Guerras de Independencia

CULTURAL NOTE

Guerras de Independencia

Spain's War of Independence against Napoleon Bonaparte's French occupation was ignited by the popular revolt in Madrid on 2 May 1808 against the French army. The reprisal executions are commemorated in a famous painting by Francisco de Goya. With support from the Duke of Wellington, Spanish resistance continued for over five years in a guerra de guerrillas which gave the world the concept and the term guerrilla warfare. The autocratic Fernando VII was restored to the throne in 1814, and his first act was to abolish the progressive Constitution of Cadiz adopted in 1812.

The Wars of Independence of Spain's Latin American colonies were inspired partly by the ideas of the French encyclopédistes, partly by the example of the American and French Revolutions, and partly by Spain's own resistance to French domination. Argentina achieved independence in 1816. Simón Bolívar of Caracas led a freedom movement that was to sweep South America and earned him the title El Libertador. By 1840 all the mainland Spanish colonies were independent. Others who played a crucial roles in the independence struggles of Spain's colonies during the nineteenth century include Hidalgo, Morelos and Guerrero (Mexico), Sucre and Miranda (Venezuela, Peru), San Martín, Brown and Belgrano (Argentina), O'Higgins, San Martín (Chile), Céspedes and Martí (Cuba).