Revolution and liberation movements
The Spanish American wars of independence were the numerous wars against Spanish rule in Spanish America with the aim of political independence that took place during the early 19th century, shortly after the French invasion of Spain in 1807 during Europe's Napoleonic Wars. Although there has been research on the idea of a separate Spanish American ("creole") identity separate from that of Iberia,[2] political independence was not initially the aim of most Spanish Americans, nor was it necessarily inevitable.[3] With the restoration of Ferdinand VII in 1814, the King rejected any type of Popular sovereignty (Junta or Cortes). The Liberal Triennium of 1820 also did not change the position of the Cádiz constitution of 1812 against separatism, while Latin Americans were increasingly radicalized seeking political independence
Explanation :
The Spanish American wars of independence were the numerous wars against Spanish rule in Spanish America that took place during the early 19th century, after the French invasion of Spain during Europe's Napoleonic Wars. Although various regions of Spanish America objected to crown policies that restricted trade and privileged Spanish-born officials over American-born, "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
Political independence was not necessarily the foreordained outcome of the political turmoil in Spanish America. "There was little interest in outright independence."[8] 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."[9] Since "by definition, there was no history of independence until it happened,"[10] 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. First, increasing control by the Crown of its overseas empire via 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.[11] 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 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.[12]
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 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,[13] they could directly influence and dictate the interactions between populations of colonial Latin America, either as legal counsel or an advisor;[14] a directness which the crown would need to attempt to create the centralized, colonial state which it wanted to implement.
