The Wars of Spanish American Independence 1809-29

Following Napoleon's installation of his brother as King of Spain, in 20 years of warfare the nations of Spanish America wrested their independence from the mother country and shaped the Americas we know today.

The Wars of South American Independence began with confused, scattered uprisings in 1809 and ended with a half-hearted expedition against Mexico in 1829. The South American revolutions heralded Spain's downfall as a world power and marked the first expression of an expansionist foreig...