Latin American wars of independence (Bolívar, San Martín); Brazil independent (1822)

Late Modern Era / 19th Century · ~1800 – 1914

Between about 1808 and 1826 most of Spain's mainland empire in the Americas broke away and became independent republics. The wars were fought across a huge area, from Mexico and Venezuela to Chile, Peru and the Río de la Plata. Two leaders stand out. Simón Bolívar led campaigns in the north of South America, and José de San Martín led armies across the Andes into Chile and Peru. Their forces met the Spanish in battles such as Boyacá, Chacabuco, Carabobo and Ayacucho.

Portuguese America took a different path. When the Portuguese royal court moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1807 to 1808, Brazil became the centre of the Portuguese empire. After the court returned to Europe, Pedro, the king's son, declared Brazil independent on 7 September 1822 and became its emperor, with far less fighting than in Spanish America. The wars ended colonial rule on the mainland, but they left many new states with weak institutions, economic damage and lasting disputes over unity and federalism.

Things happened, and the rest is history

Napoleon's invasion and the Spanish crisis of 1808
Event
What happened
In 1808 Napoleon forces the Spanish king Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII to give up the crown and puts his brother Joseph on the throne. Spain rises against the French, and local juntas claim to rule in the name of the absent Ferdinand. In 1809 and 1810 similar juntas form in American cities such as Quito, Caracas, Buenos Aires and Bogotá.
The rest is history
Historians broadly agree that this crisis of legitimacy set off the independence movements, though they debate how far earlier discontent among American-born elites mattered. Many juntas began by swearing loyalty to Ferdinand, but loyalty gave way to open war and then to declarations of independence. Venezuela declared independence in 1811, and the Spanish Cortes meeting at Cádiz wrote a liberal constitution in 1812 that did not satisfy American demands for equal representation.
Sources
1. BookRodríguez O., Jaime E. The Independence of Spanish America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
2. BookLynch, John. The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808-1826. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1986.
The Portuguese court moves to Brazil
Event
What happened
In late November 1807, as French troops approach Lisbon, the Portuguese prince regent João and his court sail for Brazil under British escort. They reach Salvador in January 1808 and Rio de Janeiro in March. João opens Brazilian ports to friendly nations, and in 1815 Brazil is raised to the status of a kingdom united with Portugal.
The rest is history
Rio became the capital of a European empire, with new institutions, a bank and a press. When revolution in Portugal in 1820 led to demands that João VI return, he went back in 1821 and left his son Pedro as regent. The Lisbon Cortes then tried to reduce Brazil's status again, which pushed Brazilian leaders towards separation.
Sources
1. BookBarman, Roderick J. Brazil: The Forging of a Nation, 1798-1852. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
2. BookSchwartz, Stuart B., ed. Colonial Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Bolívar's Letter from Jamaica and the Boyacá campaign
Event
What happened
After defeats in Venezuela, Simón Bolívar writes the Letter from Jamaica in 1815, setting out his view of Spanish America's future. In 1819 he leads an army from the Venezuelan plains over the Andes and defeats the Spanish at Boyacá on 7 August, opening the way to Bogotá. In December 1819 the Congress of Angostura proclaims the Republic of Colombia, later called Gran Colombia.
The rest is history
Boyacá gave the patriots control of New Granada. Bolívar then won at Carabobo in June 1821, which secured Venezuela, and later Ecuador was added through the campaigns of Antonio José de Sucre, who won at Pichincha in 1822. Gran Colombia could not hold together and split into Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador by 1830, the year Bolívar died.
Sources
1. PrimaryBolívar, Simón. Carta de Jamaica (Letter from Jamaica). Letter written at Kingston, 6 September 1815.Bolívar's analysis of Spanish American prospects.
2. BookLynch, John. Simón Bolívar: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
San Martín crosses the Andes
Event
What happened
In January and February 1817 José de San Martín leads an army of about 5,000 men, with Bernardo O'Higgins among the officers, over the Andes from Mendoza into Chile. The patriots defeat the royalists at Chacabuco on 12 February 1817 and win decisively at Maipú on 5 April 1818. Chile declares independence formally in 1818.
The rest is history
With Chile secured, San Martín built a fleet under Lord Cochrane and sailed to Peru in 1820. He entered Lima in 1821 and proclaimed Peruvian independence on 28 July, taking the title Protector. Royalist forces still held the Peruvian highlands, so the war there was not over.
Sources
1. BookLynch, John. San Martín: Argentine Soldier, American Hero. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
2. BookRodríguez O., Jaime E. The Independence of Spanish America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
The meeting at Guayaquil, 1822
Event
What happened
On 26 and 27 July 1822 Bolívar and San Martín meet privately at Guayaquil, a port in present-day Ecuador that Bolívar had just brought under Gran Colombian control. No minutes of their talks are known. A few weeks later San Martín resigns his powers in Peru and soon leaves for Chile and then Europe.
The rest is history
What the two men said is debated, since only later letters and recollections survive. Commonly suggested topics are the future of Guayaquil, the form of government for the new states and help for the war in Peru. Bolívar took over the campaign, and the royalists were defeated at Junín on 6 August 1824 and at Ayacucho on 9 December 1824, led by Sucre. Ayacucho ended Spanish rule on the South American mainland, though the last Spanish holdouts in Callao surrendered in January 1826.
Sources
1. BookLynch, John. San Martín: Argentine Soldier, American Hero. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
2. BookLynch, John. Simón Bolívar: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Hidalgo, Morelos and Mexican independence
Event
What happened
On 16 September 1810 the priest Miguel Hidalgo calls his parishioners to rebellion at Dolores in New Spain. He is captured and executed in 1811, and José María Morelos continues the revolt until his own execution in 1815. In 1821 the royalist officer Agustín de Iturbide and the insurgent Vicente Guerrero agree the Plan of Iguala, and the Army of the Three Guarantees enters Mexico City in September 1821.
The rest is history
Mexico's independence came partly because conservatives turned against the liberal government in Spain after the 1820 revolution there. Iturbide was crowned emperor in 1822 and the empire fell in 1823. The later history of Mexico belongs to its own entry.
Sources
1. BookRodríguez O., Jaime E. The Independence of Spanish America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
2. BookKnight, Alan. Mexico: From the Beginning to the Spanish Conquest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
The Haitian Revolution as a precedent
Event
What happened
From 1791 enslaved people in the French colony of Saint-Domingue rise in revolt, and Toussaint Louverture becomes their leading commander. After French forces try to restore slavery, the new state of Haiti declares independence on 1 January 1804. In 1815 Bolívar, defeated and in exile, receives ships, arms and money from President Alexandre Pétion in Haiti.
The rest is history
Pétion's help came with a request that Bolívar free enslaved people in the lands he liberated. Bolívar issued decrees of emancipation in 1816, though slavery in Spanish America ended only gradually, in different countries over decades. The Haitian example also frightened many creole landowners, who feared a similar rising.
Sources
1. BookDubois, Laurent. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
2. BookLynch, John. Simón Bolívar: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Brazil declares independence, 1822
Event
What happened
In January 1822 Prince Pedro refuses the Lisbon Cortes's order to return to Portugal, in what is remembered as the Dia do Fico. On 7 September 1822, near the Ipiranga stream by São Paulo, he declares Brazil independent, and he is acclaimed emperor on 12 October. Portuguese garrisons in Bahia and other provinces resist, and fighting continues into 1823.
The rest is history
Portugal recognised Brazil in a treaty of 1825, and Brazil agreed to pay compensation, with British mediation. Brazil stayed a monarchy under Pedro I and then Pedro II until 1889, and it kept slavery until 1888. Its unity, unlike that of Gran Colombia, survived.
Sources
1. BookBarman, Roderick J. Brazil: The Forging of a Nation, 1798-1852. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
2. BookBethell, Leslie, ed. The Cambridge History of Latin America, Volume 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Bolívar the Liberator and his dream of unity
Popular belief
The legend
Bolívar is often told of as a man who dreamed of uniting all of Latin America into one great nation, and who was undone only by the envy of lesser men. His supposed last words are said to be about having ploughed the sea.
The rest is history
Bolívar did hope for cooperation among the new states and called the Congress of Panama in 1826, but it achieved little. His own aim was more often a strong union of the northern republics, and he was criticised in his lifetime for authoritarian tendencies. The phrase about ploughing the sea appears in later accounts of his bitterness, and its exact wording is uncertain. He died near Santa Marta on 17 December 1830.
Sources
1. BookLynch, John. Simón Bolívar: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
2. PrimaryBolívar, Simón. Carta de Jamaica (Letter from Jamaica). Letter written at Kingston, 6 September 1815.
The Cry of Ipiranga
Popular belief
The legend
On the banks of the Ipiranga stream, Pedro, having just read angry letters from Lisbon, draws his sword and cries 'Independence or death!' as his guard cheers. The scene is shown in a famous painting.
The rest is history
Pedro did declare independence on 7 September 1822 near the Ipiranga, and the phrase 'Independência ou morte' is attached to the day. The best-known image, by Pedro Américo, was painted in 1888, decades later, and shows a tidy, heroic scene. Contemporary accounts are fewer and less dramatic, and the setting of the proclamation has been debated. Independence was a process of months, not a single moment, and it was secured only after fighting in 1823.
Sources
1. BookBarman, Roderick J. Brazil: The Forging of a Nation, 1798-1852. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
2. BookBethell, Leslie, ed. The Cambridge History of Latin America, Volume 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
San Martín and the Peruvian flag
Folk tale
The legend
The story goes that San Martín, landing near Pisco in 1820, sees a flock of red and white flamingos rise into the air. He takes their colours as an omen and chooses them for the flag of Peru.
The rest is history
The tale is repeated in Peruvian tradition, but no reliable contemporary document records it, and it is best treated as a later story. What is documented is that San Martín's government created a flag in 1820 and that Peru's arms and colours changed several times in following years. The current red and white design was fixed later in the 1820s. San Martín himself proclaimed independence in Lima on 28 July 1821.
Sources
1. BookLynch, John. San Martín: Argentine Soldier, American Hero. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

← Back to the outline

Things happened, and the rest is history

Napoleon's invasion and the Spanish crisis of 1808

The Portuguese court moves to Brazil

Bolívar's Letter from Jamaica and the Boyacá campaign

San Martín crosses the Andes

The meeting at Guayaquil, 1822

Hidalgo, Morelos and Mexican independence

The Haitian Revolution as a precedent

Brazil declares independence, 1822

Bolívar the Liberator and his dream of unity

The Cry of Ipiranga

San Martín and the Peruvian flag