Anthropology Archive

Wars of Independence

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The successful war of independence against Britain in North America in 1776, and the French revolution in 1789, finally provided the spark for a series of wars of independence in South America: in a series of clashes dating from 1810 to 1825, the South American continent was piecemeal broken up into independent units, ending finally in 1825, when Spain formally surrendered control of the last part of its territory on the continent.

The fathers of the South American wars of independence were the Venezuelans, Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Miranda and the Argentinean, Jose de San Martin. On 25 May 1810, a coalition of Spanish colonists born in South America and Creoles of Buenos Aires, deposed the Spanish viceroy and established a provisional governing body for the provinces of La Plata. In August 1811, the Paraguayans proclaimed their independence.

In 1818, San Martin led an army of locals in deposing Spanish rule in Chile, where he was aided by the Chilean revolutionary leader Bernardo O'Higgins - actually an Irishman, his presence being a good indication of the extent of the scope of the White immigration which had taken place. O'Higgins went on to declare Chile independent in 1818, after a Spanish force had been defeated.

Simon Bolivar recruited an army of White mercenaries from England to come and fight against the Spanish in South America: this force provided the power through which Bolivar was able to inflict what was to prove a final defeat upon Spanish Imperial forces in 1819.

Bolivar then established the states of Panama, Venezuela and Quito (later called Ecuador). In 1820, San Martin drove the Spanish out of the city of Lima, in modern day Peru, but faced a serious threat from Spanish Imperial forces in the rest of that country. Bolivar came to his aid and by December of that year, the Spanish forces had been decisively defeated, and the last Spanish forces were finally driven off the continent in 1826. Upper Peru was named Bolivia in honor of its liberator. Brazil had in the interim became independent from Portugal in 1822.