of Buenos Aires and New Granada.

As Napoleon’s army threatened Cádiz in 1810, the citizens of Buenos Aires (known as porteños) forced the viceroy to hold an open municipal meeting, deposed him, and established a junta. Porteño patriot armies sent to liberate the interior provinces were resisted not only by royalists but also by regional caudillos (strongmen), who wanted independence from Buenos Aires as well as from Spain. José Gervasio Artigas’s gaucho cavalry maintained Uruguayan autonomy, and in Paraguay, creoles led by José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia turned back the porteños, then expelled the Spanish.

In Peru, the porteño army defeated royalists at Suipacha (November 7, 1810) and seized silver-rich Potosí only to be driven back to Tucamán at the Battle of Huaqui (June 20, 1811), near Lake Titicaca. Patriot general Manuel Belgrano riposted in 1813 but was forced out of Potosí again. José de San Martín, seeing that the royalists were prepared for attacks by the usual route, equipped an army to cross the Andes to link up with Chile’s patriot forces, which had continued as guerrillas after their defeat at the Battle of Rancagua (October 1-2, 1814). In January, 1817, accompanied by Chilean general Bernardo O’Higgins, San Martín swept down from mountain passes to defeat royalist forces at Chacabuco (February 12, 1817). Beaten at Cancha Rayada (March, 1818), San Martín recovered to win a decisive victory at Maipo (April 15, 1818), near Santiago. O’Higgins became dictator of Chile, and San Martín prepared to attack Lima by sea with the help of British naval officer Thomas Cochrane. In August, 1820, Cochrane, along with his fleet of seven warships and eighteen transports, blockaded the port, landed his army, and forced a Spanish evacuation by June, 1822. A large royalist army from the interior then forced San Martín to withdraw to Guayaquil, where he met Simón Bolívar.

Bolívar, known as the Liberator, rose to power with the Caracas creole junta. After the junta deposed Spanish officials, Bolívar was sent to London to request British assistance. There he encountered exiled revolutionary Francisco de Miranda and brought him back to lead Venezuela’s patriot army. On March 26, 1812, an earthquake destroyed the patriot-held region but did not affect Spanish-held regions. It was, said royalist clergy, divine punishment of the revolutionaries. Venezuela’s patriot cause collapsed. Bolívar gave up the key fortress of Puerto Cabello (July 6, 1812), and Miranda surrendered Caracas (July 15, 1812). Bolívar joined the Colombian forces and launched his Campaña Admirable (1813). After retaking Caracas (August 6, 1812), he ruled as military dictator, alienating many former supporters, most significantly the llaneros (cowboys), who formed lancer units that pushed Bolívar from Caracas (July, 1814). The Liberator retreated to Cartagena, then Jamaica, and then Haiti, just ahead of a large Spanish expeditionary force dispatched by Ferdinand to retake New Granada. Bolívar traded promises to abolish slavery and institute equal rights for the races in return for Haitian assistance. He renewed his campaign at Angostura (September, 1816), on the Orinoco River. Seeking a more diverse base, he recruited people of color and, with British loans, hired a legion of British veterans. Proceeding up river, he crossed the Andes, scattered the royalists at Boyacá (August 7, 1819) and entered Bogotá unopposed. After a brief armistice, Bolívar destroyed a Spanish army at Carabobo (June 24, 1821). Linking up with San Martín’s troops, his lieutenant, Antonio José de Sucre, defeated a Spanish army at Mount Pichincha (May 24, 1822) incorporating Ecuador into Great Colombia. After disagreeing with Bolívar at Guayaquil over the future of government of the region, San Martín retired. Bolívar entered Peru and routed royalist forces at Junín Lake (August 6, 1824), and Sucre finished the last Spanish army at Ayacucho (December 9, 1824).

Aftermath

Power vacuums and instability followed the wars, giving rise to decades of Liberal-Conservative conflict and to charismatic military leaders known as caudillos, who dominated Latin American political life well into the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Bethell, Leslie, ed. The Independence of Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Lynch, John. The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808–1826. New York: W. W. Norton, 1973.

McFarlane, Anthony, and Eduardo Posada-Carbo, eds. Independence and Revolution in Spanish America: Perspectives and Problems. London: Institute of Latin American Studies, 1999.

Rodriguez O., Jaime E. The Independence of Spanish America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.