Spanish American wars of independence

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The Spanish American wars of independence (Spanish: Guerras de independencia hispanoamericanas) were a series of early 19th-century conflicts across the Spanish Empire that resulted in new independent nation states in the Americas. They began shortly after the outbreak of the Peninsular War, part of the broader Napoleonic Wars. The process unfolded in two main phases. First, the Spanish Crown broke up, beginning in Spain in 1808 with the French invasion, the Spanish uprising against the Bonapartes, the vacancy of the throne, and the emergence of juntas later replicated in America. This unfolded as it did because sovereignty reverted vertically, from the Crown down to the cabildos (town councils, or ayuntamientos), the monarchy's basic cellular units. Second, beginning in 1810, attempts at reconstruction failed and developed into wars in their own right: the Cortes of Cádiz sought a pan-Hispanic state, King Ferdinand VII sought to recover the Spanish Crown he had ceded to Napoleon Bonaparte...

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