South American Wars of Independence

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The South American Wars of Independence took place between 1809 and 1825 and were directed against the colonial power Spain , but also against the Creoles , who continued to support Spain. Therefore, the Wars of Independence are both colonial wars and civil wars between loyal to the king and rebellious South Americans. The South American colonies of Spain were then divided into three viceroyalty ( Viceroyalty New Granada , Viceroyalty Peru and Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata ). The wars of independence ended with the independence of almost all states in South America, namely Argentina , Bolivia , Chile , Ecuador , Colombia , Paraguay , Peru , Uruguay and Venezuela . In 1822, the Portuguese colony of Brazil, as a newly established sovereign empire, achieved a peaceful but only apparent independence, which was forced by Peter I , who renounced the Portuguese throne. After 1825, only British Guiana , Dutch Guiana, and French Guiana remained as European colonies.

causes

Francisco de Miranda

The first military efforts to achieve independence from the colonial power Spain were made in today's Venezuela around 1806. The Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda landed in Coro with a US-backed expedition, but failed due to a lack of popular support. The Creole elites wanted, on the one hand, an expansion of free trade in order to increase the profits of their plantation products, but they feared all the more that an overthrow of Spanish rule would also destroy their position of power. In particular, the recent events in the French colony of Saint-Domingue reinforced it. There was a massive slave revolution in 1803, as a result of which the independent state of Haiti was proclaimed in 1804. This slave revolt served on the one hand as an inspiration for the other slaves of America, but on the other hand all the more as a warning example for the cocoa plantation owners and the American slave owners. The division of the Creole elite reflects the fact that, on the one hand , they supported the Spanish viceroyalty of New Granada , but, on the other hand, they did not actively combat the aspirations for independence. In 1810 the Creoles also organized revolutionary governments that promised social and economic reforms and in the following year proclaimed an open break with Spain.

The drive for independence got the decisive boost when Spain was cut off from its colonies during the Napoleonic Wars of 1808–1814. The colonies were ruled during this time by various Juntas because of the French occupation in South America, following the example of the Cadiz Regency Council. These provisional governments initially swore allegiance to Ferdinand VII , the Spanish Bourbon king in exile , but operated effectively independently of Spain. The driving forces behind the efforts for independence were mainly the two Venezuelans Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre in the north of South America, as well as the Argentine José de San Martín and the Chilean Bernardo O'Higgins in the south. Until 1814, when he was taken prisoner in Spain, the New Granadin Antonio Nariño was the measure of all things. Bolívar knew its importance and after his return from captivity, knowing that its time was over, gave him the leadership of the Congress in 1821, which had just moved from Angostura (today Ciudad Bolívar ) to Cúcuta .

Historical course

The first declarations of independence

Simón Bolívar

Ecuador was the first country to declare its independence from Spain on August 10, 1809 (see First independence from Ecuador ), and Bolivia followed in the same year. However, both states were soon recaptured by the colonial army. On April 19, 1810, a Creole congress overthrew the Spanish governor in Venezuela and finally declared Venezuela's independence on July 5, 1811. On July 20, 1810, there was an uprising in Bogotá and a short time later the independence of Colombia was proclaimed. Not on a national level, however, but on a provincial basis and even from individual locations. This inconsistency strengthened the Spaniards and led to confrontation within the patriots (see The First Republic of Colombia ). In addition, a united Colombia could have intervened sustainably in the struggles on behalf of the patriots of neighboring countries.

The first revolutionary events in southern South America also took place at the same time. On May 13, 1810, the May Revolution and the overthrow of the Spanish viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros and the formation of the first junta (May 25) took place in Argentina . Although this publicly declared its allegiance to the Spanish king, it did exactly the opposite. Two military expeditions were immediately sent out to wrest further parts of their colonies from the Spanish crown. The first expedition made its way to the Viceroyalty of Peru, but after an initial victory at Suipacha, it was finally defeated in the Battle of Huaqui (see Expeditions for the Liberation of Upper Peru ). The goal of the second expedition was Paraguay, here too, after an initial (at least proclaimed by the Argentine junta) victory at Campichuelo, there were heavy defeats against the royalists at Paraguarí and Tacuarí. The second expedition was only a military failure, because shortly afterwards on May 15, 1811 Paraguay also declared its independence.

Shortly after the Argentine example, Chile followed, where a junta took power on September 18, 1810. After initial disputes and a royalist counter-revolution under Tomás de Figueroa, José Miguel Carrera managed to unite the government and in 1812 to enact a constitution with a liberal character.

Royalist counterattacks

The first royalist counter-attacks took place without the support of the colonial power, as Spain was not yet in a position to provide military aid at that time. Nevertheless, some counter-attacks were initially successful, as the revolutionary troops were mostly inexperienced and not very disciplined.

The first serious setback for South American independence movements occurred in Venezuela. Not all provinces had followed Venezuela's declaration of independence; Coro , Maracaibo and Guayana , among others , had refused to follow suit and organized a royalist counter-attack. The royal army under Domingo de Monteverde defeated the revolutionary Venezuelan army under Francisco de Miranda after a campaign that lasted for months and was not always sovereign and forced it to surrender on July 12, 1812 at La Victoria. Simón Bolívar, who played only a minor role during the First Republic, had to flee to New Granada like many others, but was able to return to Venezuela the following year. On August 6, 1813, Bolívar conquered Caracas after a daring campaign, which was only successful because Santiago Mariño liberated eastern Venezuela at the same time. The then proclaimed Second Republic was short-lived, as both liberators needed too long to act together against the Spaniards. The Venezuelan royalists under José Tomás Boves reinforced their army with recruited lancers who had worked as cattle herders in the Llanos and, after several unsuccessful attempts, managed to decisively defeat Bolívar and Mariño on June 15, 1814. On July 16, Caracas fell and the Patriots lost almost all skirmishes as a result. While some indomitable continued to fight in Venezuela in the following years, Bolívar fled again to New Granada (see Wars of Independence in Venezuela ).

Mariano Osorio

The Spaniards had resisted militarily in Chile, but neither side won a decisive victory. Both sides were so exhausted by the fighting that they signed the Treaty of Lircay on May 14, 1814 . In the treaty, Gaínza agreed to give up the Province of Concepción; in return, Bernardo O'Higgins declared his loyalty to the Spanish king. However, neither side intended to fulfill the contract, but simply used it as a breathing space. Viceroy José Fernando Abascal y Sousa , however, was so angry about the treaty, which was negotiated without his knowledge, that he deposed the commander-in-chief of the royalists Gabino Gaínza and sent reinforcements to Chile under the more energetic Mariano Osorio . The Spaniards landed in Concepción , where they were even greeted with applause, and then began their march on the capital Santiago . However, this failed. The expeditionary forces took the city of Chillán , while the Republican leaders O'Higgins and Carrera could not agree on where to best repel the attack. So it came about that O'Higgins remained without reinforcements in the Battle of Rancagua between October 1 and 2, 1814 , both were defeated and had to flee to Mendoza . A short time later, Osorio was able to take Santiago. Chile remained under colonial administration until 1817.

In Argentina, too, there was an invasion of royalist troops under General Juan Pío de Tristán y Moscoso in mid-1812. Since the Argentine armed forces under General Manuel Belgrano were not only defeated 2-1, but were also significantly worse equipped, Belgrano opted for a scorched earth tactic . In August 1812, for example, he forced the residents of the Jujuy Province to exodus (known in Argentina as the Jujuy Exodus ). Any belongings left behind were burned and those who refused were executed. The exodus lasted from August 23 to 29, and the displaced people traveled about 250 km south to the province of Tucumán . Belgrano's tactics were successful and so he was able to lead his armed forces to victories at Salta and Tucumán, so that in the end most of the royalist troops including Tristán had to surrender. However, when Belgrano tried to advance to Upper Peru in return, he was defeated in the battles of Vilcapugio and Ayohuma. Although the expedition to Peru was unsuccessful, it had serious consequences. The Argentine junta named José de San Martín lieutenant colonel during this campaign and charged him with the formation of a professional cavalry unit ( Granaderos ).

On January 31, 1813, a Spanish army unit - coming from Montevideo - landed near San Lorenzo in the province of Santa Fe . The Granaderos defeated these units in the Battle of San Lorenzo, after which San Martín was appointed general. The Argentine junta had also decided to set up its own small fleet. This fleet, under the command of William Brown , managed to defeat and partially capture a Spanish fleet off Montevideo on May 14, 1814. The Argentine coasts were thus secured and William Brown was promoted to admiral in recognition .

In 1814, José de San Martín was briefly appointed the new commander of the Northern Army. Here he developed a new strategy to attack the viceroyalty of Peru. Instead of trying to penetrate through today's Bolivia, as before, he realized that it would be better to end Spanish rule over Chile first.

The crucial phase

The South American Wars of Independence

Red: Royalist reaction
Blue: Under the control of the separatists
Dark blue: Under the control of Greater Colombia
Dark blue (mother country): Spain during French invasions
Green: Spain during the liberal uprising

From 1815, the tide began to turn in southern South America in favor of states striving for independence. Argentina made the start. A third military expedition was sent to the Viceroyalty of Peru here in 1815. It was fatal that Thomas Álvarez , the leader of the Argentine junta, had recalled the leader of the Northern Army, José Rondeau. He and his army refused to accept this decision, but as a result many Argentine provinces and other Argentine armies (e.g. Salta Provincial Army) refused to support him. The Northern Army was therefore badly defeated in the battles of Venta y Media (October 21, 1815) and Sipe-Sipe (November 28, 1815), which led to the Viceroyalty of Peru annexing the northwestern territories previously subordinated to the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata and these were lost for Argentina. Bolivia was later formed from these provinces. However, the Spaniards could not advance further into Argentina.

In response to the fact that the Spanish King Ferdinand was back in power after the Congress of Vienna , representatives from all provinces of Argentina met in San Miguel de Tucumán on July 9, 1816 and declared full independence of Argentina.

In Chile, after the victory of the royalists, Casimiro Marcó del Pont was appointed governor in place of Osorio. The Spaniards punished the revolutionaries harshly, so all revolutionaries who picked up the Spaniards in Santiago were banished to the Juan Fernández Islands . The leaders of the Carrera rebellion and above all O'Higgins then settled with a large group of supporters in the Argentine province of Mendoza . O'Higgins managed to alliance with the Argentine San Martín. San Martín had reorganized his cavalry unit the Granaderos and led them together with the provincial army of Cuyo (San Martín was also governor of Cuyo) and the Chileans under O'Higgins at the beginning of 1817 over the Andes . On February 12, 1817, he defeated the royalists at the Battle of Chacabuco and shortly thereafter was able to move into the liberated Santiago de Chile in a triumphal procession with O'Higgins. The following year the Chileans and Argentines tried to use their combined forces to drive the Spaniards out of Chile completely. However, the Spaniards had reactivated the successful general Osorio and he managed on March 18, 1818 in the Battle of Cancha Rayada , to defeat the united republican forces under O'Higgins hard. San Martín succeeded in the battle of Maipú on April 5, 1818 , to make up for the previous defeat and to beat the Spaniards so hard that they withdrew to Concepcion and from then on were no longer able to take offensive action. The battle of Maipú is therefore still regarded as the decision in the Chilean and Argentine struggle for independence, although until 1824 there was still fighting in Peru and on the island of Chiloé with the Spanish. On the first anniversary of the Battle of Chacabuco (February 12, 1818), O'Higgins also formally proclaimed the independence of Chile.

The struggle for independence of the countries in northern South America suffered a severe setback in 1815. On February 17, 1815, a large Spanish fleet with an invading force (approx. 60 ships and over 10,000 soldiers) left the Spanish port of Cádiz . The military expedition was supposed to recapture the viceroyalty of New Granada. First, the Spaniards landed on Margarita in April without encountering any resistance. Then in May the Spaniards supported the royalists in Caracas and Cumana, and finally they landed in Santa Marta , which was in royalist hands, to take in supplies and provisions. Meanwhile, Simón Bolívar had fled from New Granada to Jamaica and on to Haiti on May 8, 1815 , to collect money, weapons and supporters. The Spanish military expedition in the meantime managed to conquer Cartagena after a four-month siege (Sept. - Dec. 1815) . Finally the Spaniards marched from Cartagena towards Bogotá , where a second royalist military expedition coming from the south of Quito joined them. With the conquest of Bogotá on May 6, 1816, the Spaniards completed the reconquest of the viceroyalty of New Granada.

Simón Bolívar returned to Venezuela at the end of 1816 after a first failed attempt. The success of those who stayed behind enabled him to safely land his troops and equipment. A general left behind in an initial failed landing had given him the opportunity to capture Angostura and Ciudad Guayana . In Angostura he set up his headquarters in the province of Orinoco , which has so far hardly been devastated by the war, and tried to raise a powerful army and organize uprisings against the Spaniards. At first his efforts to retake Venezuela were unsuccessful because he kept marching on Caracas. On the advice of his European officers (since 1817 an increasing number of mercenaries from Europe), he undertook a campaign to New Granada, as only one Spanish division was stationed here, while there were four in Venezuela. In 1819 he had his first major success at the Marcha Libertadora , one of the most daring campaigns in military history . At the end of July 1819, he led a small army of around 2,500 men to New Granada on a route of swamps and icy high mountains that the Spaniards considered impassable. On August 7, 1819, he managed to defeat the surprised Spaniards in the Battle of Boyacá and then to conquer Bogotá. With the securing of the lower Orinoco and the reconquest of Colombia, Bolívar had now created a power base from which he pursued the conquest of Venezuela and Ecuador. The royalists in New Granada, however, were not ready to accept the victory of the Republicans and tied up troops for years that were urgently needed elsewhere.

The Republicans prevail

From 1820 the Spanish found themselves on the defensive across the South American continent. The main reason for this is to be found in Spain. Ferdinand VII had equipped a new expedition to recapture the colonies he believed (and not Spain) that were to set sail in early 1820. No one in South America would have had anything to counter the more than 20,000 soldiers, and their deployment would have put an end to any striving for independence sooner rather than long. However, their commander, Rafael del Riego , did not set sail, but began a rebellion on New Year's Day 1820, which he carried to the Escorial in Madrid. Ferdinand was militarily forced to swear by the constitution of Cadiz from 1812, in which, among other things, the sovereignty of the colonies was recognized. In 1823, however, the Bourbone received support from the royalists of France, who defeated the rebels with a huge army in the second half of the year. Ferdinand returned to absolute sole rule and Riego and his colleagues were executed. It was clear to the South American republicans that - after Ferdinand had restored his authority in Spain - his claim to rule should be reasserted in the colonies as well. It was therefore urgent to remove the last Spanish troops and officials. This goal was achieved just in time.

In Chile, after the successful conquest, Bernardo O'Higgins first tried to consolidate the power of the republic. In a tough guerrilla war, groups of outlaws, royalists and Indians who had used the turmoil of the previous fighting for looting and raids were initially fought. These fights are known in Chile as guerra a muerte (war to the death), as neither side took prisoners. In 1822 the Republicans had finally prevailed and with Concepción also conquered the last city under Spanish control. As early as 1818 Chile had set up its own fleet under the Scottish admiral Lord Cochrane , which achieved a surprise success in the attack on the Spanish fortress of Valdivia in 1819 . She also transported the expedition from Perú at the end of 1820 . San Martín had also recognized that the independence of the new states would only be secured if the viceroyalty of Peru also freed the last area of ​​South America from Spanish rule. Although San Martín managed to conquer the capital Lima and proclaim Peru's independence there on July 28, 1821, he did not succeed in destroying the Spaniards in the viceroyalty of Peru. This required the help of Greater Colombia.

Antonio José de Sucre

Ecuador was the first state in South America to declare its independence in 1809, but was recaptured by the Spanish at the end of 1812. Only after the liberation of Colombia did the independence efforts of Ecuador gain new impetus. On October 9, 1820, a rapid revolt broke out in the city of Guayaquil and Guayaquil was declared independent. Portoviejo quickly followed on October 18 and Cuenca, the economic center of the southern highlands, on November 3 . An army was set up in Guayaquil to pull other Ecuadorian towns to the side of the Republicans or, if necessary, to conquer them. Initially, this army marched into the highlands and was able to record its first success there on November 9, 1820 against the royalists, whereupon other areas declared themselves independent and the Spaniards controlled the highlands. The insurgents had asked for help from both San Martín in Peru and Bolívar in Greater Colombia, and the Argentines and Chileans arrived first. With the support of San Martín's troops, they went on a campaign in the highlands. The Spanish field marshal and ruler in Quito Melchor Aymerich had raised his own army of 5,000 men, parts of which inflicted a heavy defeat on the Republicans on November 22, 1820 at the Battle of Huachi. The army then marched into the highlands and retook all places there by the end of December. Only Guayaquil remained independent, as the Spaniards persevered in the highlands and made no attempt to conquer this city. In this rather hopeless situation for the Ecuadorian independence efforts, the Republican General José Mires from Colombia appeared in February 1821, whom Bolívar had sent to the Caribbean in 1820 to buy arms for the campaign, and brought urgently needed reinforcements with him. In mid-May Antonio José de Sucre came to Guayaquil with another 700 reinforcements. Sucre had been commissioned by Bolívar to convince the rulers of Guayaquil to give Sucre sole command of the combined armed forces and to move Guayaquil to an unification with Colombia. The extremely capable general succeeded in both. The Republicans achieved their first success as early as August 19, 1821, when José Mires succeeded in destroying a Spanish military force under Colonel Francisco González in the Battle of Cone. On September 2nd, the city of Guaranda was captured. Shortly afterwards, on September 12, 1821, the Republicans under Sucre suffered a heavy defeat in the second battle of Huachi and had 800 dead and another 500 prisoners (including General Mires) to mourn. It was thanks to Sucres negotiating skills that both sides finally signed a 90-day armistice at Babahoyo on November 19, 1821. The first attempt to conquer Sucres Quito had failed, but during the armistice he managed to quickly replenish his army. In the Battle of Pichincha on May 24, 1822, he achieved the decisive victory over the Spaniards with Ecuadorian, Greater Colombian and Argentine-Chilean troops from San Martín. With this, the royal judicial district of Quito achieved independence from Spain, and Bolívar annexed it to Greater Colombia.

Meanwhile, in the north, Bolívar had concentrated its troops in Venezuela. Bolívar had managed to raise an army of 6,500 men and on June 24, 1821, he achieved a decisive victory against a good 4,000 Spaniards in the Battle of Carabobo . After this success, only Cumaná (which was conquered shortly afterwards) and Puerto Cabello (which after three sieges in two years only surrendered in October 1823) were in Spanish hands. In 1822 Spain attempted to recapture it again, but the dispatched fleet, the remains of the expeditionary army and the local royalists were defeated on July 24, 1823 in the sea battle on Lake Maracaibo.

In Peru, meanwhile, San Martín had used up its prestige with the inadequate use of its skillfully worked out advantages, the excessive concession towards the Spaniards and the rejection of the Peruvian guerrillas. First Lord Cochrane left him, and finally his officers put a coup against him. When he received no support from Bolívar at a meeting with Bolívar in Guayaquil in mid-1822, all he could do was go into European exile. Bolívar again first sent Sucre to clarify the political situation, and finally came himself. After he had clarified the intra-Peruvian power relations, barely without a civil war among the patriots, he undertook the campaign to liberate Peru in 1824. After the victory in the Battle of Junín in early August, to which the German Otto Philipp Braun had made a significant contribution, the Congress of Greater Colombia withdrew Bolívar's mandate to continue fighting in Peru and Sucre ended the campaign with the success of the Battle of Ayacucho . Then he moved on to Upper Peru, where the Spaniards fought among themselves. As a result, Sucre was able to drive the Spaniards from Upper Peru practically without a fight in 1825 and thus initiated the independence of Bolivia, which neither Argentina nor Peru (which both claimed the country themselves) wanted.

The independence of the rest of South America

The call for independence had also been loud in Brazil, but unlike the Spaniards, the Portuguese were more accommodating. Because until 1821 Rio de Janeiro was the seat of the Portuguese king, the Portuguese government and the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal and Brazil founded in 1815, the fault lines were much more moderate here than in the Hispanic American states. On December 7, 1822, Brazil declared independence after the Portuguese government moved from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon in 1821. It had proven impossible to govern both states on different continents at the same time. However, the son of the Portuguese king as Pedro I. became Emperor of Brazil . In 1825, both states signed the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro in 1825 . The monarchy of the Portuguese and with it the dependency was maintained by the ruling house of Braganza in both countries until 1889. On the other hand, the comparatively peaceful transition to independence and the strong central government created by the crown favored the stability of Brazil after independence. Unlike the Hispanic American states, Brazil did not break up in a conglomerate of states, but was able to maintain its territorial integrity. While most Hispanic American nations experienced decades of chaos and unrest after independence, Brazil saw an age of prosperity and stability. Relations between Brazil and Portugal also remained based on friendship and partnership in the period that followed, while relations between Spain and its former colonies were poisoned for decades and are still characterized by conflicts to this day. In 2007, for example, the Spanish King Juan Carlos I and the Latin American heads of state Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chávez clashed. Venezuela's then head of state Chavez told the then Spanish King Juan Carlos I: “ The one who looks bad here is the one who has lost control, who has ordered us to keep our mouths shut as if we are still subjects like in the 17th or 18th century! "

Uruguay occupies a somewhat special position. Uruguay managed to end Spanish colonial rule as early as 1811 with the national hero José Gervasio Artigas , but the area was annexed by neighboring Brazil in 1821. After several revolts, Uruguay finally declared its independence on August 25, 1825 and allied with Argentina. In the following 500-day war with Brazil, neither side managed to win. In 1828, the Treaty of Montevideo was finally signed, in which Uruguay was granted independence under the protection of Great Britain.

British and Dutch Guyana only gained independence as Guyana and Suriname in the second half of the 20th century. French Guiana has been a part of France as a department since 1946.

literature

  • Gustavo Beyhaut: South and Central America II: From Independence to the Crisis of the Present. 16th edition, Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 2004 (= Fischer Weltgeschichte , Vol. 23), ISBN 978-3-596-60023-6 .
  • Inge Buisson , Herbert Schottelius : The independence movements in Latin America, 1788-1826 (= manual of Latin American history ). Klett-Kotta, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-12-911400-9 .
  • Robert Harvery: Liberators: South America's Savage Wars of Freedom 1810-1830. Robinson Ltd., London 2002, ISBN 1-84119-623-1 .
  • Hans-Joachim König: Small history of Latin America. Through and updated edition, Reclam, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-017062-5 .
  • Stefan Rinke : Revolutions in Latin America: Paths to Independence 1760-1830. CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60142-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. President versus King: Chavez insults Juan Carlos as a colonial ruler