Weekly History Post: Latin American Revolutions

Time period: 1808-1826

The Latin American revolutions were a series of revolutions throughout Spanish-Controlled Central and South America. this post will only focus on the South American part in a condensed, oversimplified way, there's a lot to get through to fit in one post, so let me set the stage. The year is 1808. Napoleon had just invaded and conquered Spain, its long-time ally. Spain now had to team up with Britain, in a real "the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend" sort of way to fight them back. Now, since Napoleon was in charge of Spain now, he deposed king Ferdinand 7,Napoleon replaced him with his brother, Joseph Bonaparte. The question in the Spanish colonies in the Americas was "Who are we to serve now? Napoleon's brother? or the deposed king of Spain?" But there was a 3rd option: form their own government. And so small independent Juntas popped up in Spanish controlled America. In Venezuela, a young, rich teen named Simon Bolivar basically became the Supreme Venezuelan Junta's financier. Remember him, he's important. the Venezuelan junta sent off on a mission to Britain to gain recognition, but failed. so now, on their own, they fought by themselves against the Spanish, and 2 main leaders rose up liberating the colonies: Simon Bolivar in the North, taking Venezuela, New Grenada(Columbia and Panama), Ecuador, and Bolivia, his namesake. He also fought alongside Jose De San Martin, who helped Bolivar liberate Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.

here are the dates respectively:

Columbia (1810)

Panama (1810)

Venezuela (1813)

Paraguay(1811)

Argentina(1816)

Chile(1817)

Peru(1821)

Ecuador(1822)

Bolivia(1825)

Uruguay(1828)

Even after all the South American colonies were liberated, the Drama still wasn't done. New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador all formed into Gran Columbia in 1819. Simon Bolivar became it's president. but by 1830, Bolivar grew old, sick, and weak, and died the same year. Also, Uruguay had to fight for independence between Brazil and Argentina, and, as seen above, obtained independence in 1828.