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172-517: During the Spanish American wars of independence (1810–33), Cartagena Province was declared a free state and joined to the United Provinces of New Granada , a federation which existed from 1811 to 1816, when it was reconquered by Spain. With the declaration of the former Viceroyalty of New Granada as the short-lived (1819–30) republic of Gran Colombia in 1819, Cartagena province became part of

344-489: A banner to organize the aggrieved, and the political causes could be discarded just as quickly as they were picked up. The Venezuelan Llaneros switched to the patriot banner once the elites and the urban centers became securely royalist after 1815, and it was the royal army in Mexico that ultimately brought about that nation's independence. Philosophers Works At the first years of war, during Spanish constitutional period,

516-543: A coalition of conservative and liberal royalist leaders who led the establishment of new states. The Spanish Constitution of 1812 attempted to return to the policies that the Spanish government had implemented under Habsburg rule. These policies gave recognized Spanish colonial territory as fellow kingdoms with equal standing to Spain. The policies under the Habsburgs, moreover, allowed for constant revisionism, through corruption and

688-628: A considerable booty from exchanges of mirrors, bells and other trinkets with the natives, then returned to Santo Domingo and sailed back to Spain. Once in Madrid, Heredia initiated efforts to gain royal approval to secure the conquest and government of the Bay of Cartagena and New Andalucía , a territory that stretched from the mouth of the Magdalena River to Darién Province , which had belonged to Alonso de Ojeda . The capitulación , or agreement, granting him

860-494: A counterattack in Cartagena but failed. By mid-1811, the patriots were already being undermined by internal divisions; they had formed two parties that argued furiously, and the general mood was contentious. Several major skirmishes between them, both military and political, delayed by several months the declaration of independence. At last a constitutional convention met to establish a sovereign state, and on November 11, 1811, declared

1032-518: A delicate affair, the Royal Audience of Panama released Heredia, who returned to Cartagena. Immediately after his arrival in Cartagena on July 25, 1544, the city was pillaged by a French Huguenot nobleman, Jean-François Roberval , known as "Robert Baal". Cartagena was not yet fortified and was an easy target for the French. Heredia was obliged to fight with his sword at his own house, as the enemy held

1204-609: A few Spanish women and an interpreter, India Catalina , a native woman fluent in both the Spanish and Indian tongues who had been kidnapped by Diego de Nicuesa when she was a girl. After spending Christmas Day in Santo Domingo, Heredia sailed across the Caribbean Sea to the mainland of South America where he cruised off the coast into Santa Marta Bay and then past the mouth of the Magdalena River. He passed several villages of

1376-508: A flank of royalist defenders near the city. With the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 and the return of Ferdinand VII to the throne, the Spanish authorities, at the behest of the king, decided to send troops to the Americas to reclaim the territories that had proclaimed themselves independent. From the point of view of the criollos , the king was ignoring the loyalty the American provinces had shown when he

1548-450: A former lieutenant of Bastidas, which were resolved when the latter was drowned in the river that bears his name. Vadillo served as interim governor of Santa Marta but returned to Santo Domingo to face a residencia (an administrative and judicial tribunal). In the meantime, Heredia continued in office until 1529, gaining extensive experience in his dealings with the Indians. He accumulated

1720-629: A general stalemate set in the war. In areas where royalists controlled the main population centers, most of the fighting by those seeking independence was done by isolated guerrilla bands . In New Spain, the two main guerrilla groups were led by Guadalupe Victoria in Puebla and Vicente Guerrero in Oaxaca. In northern South America, New Granadan and Venezuelan patriots, under leaders such as Simón Bolívar , Francisco de Paula Santander , Santiago Mariño , Manuel Piar and José Antonio Páez , carried out campaigns in

1892-411: A generalized Peruvian revolt, chose to avoid direct military confrontation. San Martín hoped that his presence would initiate an authentic Peruvian revolt against Spanish rule, believing that otherwise any liberation would be ephemeral. In the meantime, San Martín engaged in diplomacy with Viceroy Joaquín de la Pezuela , who was under orders from the constitutional government to negotiate on the basis of

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2064-627: A junta in New Spain was also stopped. The escape to Cádiz and the dissolution of the Supreme Central Junta on 29 January 1810, because of the reverses suffered after the Battle of Ocaña by the Spanish forces paid with Spanish American money, set off another wave of juntas being established in the Americas. French forces had taken over southern Spain and forced the Supreme Junta to seek refuge in

2236-484: A military conflict arose between Royalists and Patriots over the unity or independence of the empire. These juntas gained their own levels of independence and autonomy from Spain through declarations in 1808-1812. However, Ferdinand VII reimposed absolute monarchy in 1814 with a coup d'état , following the defeat of Napoleon and the Treaty of Valençay . He was able to defeat and repress the peninsular liberals, and abolished

2408-571: A new Army of the Three Guarantees . The representative of the new Spanish government, Superior Political Chief Juan O'Donojú , who replaced the previous viceroys, arrived in Veracruz on 1 July 1821, but he found that royalists held the entire country except for Veracruz, Mexico City and Acapulco . Since at the time that O'Donojú had left Spain, the Cortes was considering greatly expanding the autonomy of

2580-444: A new Cortes under its traditional form (with separate chambers for the clergy and the nobility), a promise never fulfilled. News of the events arrived through Spanish America during the next three weeks to nine months, depending on time it took goods and people to travel from Spain. Ferdinand's actions constituted a definitive de facto break both with the autonomous governments, which had not yet declared formal independence, and with

2752-428: A priest, often their own family members, by eliminating these endowed funds ( capellanías ) that the lower clergy depended on disproportionately. Prominently in Mexico, lower clergy participated in the insurgency for independence with priests Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos . The reforms had mixed results. In some areas—such as Cuba , Río de la Plata and New Spain —the reforms had positive effects, improving

2924-798: A process of Balkanization in Latin America . Thus, the strict period of military campaigns ranges from the Battle of Chacaltaya (1809) in present-day Bolivia , to the Battle of Tampico (1829) in Mexico . In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte , as part of his Continental Blockade strategy against the British Empire , forced the Spanish royal family to abdicate the throne, imposed the Bayonne Statute , and installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte , as King of Spain. In

3096-413: A proclamation of independence from Spain. After this incident Villavicencio resigned his office and joined the cause of independence. He was later captured and became the first martyr executed during the reign of terror of the Spanish general Pablo Morillo . A Supreme Governing Junta, chaired by the merchant José María García de Toledo, was established on August 13. On February 4, 1811, the royalists tried

3268-564: A quest for the treasure of Dabeiba , the precursor of the myth of El Dorado . After an unproductive long trip, Heredia returned to San Sebastián de Urabá where he accused Jorge Robledo and had him imprisoned, then sent him back to Spain for usurpation of Heredia's jurisdiction. On March 16 of 1542, Heredia departed for Antioquia to annex the territory to Cartagena. There Heredia was taken prisoner himself by Sebastián de Belalcázar and sent to Panamá to stand trial for his attempts to seize control of Antioquia. Unwilling to mediate in such

3440-509: A royalist army under La Serna's command in the Battle of Ayacucho on 9 December 1824. La Serna's army was numerically superior but consisted of mostly new recruits. The only significant royalist area remaining on the continent was the highland country of Upper Peru . Following the Battle of Ayacucho, the royalist troops of Upper Peru under the command of Olañeta surrendered after he died in Tumusla on 2 April 1825. Bolívar tended to favor maintaining

3612-619: A second expedition to the South Sea and in 1534 he reached the Sinú river , where he ransacked the indigenous peoples' tombs for gold. He and his troops then penetrated to Antioquia and returned exhausted to Cartagena. Once there, Heredia met Fray Tomas de Toro , the first bishop of Cartagena, sent by king Carlos I of Spain , and his brother Alonso, who had recently arrived from Guatemala . Heredia rescinded Francisco Cesar and appointed Alonso as lieutenant general. His brother Alonso led two expeditions to

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3784-462: A second, large, expeditionary force in 1819. This force, however, never left Spain. Instead, it became the means by which liberals were finally able to reinstate a constitutional regime. On 1 January 1820, Rafael Riego , commander of the Asturias Battalion, headed a rebellion among the troops, demanding the return of the 1812 Constitution. His troops marched through the cities of Andalusia with

3956-570: A tenth of the royalist armies in Spanish America, and only about half of the expeditionary units, once they were deployed in the Americas. Since each European soldier casualty was replaced by a Spanish American soldier, over time, there were more and more Spanish American soldiers in the expeditionary units. For example, Pablo Morillo , commander in chief of the expeditionary force sent to South America, reported that he had only 2,000 European soldiers under his command in 1820; in other words, only half

4128-476: A term which eventually was generally applied to them. The idea that independence was not the initial concern is evidenced by the fact that few areas declared independence in the years after 1810. The congresses of Venezuela and New Granada did so in 1811 and also Paraguay in same year (14 and 15 May 1811). Some historians explain the reluctance to declare independence as a "mask of Ferdinand VII": that is, that patriot leaders felt that they needed to claim loyalty to

4300-535: A virtual prisoner, agreed to restore the Constitution. Riego's Revolt had two significant effects on the war in the Americas. Militarily, the large numbers of reinforcements, which were especially needed to retake New Granada and defend the Viceroyalty of Peru, would never arrive. Furthermore, as the royalists' situation became more desperate in region after region, the army experienced wholesale defections of units to

4472-739: Is now the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The territory of the province was amorphous in shape, with borders that followed an undulating line edged by the foothills of the Andes mountains to the south, consisting of the Abibe, San Lucas, Ayapel and San Jerónimo mountains, running west along the Serrania del Darien and east along the Magdalena River. The land was crossed by a number of rivers, creeks and streams. These bodies of water supported various economic activities and were used for communication and trade with other regions,

4644-562: The Consejo Real (Royal Council) of Spain had commissioned to persuade the restless criollos of the New Kingdom of Granada to swear allegiance to King Ferdinand VII of Spain , was gradually won over to the cause of independence. He wrote a letter to the Viceroy of New Granada explaining that one of the chief grievances of the criollo elites was that they felt virtually excluded from service in

4816-524: The Junta Suprema de Caracas on 19 April 1810, set the stage for the fighting that would afflict the region for the next decade and a half. Political fault lines appeared, and were often the causes of military conflict. On the one hand the juntas challenged the authority of all royal officials, whether they recognized the Regency or not. On the other hand, royal officials and Spanish Americans who desired to keep

4988-563: The Llaneros , mixed-race slave and plains people, by attacking the white landowning class. Boves and his followers often disregarded the command of Spanish officials and were not concerned with actually re-establishing the toppled royal government, choosing instead to keep real power among themselves. Finally, in the back country of Upper Peru , the republiquetas kept the idea of independence alive by allying with disenfranchised members of rural society and native groups, but were never able to take

5160-520: The junta (governing board) of Santa Marta had the most royalists. In Popayán the people were initially loyal to Spain, but then rallied to the independence movement, recently triumphant in Cali. In Girón, Santander , the influential Catholic priest, Eloy de Valenzuela, although a Criollo , remained royalist. Cartagena, one of the principal cities in the New World Spanish Empire, was one of

5332-451: The 1812 Constitution and to maintain the unity of the Spanish monarchy . However, these efforts proved fruitless, since independence and unity of the monarchy could not be reconciled, so the army sailed in late October to a better strategic position in Huacho , in northern Peru. During the next few months, successful land and naval campaigns against the royalists secured the new foothold, and it

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5504-841: The 18th century , the Habsburg dynasty was replaced by the Bourbons , and the Spanish Empire declined in Europe to a second-rate power following the War of the Spanish Succession , but continued to be an important global power due to its possessions in the Americas. Similarly, the replacement of the Bourbons with the Bonaparte dynasty aimed to preserve the empire's integrity. However, Napoleonic Spain (1808-1813)

5676-535: The Alhóndiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato. In Venezuela during his Admirable Campaign , Simón Bolívar instituted a policy of a war to the death , in which royalist Spanish Americans would be purposely spared but even neutral Peninsulares would be killed, to drive a wedge between the two groups. This policy laid the ground for the violent royalist reaction under Boves. Often though, royalism or patriotism simply provided

5848-564: The Bourbon Reforms of the mid-eighteenth century introduced changes to the relationship of Spanish Americans to the Crown. The language used to describe the overseas empire shifted from "kingdoms" with independent standing with the crown to "colonies" subordinate to Spain. In an effort to better control the administration and economy of the overseas possessions the Crown reintroduced the practice of appointing outsiders, almost all peninsulars , to

6020-455: The Cauca and Magdalena rivers being of special significance, with much of the goods produced by the interior of New Granada transported to Cartagena on them. The territory of Cartagena province had different administrative subdivisions over the course of its history. At first it was subdivided into partidos , which in the late colonial period were known as jurisdicciones (jurisdictions). In 1675

6192-566: The Council of Castile , which led to the creation of a main government: the " Supreme Central and Governmental Junta of Spain and the Indies " on 25 September 1808. It was agreed that the kingdoms of the peninsula would send two representatives to this Supreme Central Junta, and that the overseas kingdoms would send one representative each. These kingdoms were defined as "the viceroyalties of New Spain (Mexico), Peru , New Granada , and Buenos Aires , and

6364-639: The Estado Libre de Cartagena (the Free State of Cartagena). During 1812 the people of the Caribbean provinces in New Granada remained mostly royalist. Those in the Santa Marta region had built strongholds at Tenerife and Chiriguana on the Magdalena River , leading the revolutionaries of Cartagena to burn the towns. On August 14, 1813, insurgent forces from Cartagena attacked Santa Marta itself, but were repulsed by

6536-584: The Liberador suddenly resigned his commission and went into exile in Jamaica. Soon thereafter news arrived in Cartagena of the landing of Gen. Pablo Morillo in Venezuela on March 27 with a detachment of 10,500 Spanish soldiers, sent to restore the rule of the viceroyalty. Morillo advanced to Cartagena, and on August 15 began a siege of the city that continued for three months, inflicting hunger, disease and high mortality on

6708-666: The Magdalena Department which encompassed all of what is now the Caribbean coast of Colombia . Following the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830, the province belonged to the centralist Republic of New Granada until the federal system was introduced in New Granada in 1857; the province then became the Sovereign State of Bolívar . The region was originally inhabited by the Caribs , an indigenous people who had settled on much of

6880-529: The Magdalena River . He looted Indian graves in the Sinú river area and founded Santiago de Tolú . His spoils from these expeditions included a solid gold porcupine weighing 132 pounds - the heaviest gold object plundered during the Conquest. Heredia returned with a bounty of one and half million ducats in gold. Each soldier received six thousand ducats, far more than the amount given to the troops who helped conquer Mexico and Peru . Pedro de Heredia prepared

7052-475: The Mokaná Indians, until on January 14, 1533 he reached Calamari, the largest of them, standing on the sandy inner shore of Cartagena Bay. After fierce combat with the natives of the territory of Turbaco , Heredia founded a city, now Cartagena de Indias , naming it after Cartagena, Spain because it had a similar bay, but he called it "Cartagena de Poniente" to distinguish it from that city. The exact date of

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7224-515: The Mosquito Coast and the Mangrove Islands of present-day Nicaragua. With the proclamation of independence in 1811, Cartagena was surrounded by the following provinces (in clockwise order on the map): Santa Marta , Socorro and Antioquia . The boundaries between the provinces were not entirely clear, since they were never explicitly defined. The Province of Cartagena occupied much of what

7396-629: The Normandy landings in World War II ). He launched an assault against the 6 ships and 3,000 men of the garrison, but was repelled by Commander General Blas de Lezo, and finally driven away by Carlos Suillars of Desnaux, a colonel in the Spanish Royal Engineers, and his men. In 1810, the Viceroyalty of New Granada consisted of 15 provinces, including that of Cartagena. While Veraguas , Panamá and Riohacha provinces remained under Spanish rule,

7568-578: The Peninsular War , forming part of the broader context of the Napoleonic Wars . The conflict unfolded between the royalists, who were defeated and favored a unitary monarchy, and the patriots, who won and promoted either plural monarchies or republics, separated from Spain and from each other. These struggles ultimately led to the independence and secession of continental Spanish America from metropolitan rule, which, beyond this conflict, resulted in

7740-465: The Río Sinú valley, including stripping their tombs of the gold objects buried with their dead. and later sentenced to death. Heredia managed to escape to Spain, but died when his ship was wrecked. Cartagena de Indias was assaulted several times by pirates, as well as by French, Dutch, and English privateers, including Francis Drake in 1586. Consequently, King Philip II entrusted Marshal Luis de Tejada and

7912-487: The cabildo of Cartagena, an important milestone in Colombian history, marks the beginning of the struggle for independence. The city's criollo merchants wanted the freedom to trade with other countries besides Spain, and in response the junta opened the port to the ships of all nations. On June 14, 1810, the most ardent of the nationalists in the cabildo launched a coup with the help of the black and mulatto militia from

8084-457: The "war to the death" and carried out the execution of thirty-eight royalist officers who had surrendered. With the resources of New Granada, Bolívar became the undisputed leader of the patriots in Venezuela and orchestrated the union of the two regions in a new state called Colombia (Gran Colombia) . To counter the advances the pro-independence forces had made in South America, Spain prepared

8256-455: The 1820s. In Mexico, where the junta movement had been stopped in its early stages by a coalition of peninsular merchants and government officials, efforts to establish a government independent of the Regency or the French took the form of rebellion, under the leadership of Miguel Hidalgo . Hidalgo was captured and executed in 1811, but a resistance movement continued, which declared independence from Spain in 1813 . The Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition

8428-467: The 18th century evidenced the empire's difficulties in reinforcing its colonial possessions and provide them with economic aid. This led to an increased local participation in the financing of the defense and an increased participation in the militias by the Chilean-born. Such development was at odds with the ideals of the centralized absolute monarchy . The Spanish did also formal concessions to strengthen

8600-505: The Army over the Andes in a move that turned the tables on the royalists. By 10 February, San Martín had control of northern and central Chile, and a year later, after a war with no quarter , the south. With the aid of a fleet under the command of former British naval officer Thomas Cochrane , Chile was secured from royalist control and independence was declared that year. San Martín and his allies spent

8772-470: The Bay of Cispatá, which he gave the name " Golfo de Barú " (Gulf of Barú). Bastidas cultivated good relations with his Indian neighbors, unlike later Spanish explorers, who encountered fierce resistance from some of the natives . Among these was the conquistador Pedro de Heredia , who founded Cartagena on June 1, 1533, giving it the name "San Sebastian de Calamar". By the Royal Decree of February 16, 1533,

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8944-460: The British Legion perished, as well as many of his Llanero soldiers, who were not prepared for the nearly 4,000-meter altitudes—but the gamble paid off. By August Bolívar was in control of Bogotá and its treasury, and gained the support of many in New Granada, which still resented the harsh reconquest carried out under Morillo. Nevertheless, Santander found it necessary to continue the policy of

9116-533: The Caribbean and the Philippine Islands remained under control of royalists for the next decade and participated in the Cortes of Cádiz efforts to establish a liberal government for the Spanish monarchy. The recruitment of soldiers seemed to end up a common pool employed by opposing sides as cannon fodder. Socially, both apparently opposing positions, loyalist and pro-independence, had an uncertain significance for

9288-532: The Cortes of Cádiz was located in Spain, political and economic power and decisions were localized in Spain, effectively giving them control over all of colonial Latin America. These tensions further frustrated many Spanish-Americans because of their inability to control the politics that directly affected their economic and sociopolitical wellbeing, further leading them towards independence. This climate of instability created

9460-405: The Cortes, based on provinces, and not kingdoms, was more equitable and provided more time to determine what would be considered an overseas province. The Cortes of Cádiz was the first national assembly to claim sovereignty in Spain. It represented the abolition of the old kingdoms. The opening session was held on 24 September 1810, in the building now known as the Real Teatro de las Cortes under

9632-438: The Council of the Indies) Miguel Diez de Armendáriz found him guilty of all charges; Heredia, however, continued to hold his administrative position. In 1552, Heredia faced 289 new charges filed by the Oidor (a member judge) of the Royal Audience of Santa Fé , Juan Maldonado. The accusations included: illegal appropriation of royal funds, nepotism , obstruction of municipal chapter deliberations, severe abuses directed toward

9804-441: The Creole potentates of European origin could give their support to the royalist or pro-independence cause, in relation to the commercial interests of each region. The Church was also divided, and except for the lower clergy, involved as combatants of insurgency, their position was in accordance with the political power. Winning Spanish American independence also involved civil war. The creation of juntas in Spanish America, such as

9976-430: The Getsamani barrio (neighborhood). Governor Montes, whom they accused of being a Francophile ( afrancesado ), was deposed and deported to Havana, and replaced by Col. Blas de Soria. Villavicencio had been sent as a representative of the Spanish Crown to New Granada, and the people of Santa Fe de Bogotá used his arrival as an excuse to start their own revolt, known as the Florero de Llorente , which culminated in

10148-462: The Italian engineer Bautista Antonelli with the task of building the walls and fortified bastion that defended the city in the 17th and 18th centuries (the fortifications of Castillo San Felipe de Barajas are the most completely preserved of those built by the Spaniards in South America). A guard system of zones divided the city into five districts: Santa Catalina, with the cathedral and many Andalusian-style palaces; Santo Toribio, inhabited by traders and

10320-407: The Magdalena River was set as the eastern border of Cartagena province dividing it from Santa Marta province, while the Atrato River was designated the western border. The first was governed by Pedro Fernández de Lugo , who depended on the Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo, and the second by Pedro de Heredia, which came under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia of Panama , established in 1533. During

10492-403: The New World, and mestizos , of mixed Indigenous and European heritage, replaced Spanish-born appointees in most political offices. Criollos remained at the top of a social structure that retained some of its traditional features culturally, if not legally. Slavery finally ended in all of the new nations. For almost a century thereafter, conservatives and liberals fought to reverse or to deepen

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10664-415: The Pacific to counter Spanish control of those waters and reach the royalist stronghold of Lima . By mid-1820 San Martín had assembled a fleet of eight warships and sixteen transport ships under the command of Admiral Cochrane . The fleet set sail from Valparaíso to Paracas in southern Peru . On 7 September, the army landed at Paracas and successfully took Pisco . After this, San Martín, waiting for

10836-485: The Sinú, and in the last he arrived at the Cauca river in 1535. In 1536, Heredia mounted an expedition southward on the Atrato river with no results. Irregularities in the conduct of the Heredia brothers earned them numerous complaints. In 1536, Judge Juan de Vadillo (a relative of Pedro de Vadillo) was appointed by the Audiencia of Santo Domingo to investigate the charges against Pedro de Heredia and his brother for defaulting on due payments for land and mistreatment of

11008-411: The Society of Jesus go into permanent exile. By limiting the power of the Church, the crown attempted to centralize itself within the institutions of colonial Latin America. Because of the physical and ideological proximity that the clergy had, they could directly influence and dictate the interactions between populations of colonial Latin America, either as legal counsel or an advisor; a directness which

11180-412: The Spaniards in 1502 to 1570 their number had been reduced to only about 22,500. Spanish American wars of independence Disintegration of Spanish America The Spanish American wars of independence ( Spanish : Guerras de independencia hispanoamericanas ) took place across the Spanish Empire in the early 19th century. The struggles in both hemispheres began shortly after the outbreak of

11352-531: The Spanish Cortes and Ferdinand VII rejected the Treaty of Córdoba, and the final break with the mother country came on 19 May 1822, when the Mexican Congress conferred the throne on Iturbide. Spain recognized Mexico's independence in 1836. Central America gained its independence along with New Spain. On 15 September 1821, an Act of Independence was signed in Guatemala City which declared Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) independent from Spain. The regional elites supported

11524-421: The Spanish colonial caste system to the Peninsulares , or Spanish-born Spaniards. Consequently, many of the Criollos began to think it was time to take the reins of government into their own hands, whatever the outcome of the war with Spain that was sure to result. They did not act immediately, however, as they awaited the right moment to strike. Meanwhile, the long-established colonial social order in Cartagena

11696-485: The Spanish colonial period the city of Cartagena de Indias was one of the most important ports in America. Enormous wealth in the form of gold from the mines of Colombia was shipped out of Cartagena on established sea routes across the Atlantic to the Spanish ports of Cartagena, Cadiz and Seville. The quinto , or "royal fifth" collected by the Spanish Crown, was needed to finance the gigantic enterprise of conquest , as well as various wars fought by Spain in Europe. The city

11868-446: The Spanish military, as well as its proximity to Panama City , another important Spanish port. In 1538, the Crown authorized the encomienda in the colony; this was a social system that extracted forced labor and tribute from the Indians, whom it deemed "free vassals". The colony was thus converted into a colonial society based on dependency relations with the native peoples. The Spanish Crown attempted to regulate interactions between

12040-433: The Spanish proposal that the patriots rejoin Spain under the Spanish Constitution, the two sides established a six-month truce and the regularization of the rules of engagement under the law of nations on 25 and 26 November. The truce did not last six months. It was apparent to all that the royalist cause had been greatly weakened by the lack of reinforcements. Royalist soldiers and whole units began to desert or defect to

12212-408: The Spanish settlers and natives by issuing the Laws of the Indies ( Leyes de Indias ), while the Catholic Church established the Inquisition to ensure the primacy of the Catholic faith, given the propensity of slaves to follow non-Christian cults that included forms of witchcraft. In the following years, the founder of the colony, Pedro de Heredia , was jailed for crimes against the native people of

12384-425: The Spanish world almost uniformly rejected Napoleon's plan to place his brother, Joseph , on the throne, there was no clear solution to the lack of a king. Following traditional Spanish political theories on the contractual nature of the monarchy (see Philosophy of Law of Francisco Suárez ), the peninsular provinces responded to the crisis by establishing juntas . The move, however, led to more confusion, since there

12556-488: The Spanish world during the wars of independence were influenced by these factors. The Peninsular War was the trigger for conflicts in Spanish America in the absence of a legitimate monarch. The Peninsular War began an extended period of instability in the worldwide Spanish monarchy that lasted until 1823. Napoleon forced the Bourbon monarchs to abdicate, which precipitated a political crisis in Spain and Spanish America. Although

12728-447: The Supreme Junta. In particular Quito and Chuquisaca , which saw themselves as the capitals of kingdoms, resented being subsumed in the larger Viceroyalty of Peru and Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata respectively. This unrest led to the establishment of juntas in these cities in 1809, which were eventually quashed by the authorities within the year. An unsuccessful attempt at establishing

12900-517: The advantage in numbers, forcing him to flee and hide nearby with his relatives. The ransom for the city was 200,000 gold ducats, payment of which was enough to satisfy Roverbal, who then abandoned the region. Shortly after Roverbal's assault, Heredia left Antioquia to annex the territory under the jurisdiction of Cartagena. He returned to Cartagena in 1548 to appear before a residencia (court of inquiry) for abuse of his power and authority during office. The visitador (a royal inspector who reported to

13072-483: The approval of the Venezuelan congress . Unlike San Martín, however, Bolívar did not have a professionally trained army, but rather a quickly assembled mix of Llanero guerrillas, New Granadan exiles led by Santander and British recruits . From June to July 1819, using the rainy season as cover, Bolívar led his army across the flooded plains and over the cold, forbidding passes of the Andes, with heavy losses—a quarter of

13244-487: The approximate population of the province at the time of each census in the New Kingdom of Granada, taken successively when new taxes were levied by the Spanish crown. According to data supplied by the viceregal secretary Francisco Silvestre in his book Descripción del Reino de Santafé de Bogotá (Description of the Kingdom of Santafé de Bogota), in 1789 the population of the province amounted to 119,647 inhabitants, and in 1835,

13416-401: The authorities early enough to stop them before they gained widespread support. Major cities and regional rivalry played an important role in the wars. The disappearance of a central, imperial authority—and in some cases of even a local, viceregal authority (as in the cases of New Granada and Río de la Plata)—initiated a prolonged period of balkanization in many regions of Spanish America. It

13588-663: The capital of the island of Hispaniola , where they eventually inherited a sugar mill and an estate in Azua Province . Then came news of the death of the governor of Santa Marta , Rodrigo de Bastidas , and the Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo decided to send Pedro de Vadillo as interim governor of the province and Pedro de Heredia as his lieutenant. In 1528, Vadillo and Heredia landed in Santa Marta with 200 men and soon became involved in disputes with Rodrigo Alvarez Palomino ,

13760-453: The certain demarcation of borders between the governorates , except in the case of identifiable natural topographical features, such as the Magdalena River, which defined the border with the province of Santa Marta. The colonial province of Cartagena included the territories of the present-day Colombian departments of Bolivar , Atlántico , Sucre and Córdoba , and after 1808, the island departments of San Andrés and Providencia , as well as

13932-440: The clergy, the crown, according to William B. Taylor , undermined its own legitimacy, since parish priests had been traditionally the "natural local representatives of their Catholic king." In the economic sphere, the crown sought to gain control over church revenues. The Church functioned as one of the largest economic institutions within colonial Latin America. It owned and retained jurisdiction over large amounts of land, which

14104-419: The conditions for the two sides to forge an alliance. This alliance coalesced towards the end of 1820 behind Agustín de Iturbide , a colonel in the royal army, who at the time was assigned to destroy the guerrilla forces led by Vicente Guerrero . In January 1821, in expectation of the abolition in Spain of the Constitution of 1812, Iturbide was chosen and was sent by the officials of New Spain with Guerrero,

14276-403: The creation of a wealthy Creole class and further adapting those institutions to meet demands, rather than propose a radical shift in the complete make-up of socioeconomic life and traditions. However, institutional change did not come as anticipated and further spurred on the radicalization of Spanish-American social classes towards independence. Spain's international wars in the second half of

14448-448: The crown wanted for itself because of the economic value which could be derived from the land. Moreover, by taking that land for itself, the Crown had the opportunity to cut down the physical presence of the Church to further weaken its ideological and social role within local colonial communities. In a financial crisis of 1804, the crown attempted to call in debts owed the church, mainly in

14620-409: The crown would need to attempt to create the centralized, colonial state which it wanted to implement. Later in the eighteenth century the crown sought to decrease the privileges ( fueros ) of the clergy, restricting clerical authority to spiritual matters and undermining the power of parish priests, who often acted as agents of the crown in rural parishes. By desacralizing power and frontal attacks on

14792-414: The defense: In Chiloé Archipelago Spanish authorities promised freedom from the encomienda those indigenous locals who settled near the new stronghold of Ancud (founded in 1768) and contributed to its defense. The increased local organization of the defenses would ultimately undermine metropolitan authority and bolster the independence movement. Other factors may include Enlightenment thinking and

14964-504: The deposed monarch to prepare the masses for the radical change that full independence eventually would entail. Nevertheless, even areas such as Río de la Plata and Chile, which more or less maintained de facto independence from the peninsular authorities, did not declare independence until quite a few years later, in 1816 and 1818, respectively. Overall, despite achieving formal or de facto independence, many regions of Spanish America were marked by nearly continuous wars, which lasted well into

15136-514: The development of new national boundaries based on the colonial provinces , which would form the future independent countries that constituted contemporary Latin America during the early 19th century. Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule until the 1898 Spanish–American War . The conflict resulted in the dissolution of the Spanish monarchy and the creation of new states. The independence of Spanish America did not constitute an anticolonial movement. The new republics immediately abandoned

15308-473: The different social strata of the monarchy. In Europe, the Spaniards made a forced recruitment for the expeditionary forces, leading to constant rebellions. Independent states relied on privateers, mercenaries, volunteers, adventurers or filibusters, reliable fighters when pay or booty was at a glance. For the mobilization of the population in the Americas, the vast majority or almost all of the troops of both sides,

15480-553: The direct causes of the wars of independence, which took place decades later, but they have been considered important elements of the political background in which the wars took place. Many Creoles, particularly the wealthy Creoles, were negatively impacted by the Bourbon Reforms. This resulted in their taking action by using their wealth and positions within society, often as leaders within their communities, to spur resistance to convey their displeasure with Spanish reforms because of

15652-475: The duration of the wars. Underlying social and racial tensions also had a great impact on the nature of the fighting. Rural areas were pitted against urban centers, as grievances against the authorities found an outlet in the political conflict. This was the case with Hidalgo's peasant revolt, which was fueled as much by discontent over several years of bad harvests as with events in the Peninsular War. Hidalgo

15824-404: The effort of Spanish liberals to create a representative government that would fully include the overseas possessions. Such a government was seen as an alternative to independence by many in New Spain, Central America, the Caribbean, Quito, Peru, Upper Peru and Chile. Yet the news of the restoration of the " Ancien Régime " did not initiate a new wave of juntas, as had happened in 1809 and 1810, with

15996-448: The emergence of the new Spanish American republics in the post-Napoleonic world. Political independence was not necessarily the foreordained outcome of the political turmoil in Spanish America. "There was little interest in outright independence." As historians R.A. Humphreys and John Lynch note, "it is all too easy to equate the forces of discontent or even the forces of change with the forces of revolution." Since "by definition, there

16168-518: The empire together were split between liberals, who supported the efforts of the Cortes, and conservatives (often called " absolutists " in the historiography), who did not want to see any innovations in government. Finally, although the juntas claimed to carry out their actions in the name of the deposed king, Ferdinand VII , their creation provided an opportunity for people who favored outright independence to promote their agenda publicly and safely. The proponents of independence called themselves patriots,

16340-648: The end of this period the pro-independence forces made two important advances. In the Southern Cone , a veteran of the Spanish army with experience in the Peninsular War, José de San Martín , became the governor of the Province of Cuyo . He used this position to begin organizing an army as early as 1814 in preparation for an invasion of Chile. This was an important change in strategy after three United Provinces campaigns had been defeated in Upper Peru . San Martín's army became

16512-629: The examples of the Atlantic Revolutions. The Enlightenment spurred the desire for social and economic reform to spread throughout Spanish America and the Iberian Peninsula. Ideas about free trade and physiocratic economics were raised by the Enlightenment in Spain and spread to the overseas empire and a homegrown Spanish American Enlightenment . The political reforms implemented and the many constitutions written both in Spain and throughout

16684-615: The first to rebel against the Spanish yoke. In the early 19th century, a few white Criollos , e.g., locally born people of Spanish ancestry, were given a classical education, some of them in Santa Fe , and a few even in Europe, and had begun to excel in literature and the arts, as well as professions such as medicine, law and the natural sciences. In the course of their studies, they had been exposed to liberal ideas of liberty and equality, and as they increasingly developed an identity as Hispanic Americans , they chafed at their secondary status in

16856-471: The form of mortgages for haciendas owned by the elites. The Act of Consolidation simultaneously threatened the wealth of the church, whose capital was mainly lent for mortgages, as well as threatening the financial well-being of elites, who depended on mortgages for acquiring and keeping their estates. Shortening the repayment period meant many elites were faced with bankruptcy. The crown also sought to gain access to benefices elite families set aside to support

17028-473: The form of supplies and an army under Antonio José de Sucre to Guayaquil in February 1821. For a year Sucre was unable to take Quito, and by November both sides, exhausted, signed a ninety-day armistice. The following year, at the Battle of Pichincha on 24 May 1822, Sucre's Venezuelan forces finally conquered Quito; Gran Colombia's hold on the territory was secure. The following year, after a Peruvian patriot army

17200-603: The formal system of the Inquisition and noble titles. In most of these new countries, slavery was not abolished, and racial classification and hierarchy were imposed. Total abolition did not come until the 1850s in most of the Latin American republics. A caste system , influenced by the scientific racism of the European Enlightenment , was maintained until the 20th century. The Criollos of European descent born in

17372-516: The founding of Cartagena de Indias remains a topic of controversy. Some argue that it was on January 20 or 21 in 1533, although the Colombian Academy of History has fixed the date as June 1, 1533. Heredia signed friendship pacts with the Indian chiefs of the nearby islands. With the help of Catalina acting as interpreter, Heredia conquered and ruled the area around Cartagena, including Turbaco and

17544-695: The general political and intellectual climate of popular sovereignty that emerged from the Age of Enlightenment that influenced all of the Atlantic Revolutions , including the earlier revolutions in the United States and France . A more direct cause of the Spanish American wars of independence were the unique developments occurring within the Kingdom of Spain triggered by the Cortes of Cadiz , concluding with

17716-482: The general population and the hierarchy of the Spanish Catholic Church ; so, on 4 May, he repudiated the Constitution and ordered the arrest of liberal leaders on 10 May. Ferdinand justified his actions by stating that the Constitution and other changes had been made by a Cortes assembled in his absence and without his consent. He restored the former legal codes and political institutions and promised to convene

17888-648: The government of the Supreme Central Junta of Seville . At the beginning of 1810, new juntas appeared across Spanish America when the Central Junta fell to the French invasion. Although various regions objected to many crown policies, "there was little interest in outright independence; indeed there was widespread support for the Spanish Central Junta formed to lead the resistance against the French". While some Spanish Americans believed that independence

18060-588: The guerrilla movements. However, Ferdinand's actions did set areas outside of the control of the crown on the path to full independence. The governments of these regions, which had their origins in the juntas of 1810, and even moderates there, who had entertained a reconciliation with the crown, now saw the need to separate from Spain if they were to protect the reforms they had enacted. During this period, royalist forces made advances into New Granada, which they controlled from 1815 to 1819, and into Chile, which they controlled from 1814 to 1817. Except for royalist areas in

18232-455: The hope of extending the uprising to the civilian population, but locals were mostly indifferent. An uprising, however, did occur in Galicia in northern Spain, and from there it quickly spread throughout the country. On 7 March, the royal palace in Madrid was surrounded by soldiers under the command of General Francisco Ballesteros , and three days later, on 10 March, the besieged Ferdinand VII, now

18404-549: The independent captaincies general of the island of Cuba , Puerto Rico , Guatemala , Chile , Province of Venezuela , and the Philippines ." This plan was criticized for providing unequal representation to Spanish America; nevertheless, throughout the end of 1808 and early 1809, the regional capitals elected candidates, whose names were forwarded to the capitals of the viceroyalties or captaincies general. Several important and large cities were left without direct representation in

18576-460: The indiscriminate recruitment of native American communities was used, in general in traditional confronted regions; social improvements were promised, by both sides, to the indigenous and the different mestizo colonial castes, such as mulattoes ("pardos"), cholos, etc., and even African slaves were recruited by both sides. All those recruited in the Americas, and also the Spaniards, joined the enemy armies as combatants when they were captured. Likewise,

18748-458: The insurgents. The desperate rebels decided to fight the Spaniards to the death. As a result of this episode, the city would receive the title of "Heroic City". Morillo entered Cartagena on December 6, 1815, two days after the city swore allegiance to Ferdinand VII. The boundaries of the province were not stable over the period of Spanish rule in the region. Limited knowledge of the territory's geography and its incomplete exploration did not permit

18920-459: The island-city of Cádiz . The Supreme Junta replaced itself with a smaller, five-man council, called the Regency, or the Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies . Next, to establish a more legitimate government system, the Regency called for the convening of an "extraordinary and general Cortes of the Spanish Nation": which was convened as the Cortes of Cádiz . The plan for the election of

19092-508: The leader of the rebellions. He began so-called "peace" negotiations, suggesting the parties unite to establish an independent New Spain. Later, Iturbide was dethroned and quietly captured to be executed. The simple terms that Iturbide proposed became the basis of the Plan of Iguala : the independence of New Spain (now to be called the Mexican Empire) with Ferdinand VII or another Bourbon as emperor;

19264-407: The liberal Constitution of Cadiz , although he could not defeat the revolutionaries in Spanish America, who resisted and formed their own national congresses. The Spanish navy had collapsed in the war against Napoleon, so therefore, in practice, it did not support the expeditionary forces who arrived in small groups. In 1820 the Spanish army, led by Rafael Riego , revolted against absolutism, restored

19436-740: The local economy and the efficiency of the government. In other areas, the changes in the crown's economic and administrative policies led to tensions with locals, which at times erupted into open revolts, such as the Revolt of the Comuneros in New Granada and the Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II in Peru . The loss of high offices to peninsulars and the eighteenth-century revolts in Spanish South America were some of

19608-463: The local society. Liberals on both sides of the Atlantic, nevertheless, continued to conspire to bring back a constitutional monarchy, ultimately succeeding in 1820. The most dramatic example of transatlantic collaboration is perhaps Francisco Javier Mina 's expedition to Texas and northern Mexico in 1816 and 1817. Spanish Americans in royalist areas who were committed to independence had already joined

19780-474: The main military effort of Spain was aimed at preserving the island of Cuba and the viceroyalty of Mexico in North America. But in 1814, with the restoration of Ferdinand VII, the strategic line of the war changed drastically, directing the major Spanish military effort towards South America. By 1815 the general outlines of which areas were controlled by royalists and pro-independence forces were established and

19952-475: The major cities or local province, the patria in Spanish. More often than not, juntas sought to maintain a province's independence from the capital of the former viceroyalty or captaincy general as much as from the Peninsula itself. Armed conflicts broke out between the provinces over the question of whether some cities or provinces were to be subordinate to others as they had been under the crown. This phenomenon

20124-446: The major population centers. Increasingly violent confrontations developed between Spaniards and Spanish Americans, but this tension was often related to class issues or fomented by patriot leaders to create a new sense of nationalism. After being incited to rid the country of the gachupines (a disparaging term for Peninsulares ), Hidalgo's forces indiscriminately massacred hundreds of Criollos and Peninsulares who had taken refuge at

20296-506: The natives. Vadillo found Heredia guilty and imprisoned him, assuming for himself the interim government of Cartagena. Heredia was allowed to go to Spain to attend his trial, in which he was acquitted. He returned to Cartagena with some members of his family: a few nieces and his two sons, Antonio, who joined him on all his subsequent expeditions, and Juan, who later settled in Santa Cruz de Mompox . Shortly after his return, Heredia embarked on

20468-552: The need to formally establish independence from the metropole . In Spain, a French army of the Holy Alliance invaded and supported the absolutists, restored Ferdinand VII, and occupied Spain until 1828. These conflicts were fought both as irregular warfare and conventional warfare . Some historians claim that the wars began as localized civil wars, that later spread and expanded as secessionist wars to promote general independence from Spanish rule. This independence led to

20640-450: The negative economic impact which they had. However, because of how quickly their revolts would further radicalize the lower classes, the Creoles quickly stopped supporting general violent insurrection because they benefitted from social change that occurred through the systems of the Spanish crown. Institutional change ensured stability by supporting the political institutions that allowed for

20812-409: The new iterations wes suppressed. In 1825 the province was divided into the cantons of Cartagena de Indias, Barranca nueva, Carmen, Mompós, Simití and Tolu, then in 1835 it was divided into the cantons of Cartagena, Barranquilla, Corozal, Chinú, Lorica, Mahates, Sabanalarga, San Andrés and Soledad. These were all subdivided into parishes and villages. The table shows the data used by Calderón indicating

20984-475: The next two years planning an invasion of Peru, which began in 1820. In northern South America, after several failed campaigns to take Caracas and other urban centers of Venezuela, Simón Bolívar devised a similar plan in 1819 to cross the Andes and liberate New Granada from the royalists. Like San Martín, Bolívar personally undertook the efforts to create an army to invade a neighboring country, collaborated with pro-independence exiles from that region, and lacked

21156-481: The northeast and south, the provinces of New Granada had maintained independence from Spain since 1810, unlike neighboring Venezuela, where royalists and pro-independence forces had exchanged control of the region several times. To pacify Venezuela and to retake New Granada, Spain organized in 1815 the largest armed force it ever sent to the New World, consisting of 10,500 troops and nearly sixty ships. Although this force

21328-552: The notable exception of the establishment of a junta in Cuzco demanding the implementation of the Spanish Constitution. Instead most Spanish Americans were moderates who decided to wait and see what would come out of the restoration of normalcy. In fact, in areas of New Spain, Central America and Quito, governors found it expedient to leave the elected constitutional ayuntamientos in place for several years to prevent conflict with

21500-562: The nucleus of the Army of the Andes , which received crucial political and material support in 1816 when Juan Martín de Pueyrredón became Supreme Director of the United Provinces . In January 1817, San Martín was finally ready to advance against the royalists in Chile. Ignoring an injunction from the congress of the Río de la Plata not to move against Chile, San Martín together with General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme , later Supreme Director of Chile, led

21672-447: The overseas Spanish possessions, O'Donojú proposed to negotiate a treaty with Iturbide on the terms of the Plan of Iguala. The resulting Treaty of Córdoba , which was signed on 24 August, kept all existing laws, including the 1812 Constitution, in force until a new constitution for Mexico could be written. O'Donojú became part of the provisional governing junta until his death on 8 October. Both

21844-461: The overseas provinces, just as in Spain. It also ordered military commanders to begin armistice negotiations with the insurgents with the promise that they could participate in the restored representative government. In effect, the Spanish Constitution of 1812 adopted by the Cortes of Cádiz served as the basis for independence in New Spain and Central America, since in both regions it was

22016-485: The patriot forces in the country. An internecine conflict between La Serna and General Pedro Antonio Olañeta, which was an extension of the Liberal Triennium , proved to be the royalists' undoing. La Serna lost control of half of his best army by the beginning of 1824, giving the patriots an opportunity. Under the command of Bolívar and Sucre, the experienced veterans of the combined army, mainly Colombians, destroyed

22188-412: The patriot side. Politically, the reinstitution of a liberal regime changed the terms under which the Spanish government sought to engage the insurgents. The new government naively assumed that the insurgents were fighting for Spanish liberalism and that the Spanish Constitution could still be the basis of reconciliation between the two sides. The government implemented the Constitution and held elections in

22360-462: The patriots in large numbers. On 28 January 1821, the ayuntamiento of Maracaibo declared the province an independent republic that chose to join the new nation-state of Gran Colombia . Miguel de la Torre , who had replaced Morillo as head of the army, took this to be a violation of the truce, and although the republicans argued that Maracaibo had switched sides of its own volition, both sides began to prepare for renewed war. The fate of Venezuela

22532-532: The petty bourgeoisie; La Merced, where the headquarters of the fixed battalion was located; San Sebastián, a neighborhood of modest one-story houses, and finally, the suburb of Getsemani, a district of craftsmen and port workers. In March 1741 the city was besieged by the troops of the British Admiral, Edward Vernon, who arrived with a fleet of 186 ships and 23,600 men (the largest fleet ever assembled up to that time and one that would not be surpassed in size until

22704-499: The political and legal changes made on both sides of the Atlantic—the myriad of juntas, the Cortes in Spain and several of the congresses in the Americas, and many of the constitutions and new legal codes—had been made in his name. Before entering Spanish territory, Ferdinand made loose promises to the Cortes that he would uphold the Spanish Constitution. But once in Spain he realized that he had significant support from conservatives in

22876-506: The present-day Colombian Caribbean coast. In 1499, Rodrigo de Bastidas , accompanied by Juan de la Cosa and Vasco Núñez de Balboa , led an expedition to the New World . He mapped the northern coast of South America, discovered Panama, and founded the city of Santa Marta . Cruising off the Colombian coast in 1501, he discovered the mouth of a river he named the Río Magdalena , and landed in

23048-451: The province had 130,324 inhabitants. According to the census of 1851, the province had 151,950 inhabitants, of whom 73,706 were men and 78,244 were women. The indigenous population in the territory of Cartagena Province at the time of the Spanish conquest was about 100,000, but due to continuous reduction of their numbers, mainly by introduced diseases and the harsh conditions of forced labor that many of them endured, from first contact with

23220-449: The province included the partidos of Cartagena, Mompós and Tolu, while in 1776 the province was divided into the five partidos of Cartagena de Indias, Tierradentro , Mahates, Barranca, Tolu and Mompós. With the advent of independence, the boundaries of the old jurisdictions were changed, with the new subdivisions being called cantones (cantons). Many of the inhabitants were not happy with these changes, and consequently, usage of some of

23392-472: The retention of the Catholic Church as the official state religion and the protection of its existing privileges ; and the equality of all New Spaniards, whether immigrants or native-born. Many of that laws was abolished decades later or are in present-day Mexico. The following month the other important guerrilla leader, Guadalupe Victoria , joined the alliance, and on 1 March Iturbide was proclaimed head of

23564-552: The royal army abandoned the coastal city to reinforce positions in the highlands, with Cuzco as new capital of the viceroyalty. On the 12th San Martín entered Lima, where he was declared "Protector of the Country" on 28 July, an office which allowed him to rule the newly independent state. To ensure that the Presidency of Quito became a part of Gran Colombia and did not remain a collection of small, divided republics, Bolívar sent aid in

23736-549: The royal offices throughout the empire. This meant that Spanish American elites were thwarted in their expectations and ambitions by the crown's upending of long-standing practices of creole access to office holding. The regalist and secularizing policies of the Bourbon monarchy were aimed at decreasing the power of the Roman Catholic Church. The crown had already expelled the Jesuits in 1767, which saw many creole members of

23908-460: The sale of office, that provided the opportunity to grant more rights and change policy to respond to the demands of the populations. The restoration of the Spanish Constitution and representative government was enthusiastically welcomed in New Spain and Central America. Elections were held, local governments formed and deputies sent to the Cortes. The Spanish Constitution of 1812 could have been an opportunity to enact social change slowly and without

24080-708: The siege of French army. It met as one body and its members represented the entire Spanish empire. Most Spanish Americans saw no reason to recognize a rump government that was under the threat of being captured by the French at any moment, and began to work for the creation of local juntas to preserve the region's independence from the French. Junta movements were successful in New Granada (Colombia), Venezuela , Chile and Río de la Plata (Argentina). Less successful, though serious movements, also occurred in Central America . Ultimately, Central America, along with most of New Spain, Quito (Ecuador), Peru, Upper Peru (Bolivia),

24252-538: The so-called Trienio Liberal , and ended the threat of invasion against the Río de la Plata , resulting in royalist collapse in the Americas. Over the course of the next decade, the Patriots' armies won major victories and obtained independence in their respective countries. Spain did not change the position against separatism, but the political instability in Spain, without a navy, army or treasury, convinced many Spanish Americans of

24424-427: The social and political changes unleashed by those rebellions. The Spanish American independences had as a direct consequence the forced displacement of the royalist Spanish population that suffered a forced emigration during the war and later, due to the laws of Expulsion of the Spaniards from the new states in the Americas with the purpose of consolidating their independence. Events in Spanish America transpired in

24596-477: The soldiers of his expeditionary force were European. It is estimated that in the Battle of Maipú only a quarter of the royalist forces were European soldiers, in the Battle of Carabobo about a fifth, and in the Battle of Ayacucho less than 1% was European. The American militias reflected the racial make-up of the local population. For example, in 1820 the royalist army in Venezuela had 843 white ( español ), 5,378 Casta , and 980 Indigenous soldiers. Towards

24768-525: The state bureaucracy by the practical difficulty of travelling to Spain to secure an appointment. The people of Cartagena demanded that the Cabildo (council) decide the matter, and on May 22, 1810, it met and swore fidelity to the Regency Council, but at the same time it constituted a governing body for the province, a junta , to be chaired by Governor Francisco de Montes and two councillors. This session of

24940-445: The survivors of an expedition led by Sebastian Cabot , who was on his way back from the Rio de La Plata after six difficult and unsuccessful years spent in the New World . Heredia augmented his army with some of Cabot's officers, including Francisco César, whom he appointed as his lieutenant. He then departed for Santo Domingo, where he visited his estates and drafted some Indians and slaves,

25112-663: The terms of the Plan of Iguala and orchestrated the union of Central America with the Mexican Empire in January 1822. One years later, following Iturbide's downfall, the region, with the exception of Chiapas, peacefully seceded from Mexico on 1 July 1823, establishing the Federal Republic of Central America. The new state existed for seventeen years, centrifugal forces pulling the individual provinces apart by 1840. Unlike in New Spain and Central America, in South America independence

25284-411: The threat of a radicalized uprising from the lower social classes by offering an opportunity to enact change that those in power would believe would best benefit their respective territories. Among liberals, however, there was fear that the new regime would not last; and conservatives and the Church worried that the new liberal government would expand its reforms and anti-clerical legislation. Yet, because

25456-709: The title of adelantado , was signed in Medina del Campo on August 5, 1532, by queen Joanna of Castile (also known as Joanna the Mad). Heredia was granted an area covering virtually all of what is now Colombia and more than half of present-day Ecuador , stretching inland to the equator. Heredia moved to Sevilla , where he procured a galleon , a caravel and a patache and embarked from Cádiz with 150 men and 22 horses in November, 1532. Heredia first landed in Puerto Rico , where he found

25628-713: The unity of Upper Peru with Peru, but the Upper Peruvian leaders—many former royalists, like Casimiro Olañeta, nephew of General Olañeta—gathered in a congress under Sucre's auspices supported the country's independence. Bolívar left the decision to Sucre, who went along with the congress. Sucre proclaimed Upper Peru's independence in the city which now bears his name on 6 August, bringing the main wars of independence to an end. Pedro de Heredia Pedro de Heredia (c. 1505 in Madrid – January 27, 1554 in Zahara de los Atunes , Cádiz )

25800-515: The vast Orinoco River basin and along the Caribbean coast, often with material aid coming from Curaçao and Haiti . Also, as mentioned above, in Upper Peru, guerrilla bands controlled the isolated, rural parts of the country. In March 1814, following the collapse of the First French Empire , Ferdinand VII was restored to the Spanish throne. This signified an important change, since most of

25972-502: The wake of the successful Haitian Revolution and transition to independence in Brazil . Brazil's independence in particular shared a common starting point with that of Spanish America, since both conflicts were triggered by Napoleon's invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, which forced the Portuguese royal family to flee to Brazil in 1807. The process of Latin American independence took place in

26144-434: Was a Spanish conquistador , founder of the city of Cartagena de Indias and explorer of the northern coast and the interior of present-day Colombia . Pedro de Heredia was a descendant of a rich family of noble lineage. His parents were Pedro de Heredia and Inés Fernandez. The chronicler Juan de Castellanos tells that even in his early years, he showed an adventurous and quarrelsome character. In his youth, Pedro de Heredia

26316-504: Was a joint Tejanos-US volunteers expedition formed in Louisiana for Texas independence but was defeated in the Battle of Medina . In Central America, attempts at establishing juntas were also put down, but resulted in significantly less violence. The Caribbean islands, like the Philippines on the other side of the world, were relatively peaceful. Any plots to set up juntas were denounced to

26488-533: Was also a major center of the trade in enslaved black persons brought from the African continent. In 1536, construction began on the Castillo de San Lázaro , a massive fortress with a series of masonry walls up to 20 meters thick, the most formidable defensive complex of Spanish military architecture to this day. The port was growing in economic importance and strategic value, thanks to the Bay of Cartagena being protected by

26660-588: Was at Huacho that San Martín learned that Guayaquil (in Ecuador ) had declared independence on 9 October. Bolívar, learning about the collapse of the Cádiz expedition , spent the year 1820 preparing a liberating campaign in Venezuela . Bolívar was aided by Spain's new policy of seeking engagement with the insurgents, which Morillo implemented, renouncing to the command in chief, and returning to Spain. Although Bolívar rejected

26832-417: Was being undermined by the ideas of the libertarians (meaning the patriotic defenders of liberty). The final blow to bring down the royalist government, the coup de grace dreamed of by the patriots, would not be accomplished easily, as the city was a formidable base of Spanish power, and had entrenched political, military, religious and administrative bureaucracies. The administrative apparatus of Cartagena

27004-582: Was complex and difficult to penetrate, but the Criollos continued to conspire and form their plans while waiting for the expected moment to act. In this they had the support and leadership of the two local mayors, Dr. José María García de Toledo and Miguel Diaz Granados. In early May 1810, Antonio Villavicencio , a Criollo aristocrat born in Quito and brought up in Bogotá, arrived at Cartagena de Indias. Villavicencio, whom

27176-454: Was crucial in retaking a solidly pro-independence region like New Granada (see Spanish reconquest of New Granada ), its soldiers were eventually spread out throughout Venezuela, New Granada, Quito, and Peru and were lost to tropical diseases, diluting their impact on the war. More importantly, the majority of the royalist forces were composed, not of soldiers sent from the peninsula, but of Spanish Americans. Overall, Europeans formed only about

27348-442: Was deposed in a coup d'état by José de la Serna , but it would be two months before San Martín moved his army closer to Lima by sailing it to Ancón . During the next few months San Martín once again engaged in negotiations, offering the creation of an independent monarchy; but La Serna insisted on the unity of the Spanish monarchy, so the negotiations came to nothing. By July La Serna judged his hold on Lima to be weak, and on 8 July

27520-540: Was destroyed in the Battle of Ica , San Martín met with Simón Bolívar in Guayaquil on 26 and 27 July. Thereafter San Martín decided to retire from the scene. For the next two years, two armies of Rioplatense (Argentinian), Chilean, Colombian and Peruvian patriots were destroyed trying to penetrate the royalist bastion in the Andean regions of Peru and Upper Peru . A year later a Peruvian congress resolved to make Bolívar head of

27692-751: Was in exile in France, and now he was asserting his right to govern as an absolute ruler. The capture of Gen. Antonio Nariño by royalist troops at Pasto in May 1814 inflamed the civil war in New Granada. Simón Bolívar returned from exile and took command of the army of the United Provinces . On December 11, he defeated the rebel Centralist troops of Cundinamarca , and then marched on royalist Santa Marta. The patriots of Cartagena were suspicious of Bolívar's motives and declined to send him reinforcements, so he attacked that city on March 29. 1815, and fought in several skirmishes against its anti-royalist defenders until May 8, when

27864-481: Was involved in an altercation with six men who tried to kill him in a dark alley in Madrid . The fight left him with a disfigured nose that required the intervention of a doctor from the Spanish Crown . In retaliation, Heredia hunted down three of his attackers and killed them before fleeing to the New World to evade justice, leaving behind his wife and children. Heredia traveled to the West Indies with his brother Alonso de Heredia and settled in Santo Domingo ,

28036-448: Was necessary, most who initially supported the creation of the new governments saw them as a means to preserve the region's autonomy from the French. Although there had been research on the idea of a separate Spanish American ("creole") identity separate from that of Iberia , political independence was not initially the aim of most Spanish Americans, nor was it necessarily inevitable. At the end of 1810, Ferdinand VII of Spain , captive,

28208-405: Was no central authority and most juntas did not recognize the claim of some juntas to represent the monarchy as a whole. The Junta of Seville, in particular, claimed authority over the overseas empire, because of the province's historic role as the exclusive entrepôt of the empire. This impasse was resolved through negotiations between the several juntas in Spain counted with the participation of

28380-426: Was no history of independence until it happened," when Spanish American independence did occur, explanations for why it came about have been sought. The Latin American Wars of Independence were essentially led by European diaspora against European empires. There are a number of factors that have been identified to have provoked the independent movements. First, increasing control by the Crown of its overseas empire via

28552-412: Was not clear which political units should replace the empire, and there were no new national identities to replace the traditional sense of being Spaniards. The original juntas of 1810 appealed first to a sense of being Spanish, which was counterposed to the French threat; second, to a general American identity, which was counterposed to the Peninsula lost to the French; and third, to a sense of belonging to

28724-433: Was originally part of a circle of liberal urbanites in Querétaro , who sought to establish a junta. After this conspiracy was discovered, Hidalgo turned to the rural people of the Mexican Bajío to build his army, and their interests soon overshadowed those of the urban intellectuals. A similar tension existed in Venezuela, where the Spanish immigrant José Tomás Boves formed a powerful, though irregular, royalist army out of

28896-448: Was particularly evident in South America. This rivalry also led some regions to adopt the opposite political cause to that chosen by their rivals. Peru seems to have remained strongly royalist in large part because of its rivalry with Río de la Plata, to which it had lost control of Upper Peru when the latter was elevated to a viceroyalty in 1776. The creation of juntas in Río de la Plata allowed Peru to regain formal control of Upper Peru for

29068-408: Was recognized by the Cortes of Cádiz and by the governing juntas in the Americas as a king subordinate to popular sovereignty . The governing juntas across America wanted to reinstate Ferdinand VII as king and refused to accept the authority of the Council of Regency that was established with the dissolution of the Supreme and Central Governmental Junta of Spain and the Indies. In agreement on this,

29240-434: Was sealed when Bolívar returned there in April leading an army of 7,000 from New Granada. At the Battle of Carabobo on 24 June, the Gran Colombian forces decisively defeated the royalist forces, assuring control of Venezuela save for Puerto Cabello and guaranteeing Venezuelan independence. Bolívar could now concentrate on Gran Colombia's claims to southern New Granada and Quito. In Peru, on 29 January 1821, Viceroy Pezuela

29412-400: Was spurred by the pro-independence fighters who had held out for the past half-decade. José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar inadvertently led a continent-wide pincer movement from southern and northern South America that liberated most of the Spanish American nations on that continent. After securing the independence of Chile in 1818, San Martín concentrated on building a naval fleet in

29584-448: Was ultimately defeated in the Peninsular War . The rejection of this new dynasty created a power vacuum and led to the emergence of liberalism and a desire for liberties throughout the Spanish Empire . At first, some major cities or capitals formed local Juntas on the basis of laws from the Hispanic tradition. The armed conflicts started in 1809, with short-lived juntas established to govern in Chuquisaca , La Paz and Quito opposing

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