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WARS OF INDEPENDENCE:

SOUTH AMERICA

by David Bushnell


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Americas, March/April. 2010 Vol 62, No. 2: p. 12

Port cities more liberal

The desire for independence was notunanimous in the colonies.

Caracas and Buenos Aires weremore inconvenienced by Spanish

commercial policy than were silver-

mining Peru and Upper Peru (modern

Bolivia), where economic growthwas slower.


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Peru feared race war

In Peru, the dominant Hispanicminorityits fears of the Indian

majority heightened by memoryof the Tupac Amaru revolt of

1780-1781 was hesitant to

set in motion a process ofchange that it might not be able

to control.


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Regional Juntas formed

1808: Napoleon invades Spain. 1810: April- Junta in Caracas. May- Junta in Buenos Aires. July - Santa Fe de Bogota Sept. Santiago de Chile. All the new governments initiallypledged allegiance to the captiveFerdinand VII, but they lost no timein asserting their own powers.


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Junta Reforms

opened ports to neutral trade, decreed changes enacted other miscellaneous

reforms.

In Caracas, the junta moved toabolish the slave trade.


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Key figures

Mariano Moreno, Buenos Aires usedthe press to prepare Spanish

Americans for Independence. In Caracas, Francisco de Mirandajoined Simon Bolivar.

July 5, 1811 Venezuela became thefirst of the Spanish colonies to

declare outright separation from the

mother country.


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Battle of Boyaca


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Colombians, Venezuelas

and British


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Congress of Angostura

(1819)


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Civil War

Paraguay and Uruguay, bothparts of the Viceroyalty of Rio

de la Plata, refused to acceptthe Buenos Aires junta's rule.

Venezuelan provinces such asMaracaibo and Guayana refusedto accept the leadership of

Caracas,


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Ecuador faced the rebellion ofGuayaquil and Cuenca.

The Junta of Santa Fe deBogota faced the defiance of

local juntas in places such as

Cartagena.


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Indians and Blacks

The Indians distrusted the intentions of thecreoles and avoided entanglement.

Black slaves and pantos(free blacks) inVenezuela were often susceptible to theappeals of loyalist opponentseven thoughthe new government had outlawed theslave trade and in its December 1811Republican Constitution had outlawed

discrimination on racial grounds.


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Spanishdefeated

by Bolivar

at JunnPeru


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Jose Artigas in Uruguay


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Jose San Martin defeats the

Spanish in Chile (1817)


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Bernardo OHiggins in

Chile San Martin suffered one seriousdefeat before his second majortriumph in the battle of Maipu onApril 5, 1818.

He set up a revolutionarygovernment in Chile,

Under Bernardo O'Higgins thegovernment finally issued Chile'sdeclaration of independence inFebniary 1818.


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1821 'Carabobosecures

victory for Venezuela


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San Martin and Bolivar

meet in Quayaquil in 1822


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San Martin resigns

San Martin resigned hiscommand

Bolivar to accepts a invitationto command in 1823.

Bolivar had to combineColombian forces with theChileans and Argentines


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Final victories

Sucre's victory at Ayacucho onDecember 9, 1824.

the last Spanish fortress inSouth America, al the Peruvian

port of Callao, surrendered in

January 1826.


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The Wars of Independence

had uneven effects. Venezuela was hard hit-pop.decline. Paraguay was affected hardly at all. Agriculture suffered. Mining was devastated. The new countries had military debt. Tradition of military caudillos. Sharp decline of slavery.

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