South America (1684–1827 CE)

Imperial Reforms, Indigenous Resistance, and the Wars of Independence

Geographic Definition of South America
The region of South America encompasses all lands south of the Isthmus of Panama, including South America Major—stretching from Colombia and Venezuela through Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina, and northern Chile—and Peninsular South America, embracing southern Chile and Argentina, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), and the Juan Fernández Islands.

Anchors include the Andes cordillera and Altiplano, the Amazon, Orinoco, and Magdalena river systems, the Venezuelan Llanos, Gran Chaco, Pampas, and Patagonian steppe, extending southward to the Strait of Magellan and the storm-lashed sub-Antarctic islands.
Bounded by Isthmian America to the north and Subcontinental South America beyond the Río Negro, this region entered the modern age as a vast, fragmented world of empires, Indigenous sovereignties, and the first stirrings of republican independence.

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Geography and Imperial Frontiers

Between 1684 and 1827, South America stood at the hinge of early modern empire and emerging nationhood. The Andes anchored Spanish dominion, while the Amazon, Guianas, and southern plains remained zones of relative autonomy.
Spain’s empire centered on Lima, Potosí, and Bogotá, but new routes and rival powers eroded its control. Portuguese settlers pushed westward beyond the Treaty of Tordesillas, carving the future Brazil from mining frontiers and sugar coasts. The Guianas hosted Dutch, French, and British enclaves; the Llanos, Chaco, and Patagonia remained largely Indigenous.
From the Bio-Bío frontier in Chile to the Missions of Paraguay and the Upper Amazon, Indigenous confederations, Jesuit enclaves, and frontier forts coexisted in uneasy equilibrium until the revolutions of the early nineteenth century broke the imperial map apart.

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Climate and Environmental Shifts

The late Little Ice Age lingered into the eighteenth century:

• Andean highlands: Frosts shortened growing seasons; glacial advance cut water supply to terraces.

• Amazon basin: Rainfall fluctuated with El Niño and La Niña, alternately flooding and parching river villages.

• Coastal Peru and Chile: El Niño upsets brought famine and fishery collapse.

• Southern pampas and Patagonia: Droughts and winds intensified; cold decades preserved glaciers in Tierra del Fuego.
  Despite these oscillations, Indigenous and colonial agrarian systems—terraces, irrigation, and mixed cropping—sustained resilience across climates.

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Subsistence and Settlement

Colonial economies deepened even as empires strained to contain their frontiers:

• Andean viceroyalties (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador): Silver and mercury mining at Potosí, Oruro, and Huancavelica remained imperial lifelines; Indigenous mita labor persisted under new guises. Highland farmers supplied maize, potatoes, and quinoa to mining centers.

• Brazil: Gold and diamond booms in Minas Gerais and Goiás (1690s onward) drew settlers inland. Sugar, cattle, and later coffee expanded in Bahia, Pernambuco, and the Recôncavo.

• Paraguay and Uruguay: Yerba mate, hides, and cattle exports linked Jesuit missions and ranches to Atlantic trade.

• Venezuela and Colombia: The Llanos produced cattle and cocoa; Caracas, Cartagena, and Bogotá tied the interior to Europe via Caribbean ports.

• Chile and the Río de la Plata: Wheat and wine sustained the Pacific colonies; Buenos Aires rose as a smuggling and trade hub after its 1776 elevation to viceroyal capital.

• Southern frontiers: Beyond the Bio-Bío, the Mapuche retained independence; Tehuelche horsemen roamed Patagonia; Fuegian canoe peoples survived at the edge of the sub-Antarctic seas.

Urban centers—Lima, Quito, La Paz, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Caracas, Bogotá, and Santiago—flourished as administrative, mercantile, and religious capitals binding the continent’s diverse ecologies into imperial networks.

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Technology and Material Culture

Colonial material life fused Indigenous skill and European design.
Roads and mule trails replaced Inca highways; stone and adobe churches rose over older shrines. Mining technologies—waterwheels, furnaces, mercury amalgamation—refined Andean ores. Jesuit reductions in Paraguay and Boliviaproduced Baroque churches, carved imagery, and polyphonic music blending European instruments with Guaraní voices.
In southern Chile and Patagonia, horse and iron tools transformed Indigenous mobility and warfare, while Spanish ports outfitted galleons and whalers bound for the Strait of Magellan.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

The continent’s arteries of exchange intertwined:

• Silver highways: Carried bullion from Potosí to Lima and Buenos Aires, then to Seville.

• Amazonian rivers: Sustained mission networks and trade in cacao, dyes, and forest goods.

• Jesuit routes: Linked the Guaraní reductions to coastal Brazil and Peru until their 1767 suppression.

• Slave routes: Africans entered through Cartagena, Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro, infusing the Atlantic littoral with Afro-American cultures.

• Frontier circuits: Horses, cattle, and textiles moved between the Llanos, Chaco, Araucanía, and Pampas, blurring boundaries between empire and autonomy.

• Southern seas: The Falklands and Juan Fernández Islands became whaling and provisioning hubs; the Strait of Magellan gained strategic significance for global shipping.

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Cultural and Symbolic Expressions

Baroque Catholicism shaped public life—cathedrals, processions, and festivals dominated cities—yet beneath its veneer Indigenous and African traditions thrived.
In the Andes, saints merged with huacas and mountain spirits; in Brazil, candomblé and capoeira fused faith and resistance; in the missions, music and sculpture translated theology into local idioms.
Creole intellectuals absorbed Enlightenment ideas: scholars such as Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán, Francisco de Miranda, and Simón Rodríguez envisioned liberty and reform. Across the south, Mapuche ngillatun and Tehuelche rituals reaffirmed identity against colonial advance, while sailors and exiles endowed remote islands with myths of endurance—from the Jesuit martyrdoms of Chiloé to Selkirk’s solitude on Juan Fernández.

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Environmental Adaptation and Resilience

Agricultural and ecological ingenuity persisted:
terraced farming, irrigation canals, and crop diversity buffered Andean villages; shifting cultivation and forest gardens stabilized Amazonian societies.
Pastoralism spread—cattle on the Pampas, sheep on Patagonian plains—reshaping grasslands and displacing wildlife.
Indigenous nations south of the Andes adapted the horse, expanding mobility and defense. Coastal communities recovered from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, rebuilding cities with brick, tile, and lime.

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Technology and Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

By the eighteenth century, reform and resistance accelerated collapse of the old order:

• Bourbon Reforms (Spain) and Pombaline Reforms (Portugal) sought efficiency and revenue, tightening imperial control but provoking resentment.

• Jesuit Expulsion (1759–1767): Dismantled mission economies and destabilized Indigenous frontiers.

• Indigenous revolts: The Comunero uprisings (New Granada, 1781) and Túpac Amaru II’s Rebellion (Peru, 1780–81) fused anti-tax protest with ancestral revival.

• Slave and maroon resistance: Palmares in Brazil and quilombos across the Guianas and Venezuela embodied enduring defiance.

• Wars of Independence (1810–1824): From the Caracas junta to the crossing of the Andes, revolution swept the continent. Leaders—Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, Bernardo O’Higgins, and José Artigas—toppled viceroyalties and declared new republics.

In the south, Chile’s patriots triumphed after Chacabuco (1817) and Maipú (1818); Argentina secured independence under the United Provinces; Brazil separated peacefully from Portugal in 1822 under Dom Pedro I. Yet Indigenous nations in Patagonia and Araucanía, though weakened, remained outside firm national control until late in the following century.

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Transition (to 1827 CE)

By 1827 CE, the map of South America was redrawn. The viceroyalties of Spain and the captaincy of Portugal had dissolved into a dozen republics and one empire.
Lima, Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Caracas, and Rio de Janeiro emerged as capitals of sovereign states.
The Mapuche, Tehuelche, and Fuegians still held the far south; the Falklands and Juan Fernández Islands became contested imperial outposts.
Mining and plantation economies endured but shifted under new flags, while slavery, tribute, and caste hierarchies began to crumble.
The colonial age had ended: South America entered the modern era forged in rebellion, grounded in geography, and alive with the intertwined legacies of empire, Indigenous endurance, and creole revolution.

South America Major (1684–1827 CE)

Revolts, Reforms, and the Birth of Independence

Geographic Definition of South America Major
The subregion of South America Major encompasses all lands north of the Río Negro, extending across the full continental span of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, northern Argentina and northern Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador(excluding the Cape lands at the Isthmian boundary), Colombia (excluding the Darién region, which belongs to Isthmian America), Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

Anchors include the Andes cordillera and Altiplano, the Amazon basin, the Orinoco and Magdalena river systems, the Venezuelan Llanos, the Gran Chaco, the Uruguayan Pampas, and the Guiana Shield.
Bounded by Isthmian America to the north and Subcontinental South America to the south, this subregion forms the continental heartland of South America—linking the Pacific and Atlantic worlds through its intertwined highlands, forests, plains, and river systems.

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Geography and Imperial Frontiers

Between 1684 and 1827, South America Major transformed from a colonial realm into a constellation of independent nations. The Andes still anchored Spanish power, while the Amazon basin, the Guiana forests, and the southern plains remained vast, contested frontiers. The Portuguese advanced deep into Brazil’s interior, expanding beyond the Tordesillas meridian through mining and ranching; Spain struggled to govern its mountainous viceroyalties from distant Lima and Bogotá. The region’s geography—its cordilleras, rivers, and forests—both connected and divided peoples, shaping the uneven course of empire and revolution.

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Climate and Environmental Shifts

The late Little Ice Age brought alternating droughts and floods, influencing agriculture and settlement.
In the Andes, glaciers advanced slightly, shortening growing seasons and threatening terraced crops.
Across Brazil’s cerrado and the Guiana forests, rainfall swings altered river regimes and harvests, while El Niño events disrupted Pacific fisheries and Peruvian coastal farming.
The Llanos and Pampas alternated between lush pastures and parched plains.
Environmental volatility spurred adaptation—new crops, irrigation, and migration—within both colonial estates and Indigenous territories.

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Subsistence and Settlement

By the 18th century, the subregion was a patchwork of imperial economies and Indigenous persistence:

• Andean highlands: Mining towns like Potosí, Oruro, and Huancavelica remained economic cores. Encomienda and mita labor systems evolved into wage and debt peonage, sustaining silver and mercury production. Highland farmers grew maize, potatoes, and quinoa; imported wheat spread in valleys.

• Coastal Peru and Ecuador: Plantation agriculture expanded around sugar, cotton, and vineyards; coastal ports like Lima, Guayaquil, and Callao handled global trade.

• Brazilian interior: Gold and diamond booms in Minas Gerais (1690s onward) transformed Brazil’s economy, drawing settlers inland. Cattle ranching and sugar plantations flourished in Bahia, Pernambuco, and the Recôncavo, while the Amazon sustained missions and extractive trade in cacao, dyes, and forest goods.

• Paraguay and Uruguay: Yerba mate, hides, and cattle became major exports; Jesuit reductions integrated Guaraní communities into mission economies until their expulsion in 1767.

• Venezuela and Colombia: The Llanos supported cattle ranching and cocoa cultivation; the Magdalena and Orinoco rivers formed transport arteries between highlands and coasts.

• Guianas: French, Dutch, and British outposts extracted sugar and timber, relying heavily on enslaved African labor.

Despite growing European control, Indigenous and Afro-descended communities remained central to labor, knowledge, and resistance across every ecological zone.

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Technology and Material Culture

Mining innovations—mercury amalgamation and mule-driven mills—deepened dependence on Indigenous and enslaved workers.
In Brazil, smelting, waterwheels, and canalized sluices spread through mining districts; in Andean Peru, silver-processing patios reshaped entire valleys.
Agricultural technologies mixed Iberian plows and presses with Indigenous irrigation and terracing.
Architecture fused baroque cathedrals and mission churches with local materials—adobe, stone, and timber.
Textiles, pottery, and metalwork blended European and Indigenous forms: the Cusco School of painting, Jesuit mission music, and Afro-Brazilian festivals reflected a growing creole aesthetic.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

Continental networks intensified:

• Silver highways: From Potosí to Lima, mule trains and caravans linked mines, ports, and European markets.

• Brazilian gold routes: Trails from Minas Gerais and Goiás led to Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, shifting Brazil’s economic center southward.

• Amazon and Orinoco rivers: Served both Indigenous canoe trade and Portuguese mission expansion.

• Atlantic slave routes: Enslaved Africans arrived at Bahia, Cartagena, and the Guianas, embedding African culture into creole societies.

• Mission networks: Jesuit and Franciscan roads connected Paraguay’s reductions, Amazon missions, and Andean highlands.

• Trade corridors: Buenos Aires rose as a smuggling hub, connecting the Rio de la Plata with Potosí’s silver traffic, despite royal prohibitions.

By the 18th century, contraband trade and overland communication tied the continent together as never before.

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Cultural and Symbolic Expressions

Baroque Catholicism dominated urban and rural life. Churches, processions, and festivals blended European theology with Indigenous ritual and African devotion. Saints’ cults and pilgrimages mapped sacred geography across the Andes and coasts.
In the Amazon and Paraguay, missions combined Gregorian chant and local music.
Creole intellectuals and clergy began articulating local pride—Garcilaso de la Vega, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Jesuit scholars in Lima and Quito bridged colonial scholasticism and early Enlightenment.
Indigenous and Afro-descended populations kept older spiritual systems alive beneath Catholic veneers: Andean huaca worship, Guaraní dances, and Afro-Brazilian congado and candomblé merged cosmologies into living syncretism.

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Environmental Adaptation and Resilience

Agricultural and ecological ingenuity persisted across regions:

• Terracing and crop rotation sustained Andean villages under frost and drought.

• Irrigation canals and sugar mills stabilized coastal economies.

• Amazonian peoples used shifting cultivation and forest-garden mosaics to preserve fertility.

• Cattle and sheep grazing expanded across the Llanos, Chaco, and Pampas, reshaping ecosystems into ranching frontiers.

• Urban centers managed periodic famine with granaries, trade, and church relief.

Even under imperial extraction, local adaptation ensured survival and continuity.

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Technology and Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

By the 18th century, reform and resistance redefined empire:

• Spanish Bourbon Reforms (from 1700): Centralized administration, curbed local autonomy, and taxed trade and mining; these policies fueled unrest among criollo elites.

• Brazil under Pombal (1750s–1770s): The Marquis of Pombal reorganized administration, expelled Jesuits (1759), and encouraged secular colonization in Amazon and frontier zones.

• Indigenous and popular uprisings: The Comunero Revolts in New Granada (1781) and Túpac Amaru II’s Rebellion in Peru (1780–81) blended anti-tax grievances with calls for justice and autonomy.

• Slave resistance: Palmares in Brazil’s northeast and smaller maroon communities across Suriname, the Guianas, and Venezuela embodied defiance and survival.

• Foreign wars: Spain’s and Portugal’s European conflicts—War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) and Napoleonic invasions (1807–1808)—weakened colonial control.

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Transition (to 1827 CE)

By 1827, South America Major was no longer colonial. Revolutions ignited by Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, José Artigas, and others swept through Andes and plains.
From Caracas to Buenos Aires, new republics—Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil’s empire—emerged from the ruins of Iberian dominion.
Mines and missions, ranches and plantations, cities and forests—each bore the marks of both conquest and continuity.
The subregion entered the modern age through conflict and transformation: Indigenous persistence, African cultural legacies, and creole aspirations forged a South America no longer imperial, but still profoundly shaped by its colonial past.

South America Major (1804–1815 CE): Independence Movements, Revolutionary Conflict, and Colonial Breakdown

Between 1804 and 1815 CE, South America Major—covering all lands north of the Río Negro, extending across the full continental span of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, northern Argentina and northern Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador (excluding the Cape lands at the Isthmian boundary), Colombia (excluding the Darién region, which belongs to Isthmian America), Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana—underwent dramatic upheaval characterized by revolutionary movements, widespread colonial breakdown, and early stages of independence. Fueled by external revolutionary precedents, notably the success of the Haitian Revolution (1804), these years marked profound transformations in political structures, social hierarchies, and economic systems across the continent.

Political Developments

Revolutionary Impact and Haitian Influence

The successful Haitian Revolution (1791–1804)—the first successful slave rebellion establishing an independent nation—deeply impacted South American elites, colonial authorities, and enslaved populations. The precedent of successful resistance dramatically inspired independence efforts and intensified colonial anxieties.

Outbreak of Independence Wars

Widespread independence movements erupted, notably:

• Venezuela: Francisco de Miranda (1806) and Simón Bolívar initiated revolutionary movements, officially declaring independence in 1811.

• Argentina: The May Revolution of 1810 marked Buenos Aires’s break from Spanish rule.

• Chile: Early independence attempts emerged in 1810, beginning a prolonged struggle against Spanish authority.

• Colombia and Ecuador: Experienced initial independence revolts beginning around 1809–1810.

• Paraguay:  In 1811, Paraguay achieved an unusually peaceful independence from Spanish rule, distinguishing itself from prolonged conflicts elsewhere. Led initially by local elites seeking autonomy from Buenos Aires as well as Madrid, Paraguay swiftly established a self-contained government under an emerging authoritarian political structure.

Portuguese Monarchy Relocation to Brazil

Portuguese political dynamics dramatically shifted in 1808 when the Portuguese royal court, fleeing Napoleon’s invasions, relocated to Rio de Janeiro, significantly altering Brazil’s political status and setting the stage for Brazil's later independence.

Economic Developments

Economic Disruption Amid Revolutionary Conflict

Mining economies in Brazil (Minas Gerais) and Bolivia (Potosí) continued, though increasingly disrupted by revolutionary conflicts and resource depletion. Trade patterns and economies destabilized as warfare spread, leading to severe economic fluctuations.

Plantation Economies Under Pressure

Plantation agriculture and enslavement continued, but the revolutionary atmosphere—fueled by Haitian precedents—increased tensions, fear of slave revolts, and demands for abolitionist reform, especially in Brazil.

Emerald and Resource Extraction Decline

Emerald mining in Colombia continued under strained conditions due to revolutionary disruptions, military conflict, and declining colonial oversight, weakening extractive economies.

Cultural and Technological Developments

Revolutionary Ideals and Intellectual Transformation

Enlightenment-inspired ideals of liberty, republicanism, and equality spread vigorously through urban centers—Lima, Quito, Bogotá, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires—energizing revolutionary thought and prompting dramatic shifts in political and intellectual life.

Urban Cultural and Architectural Impact

Major cities, though politically turbulent, continued to serve as cultural and intellectual hubs. Revolutionary conflicts reshaped urban life, turning cities into centers of ideological debate, political mobilization, and cultural shifts toward nationalist identity formation.

Social and Religious Developments

Social Upheaval and Class Reconfiguration

Social hierarchies were challenged dramatically amid revolutionary upheaval. Indigenous peoples, enslaved populations, mestizos, and creoles actively participated in revolutionary movements, destabilizing rigid colonial social structures and creating opportunities for societal reconfiguration.

Catholic Church Amid Revolutionary Change

The Catholic Church confronted unprecedented pressures amid revolutionary transformations. Often aligned with traditional colonial power structures, the Church faced tensions as revolutionary leaders advocated secular reforms, challenging Church authority and provoking internal divisions.

Indigenous Resistance and Frontier Dynamics

Persistent indigenous resistance significantly influenced revolutionary conflicts, as indigenous communities navigated alliances and resistances to colonial and revolutionary factions alike. Frontier regions, notably in Chile (Mapuche territories), Andean communities, and Amazonian groups, experienced ongoing conflict and territorial disruption.

Long-Term Consequences and Historical Significance

The era from 1804 to 1815 CE represented a decisive turning point, initiating South America Major's sustained revolutionary upheaval and struggle for independence. Driven by external revolutionary precedents, intense ideological currents, widespread social upheaval, and weakening colonial governance, these years profoundly reshaped the continent’s political, social, and economic landscapes. The movements and conflicts of this era established irreversible momentum toward full independence, profoundly influencing South America’s subsequent historical trajectory.

Aristocratic Chileans begin considering independence only when the authority and legitimacy of the crown are cast in doubt by Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Spain in 1807.

Napoleon replaces the Spanish king with his brother, Joseph Bonaparte.

On the peninsula, Spanish loyalists form juntas that claim they wil govern both the motherland and the colonies until the rightful king is restored.

Thus, Chileans, like other Spanish Americans, have to confront the dilemma of who is in charge in the absence of the divine monarch: the French pretender to the throne, the Spanish rebels, or local leaders.

The latter option is tried on September 18, 1810, a date whose anniversary is celebrated as Chile's independence day.

On this day, the criollo leaders of Santiago, employing the town council as a junta, announce their intention to govern the colony until the king is reinstated.

They swear loyalty to the ousted monarch, Ferdinand VII, but insist that they have as much right to rule in the meantime as do subjects of the crown in Spain itself.

They immediately open  the ports to all traders.

Chile's first experiment with self-government, the Old Fatherland (Patria Vieja, 1810-14), is led by Jose Miguel Carrera Verdugo (president, 1812-13), an aristocrat in his mid-twenties.

The military-educated Carrera is a heavy-handed ruler who arouses widespread opposition.

One of the earliest advocates of full independence, Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme, captains a rival faction that plunges the criollos into civil war.

For him and for certain other members of the Chilean elite, the initiative for temporary self-rule quickly escalates into a campaign for permanent independence, although other criollos remain loyal to Spain.

Among those favoring independence, conservatives fight with liberals over the degree to which French revolutionary ideas will be incorporated into the movement.

Spanish troops from Peru, after several efforts, take advantage of the internecine strife to reconquer Chile in 1814, when they reassert control by winning the Battle of Rancagua on October 2.

O'Higgins and many of the Chilean rebels escape to Argentina.

The Spanish had subjugated the Picunche in the Conquest of Chile, but the Mapuche of the area called Araucanía by the Spanish have fought against the invaders for over three hundred years.

The Mapuche had repelled the Spanish after their initial conquests in the late sixteenth century so effectively that there are areas to which Europeans will not return until late in the nineteenth century.

One of the main geographical boundaries is the Bío-Bío River, which the Mapuche use as a natural barrier to Spanish and Chilean incursion.

The three centuries have not uniformly been a period of hostility, and there had often been substantial trade and interchange between Mapuche and Spaniards or Chileans.

The long Mapuche resistance has become primarily known as the War of Arauco.

Its early phase was immortalized in the late sixteenth century in Alonso de Ercilla's epic poem La Araucana.

From the mid-seventeenth century, the Mapuches and the governors of Chile had made a series of treaties in order to end the hostilities.

By the late eighteenth century, many Mapuche loncos had accepted the de jure sovereignty of the Spanish king while operating with de facto independence.

When Chile revolts from the Spanish crown during the Chilean War of Independence, some Mapuche chiefs side with the royalists of Vicente Benavides in the guerra a muerte (war to death).

The Spanish depend on the Mapuches as they have lost control of all cities and ports north of Valdivia.

The Mapuches value the treaties made with the Spanish authorities; however, many regard the war with indifference and take advantage of both sides.

At the start of 1808, the Captaincy General of Chile—one of the smallest and poorest colonies in the Spanish Empire—is under the administration of Luis Muñoz de Guzmán, an able, respected and well-liked Royal Governor.

In May 1808 the overthrow of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII, their replacement by Joseph Bonaparte and the start of the Peninsular War plunges the empire into a state of agitation.

In the meantime, Chile is facing its own internal political problems.

Governor Guzmán had suddenly died in February of this year and the crown had not been able to appoint a new governor before the invasion.

After a brief interim regency by Juan Rodríguez Ballesteros, and according to the succession law in place at the time, the position is laid claim to and assumed by the most senior military commander, who happens to be Brigadier Francisco García Carrasco.

García Carrasco takes over the post of Governor of Chile in April and in August the news of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain and of the formation of a Supreme Central Junta to govern the Empire in the absence of a legitimate king reaches the country.

In the meantime, Carlota Joaquina, sister of Ferdinand and wife of the King of Portugal, who is living in Brazil, also makes attempts to obtain the administration of the Spanish dominions in Latin America.

Since her father and brother are being held prisoners in France, she regards herself as the heiress of her captured family.

Allegedly among her plan is to send armies to occupy Buenos Aires and northern Argentina and to style herself as Queen of La Plata.

Brigadier García Carrasco is a man of crude and authoritarian manners, who manages in a very short time to alienate the criollo elites under his command.

Already in Chile, as in most of Latin America, there had been some independence agitation but minimal and concentrated in the very ineffectual Conspiracy of the Tres Antonios back in 1781.

The majority of the people are fervent royalists but are divided into two groups: those who favor the status quo and the divine right of Ferdinand VII (known as absolutists) and those who want to proclaim Charlotte Joaquina as Queen (known as carlotists).

A third group is composed of those who propose the replacement of the Spanish authorities with a local junta of notable citizens, which would conform a provisional government to rule in the absence of the king and an independent Spain (known as juntistas).

Governor García Carrasco himself is implicated in a flagrant case of smuggling-related corruption (the Scorpion scandal) that in 1809, manages to destroy whatever remnants of moral authority he or his office has left.

From this moment on the pressure for his removal begins to build.

The French invasion of Spain in 1808 had led to the collapse of the Spanish Monarchy.

Most subjects of Spain do not accept the government of Joseph Bonaparte, placed on the Spanish throne by his brother, Emperor Napoleon of France.

At the same time, the process of creating a stable government in Spain, which will be widely recognized throughout the empire, has taken two years.

This has created a power vacuum in the Spanish possessions in America, which creates further political uncertainty.

Spain loses only Trinidad to Britain, but Napoleon’s removal of the Bourbons prompts the Spanish-American Viceroyalties to erect their own governments.