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Timeline of the Spanish American wars of independence

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Pedro Aguiar (talk | contribs) at 22:36, 1 March 2020 (The Napoleonic invasion of Portugal and the flight of the Portuguese Royal Court was in 1808, not 1806). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This is a timeline of events related to the Spanish American wars of independence. Numerous wars against Spanish rule in Spanish America took place during the early 19th century, from 1808 until 1829, directly related to the Napoleonic French invasion of Spain. The conflict started with short-lived governing juntas established in Chuquisaca and Quito opposing the composition of the Supreme Central Junta of Seville. When the Central Junta fell to the French, numerous new Juntas appeared all across the Americas, eventually resulting in a chain of newly independent countries stretching from Argentina and Chile in the south, to Mexico in the north. After the death of the king Ferdinand VII, in 1833, only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule, until the Spanish–American War in 1898.

These conflicts can be characterized both as civil wars and wars of national liberation, since the majority of the combatants were Spanish Americans on both sides, and the goal of the conflict for one side was the independence of the Spanish colonies in the Americas. In addition, the wars were related to the more general Latin American wars of independence, which include the conflicts in Haiti and Brazil (Brazil's independence shared a common starting point with Spanish America's, since both were triggered by Napoleon's invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, when the Portuguese royal family resettled in Brazil).

The war in Europe, and the resulting absolutist restoration ultimately convinced the Spanish Americans of the need to establish independence from the mother country, so various revolutions broke out in Spanish America. Moreover, the process of Latin American independence took place in the general political and intellectual climate that emerged from the Age of Enlightenment and that influenced all of the so-called Atlantic Revolutions, including the earlier revolutions in the United States and France. Nevertheless, the wars in, and the independence of, Spanish America were the result of unique developments within the Spanish Monarchy.

1806

1808

  • Napoleon Bonaparte invades Portugal across Spanish territory. The governing dynasty, the Braganza, flees to colonial Brazil under British protection.
  • Napoleon orders the French army to not occupy Spain in February.

1809

1810

  • Spain is dominated by French forces and the Supreme Central and Governing Junta is defeated

1811

1812

  • Spain enacts a Constitution. First Spanish expeditionaries arrive to Americas on January to support the Royalists.
  • The First Republic is created in Venezuela

1813

  • Mexico abolishes slavery privileges and indigenous tribute, and later declares independence

1814

  • Ferdinand VII returns to Spain. Absolutism is restored; the 1812 Constitution is repealed and the Cortes dissolved.
  • Venezuela creates the short-lived Second Republic; Bolívar is defeated and moves to New Granada
  • Bolívar conquers Bogotá
  • Mexico enacts a Constitution

1815

1816

1817

1818

  • Simón Bolívar organizes a third Venezuelan republic in Angostura and calls for a congress. Bolivar's campaign to take Caracas is defeated, and he returns to the line of Orinoco river.
  • The patriotic triumph at the Battle of Maipú guarantees the independence of Chile

1819

1821

1822

1823

1824

1825

1826

1827

1828

1829

  • The last attempt of Ferdinand VII of Spain to reconquer Spanish America. Isidro Barradas was defeated in the battle of Tampico (Mexico).

1830

  • On May, Venezuela and then Ecuador separate themselves from the Gran Colombia, causing its final breaking the next year.
  • July Revolution returns the liberalism to France. Ferdinand VII lost the French military support to maintain the absolutism in Spain.
  • Marshal Antonio José de Sucre is assassinated and liberator Simón Bolívar dies from disease at the end of the year.

1833

1836

Main article: Treaties to recognise the Spanish American independence
  • Spain renounces its domains in continental Americas and authorizes the government to conclude treaties with all the states of Spanish America.

See also

Bibliography

  • Higgins, James (2014). The Emancipation of Peru: British Eyewitness Accounts. Online at https://sites.google.com/site/jhemanperu
  • Luna, Félix (2003). La independencia argentina y americana (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Planeta. ISBN 950-49-1110-2.
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