Reconquista (Spanish America)
In the struggle for the independence of
During
By 1815 the general outlines of which areas were controlled by royalists and pro-independence forces had been established and the situation had reached a stalemate. With the exception of rural areas controlled by guerrillas, New Spain and Peru was under the control of royalists, and in South America only the Río de la Plata and New Granada remained outside of royalist control. After French forces left Spain in 1814, the restored Ferdinand VII, declared these developments in the Americas illegal, abolished the Spanish Constitution of 1812 passed by the Cortes of Cádiz, then sent expeditionary armies to quell the remaining rebellions. The impact of these expeditions was most notable in Pablo Morillo's expedition against New Granada, and Venezuela. The restoration of royal rule was short lived, reversed in these three countries.
Restoration of Ferdinand VII
The restoration of Ferdinand VII signified an important change, since most of the political and legal changes done on both sides of the Atlantic—the myriad of
This, in effect, constituted a definitive break with two groups that could have been allies of Ferdinand VII: the autonomous governments, which had not yet declared formal independence, and Spanish liberals who had created a representative government that would fully include the overseas possessions and was seen as an alternative to independence by many in New Spain, Central America, the Caribbean, Quito (today Ecuador), Peru, Upper Peru (today, Bolivia) and Chile. Most Spanish Americans were moderates who decided to wait and see what would come out of the restoration of normalcy. Spanish Americans in royalist areas who were committed to independence had already joined guerrilla movements. Ferdinand's actions did set areas outside of the control of the royalist armies on the path to full independence. The governments of these regions, which had their origins in the juntas of 1810—and even moderates there who had entertained a reconciliation with the crown—now saw the need to separate from Spain, if they were to protect the reforms they had enacted.[2]
Expeditionary campaigns
During this period royalist forces made advances into New Granada, which they controlled from 1815 to 1819, and into Chile, from 1814 to 1817. Except for royalist areas in the northeast and south, the provinces of New Granada had maintained independence from Spain since 1810, unlike neighboring Venezuela, where royalists and pro-independence forces had exchanged control of the country several times. To pacify Venezuela and to retake New Granada, Spain organized and sent in 1815 the largest armed force it ever sent to the New World, consisting of approximately 10,000 troops and nearly sixty ships under the command of general Pablo Morillo. Although this force was crucial in retaking a solidly pro-independence region like New Granada, its soldiers were eventually spread out throughout Venezuela, New Granada, Quito and Peru and lost to tropical diseases, diluting their impact on the war.[3] Ultimately, the majority of the royalist forces were composed, not of soldiers sent from Spain, but of Spanish Americans.
The expeditionary army of Tierra Firme
Leaving the port of
After picking up supplies and militia volunteers in
The Chilean campaign
In August 1814 the Queen's
After royalist forces took
The royalist military
Overall, Europeans formed only about a tenth of the royalist armies in Spanish America, and only about half of the expeditionary units once they were deployed in the Americas. Since each European soldier casualty was substituted by a Spanish American soldier, over time, there were more and more Spanish American soldiers in the expeditionary units. For example Pablo Morillo, commander in chief of the expeditionary force sent South America, reported that he only had 2,000 European soldiers under his command in 1820, in other words, only half of the soldiers of his expeditionary force were European. It is estimated that in the Battle of Maipú only a quarter of the royalist forces were European soldiers, in the Battle of Carabobo about a fifth, and in the Battle of Ayacucho less than 1% was European.
The American militias reflected the racial make-up of the local population. For example, in 1820 the royalist army in Venezuela had 843 white (español), 5,378 Casta and 980 Indigenous soldiers.
Reverses
Far from pacifying the patriots, these actions served to incite them to the military solution, and soon even moderates, who had previously envisioned a negotiation with the Spanish crown, concluded that war of independence was the only way to guarantee their newfound freedoms.
In New Granada, patriots reacted to the expeditionary force with disunity, aiding Morillo's advance. Several Neogranadine and Venezuelan exiles fled to Haiti, where they were well received. Others fled to the Llanos, where they were out of reach of Morillo's forces. Haitian president Alexandre Pétion gave the exiles military and monetary aid, which allowed them to resume the struggle for independence in conjunction with the patriots who had organized the Llaneros into guerrilla bands.
In the Southern Cone, San Martín as the governor of
In northern South America,
See also
- Royalist (Spanish American Revolution)
- Spanish attempts to reconquer Mexico
- Venezuelan War of Independence
References
Bibliography
- Timothy Anna. Spain & the Loss of Empire. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1983. ISBN 978-0-8032-1014-1
- Christon I. Archer (ed.). The Wars of Independence in Spanish America. Willmington, SR Books, 2000. ISBN 0-8420-2469-7
- Michael P. Costeloe. Response to Revolution: Imperial Spain and the Spanish American Revolutions, 1810-1840. Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN 978-0-521-32083-2
- Jorge I. Domínguez. Insurrection or Loyalty: The Breakdown of the Spanish American Empire. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1980. ISBN 978-0-674-45635-8
- ISBN 0-85989-612-9
- Jaime E. Rodríguez O. The Independence of Spanish America. Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-521-62673-0
- Stephen K. Stoan. Pablo Morillo and Venezuela, 1815-1820. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959.