Royalist (Spanish American independence)
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The royalists were the people of Hispanic America (mostly from native and indigenous peoples)[2][3] and Europeans that fought to preserve the integrity of the Spanish monarchy during the Spanish American wars of independence.
In the early years of the conflict, when King
Political evolution
The creation of
In the months following the establishment of the Regency, it became clear that Spain was not lost, and furthermore the government was effectively reconstituting itself. The Regency successfully convened the Cortes Generales, the traditional parliament of the Spanish Monarchy, which in this case included representatives from the Americas. The Regency and Cortes began issuing orders to, and appointing, royal officials throughout the empire. Those who supported the new government came to be called "royalists." Those that supported the idea of maintaining independent juntas called themselves "patriots," and a few among them were proponents of declaring full, formal independence from Spain. As the Cortes instituted liberal reforms and worked on drafting a constitution, a new division appeared among royalists. Conservatives (often called "absolutists" in the historiography) did not want to see any innovations in government, while liberals supported them. These differences would become more acute after the restoration of Ferdinand VII, because the king opted to support the conservative position.[4]
Role of regional rivalry
Regional rivalry also played an important role in the internecine wars that broke out in Spanish America as a result of the juntas. The disappearance of a central, imperial authority—and in some cases of even a local, viceregal authority (as in the cases of New Granada and Río de la Plata)—initiated a prolonged period of
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 juntas, the Cortes in Spain, and several of the congresses in the Americas that evolved out of the juntas, and the many constitutions and new legal codes—had been done in his name. Once in Spain Ferdinand VII realized that he had significant support from
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 (today Mexico), Central America, the Caribbean, Venezuela, Quito (Ecuador), Peru, Upper Peru (Bolivia) and Chile.
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 region several times. To pacify Venezuela and to retake New Granada, Spain organized in 1815 the largest armed force it ever sent to the New World, consisting of 10,500 troops and nearly sixty ships. (See,
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.[9]
Restoration of the Spanish Constitution and independence
Spanish liberals finally had success in forcing Ferdinand VII to restore the Constitution on January 1, 1820, when Rafael Riego headed a rebellion among troops that had been gathered for a large expeditionary force to be sent to the Americas. By March 7, the royal palace in Madrid was surrounded by soldiers under the command of General Francisco Ballesteros, and three days later on March 10, the besieged Ferdinand VII, now a virtual prisoner, agreed to restore the Constitution.[10]
Riego's revolt had two significant effects on the war in the Americas. First, in military matters, the large numbers of reinforcements, that were especially needed to retake New Granada and defend the Viceroyalty of Peru, would never arrive. Furthermore, as the royalist situation became more desperate in region after region, the army experienced wholesale defections of units to the patriot side. Second, in political matters, the reinstitution of a liberal regime changed the terms under which the Spanish government sought to engage the insurgents. The new government naively assumed that the insurgents were fighting for Spanish liberalism and that the Spanish Constitution could still be the basis of reconciliation between the two sides. The government implemented the Constitution and held elections in the overseas provinces, just as in Spain. It also ordered military commanders to begin armistice negotiations with the insurgents with the promise that they could participate in the restored representative government.[11]
The Spanish Constitution, it turned out, served as the basis for independence in New Spain and Central America, since in the two regions it was a coalition of conservative and liberal royalist leaders who led the establishment of new states. The restoration of the Spanish Constitution and representative government was enthusiastically welcomed in New Spain and Central America. Elections were held, local governments formed and
Central America gained its independence along with New Spain. The regional elites supported the terms of the Plan of Iguala and orchestrated the union of Central America with the Mexican Empire in 1821. Two years later following Iturbide's downfall, the region, except Chiapas, peacefully seceded from Mexico in July 1823, establishing the Federal Republic of Central America. The new state existed for seventeen years, centrifugal forces pulling the individual provinces apart by 1840.[13]
In South America independence was spurred by the pro-independence fighters that had held out for the past half decade. José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar inadvertently led a continental-wide pincer movement from southern and northern South America that liberated most of the Spanish American nations on that continent and secured the independence of the Southern Cone had more or less experienced since 1810. In South America, royalist soldiers, officers (such as Andrés de Santa Cruz), and whole units also began to desert or defect to the patriots in large numbers as the royal army's situation became dire. During the end of 1820 in Venezuela, after Bolívar and Pablo Morillo concluded a cease-fire, many units crossed lines knowing that Spanish control of the region would not last. The situation repeated itself in Peru from 1822 to 1825 as republican forces slowly advanced there. Unlike in Mexico, however, the top military and political leadership in these parts of South America came from the patriot side and not the royalists.
The collapse of the constitutional regime in Spain in 1823 had other implications for the war in South America. Royalist officers, split between liberals and conservatives, fought an internecine war among themselves. General Pedro Antonio Olañeta, commander in Upper Peru, rebelled against the liberal viceroy of Peru,
Royalist army
There are two types of units: expeditionary units ( in Spanish: expedicionarios) created in Spain and militias (in Spanish: militias), units which already existed or were created during the conflict in America. The militias, which were composed wholly of militiamen who were residents or natives of Spanish America, were bolstered by the presence of "veteran units" (or "disciplined militia") composed of Peninsular and Spanish American veterans of Spain's wars in Europe and around the globe. The veteran units were expected to form a core of experienced soldiers in the local defenses, whose expertise would be invaluable to the regular militiamen who often lacked sustained military experience, if any. The veteran units were created in the past century as part of the Bourbon Reforms to reinforce Spanish America's defenses against the increasing encroachment of other European powers, such as during the Seven Years' War.
Overall, Europeans formed only about a tenth of the royalist armies in Spanish America, and only about half of the expeditionary units. 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 in Venezuela and New Granada, reported that he only had 2,000 European soldiers, 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 makeup of the local population. For example, in 1820 the royalist army in Venezuela had 843 white (español), 5,378 Casta, and 980 Native soldiers.
The last royalist armed group in what is today Argentina and Chile, the Pincheira brothers, was an outlaw gang made of European Spanish, American Spanish, Mestizos, and local indigenous peoples.[15] This group was originally based near Chillán in Chile but moved later across the Andes to Patagonia thanks to its alliance with indigenous tribes. In the interior of Patagonia, far from the de facto territory of Chile and the United Provinces, the Pincheira brothers established a permanent encampment with thousands of settlers.[15]
Royalist leaders
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Commanders
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Commanders
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See also
- Spanish American wars of independence
- Spanish expeditionary army order of battle
- Reconquista (Spanish America)
- Loyalist (American Revolution), the equivalent of the Royalist in Anglo-America
- Campaigns of the South
References
- ^ William Spence Robertson (1941), RUSSIA AND THE EMANCIPATION OF SPANISH AMERICA, 1816–1826
- ^ Luqui Lagleyze, Julio (1995). El Ejército Realista en la guerra de Independencia.
- ^ "Indigenous, African-descended, and mestizo (mixed-race caste) soldiers fought in patriot and royalist armies alike".Jason McGraw (12 March 2018). "RACE, OR THE LAST COLONIAL STRUGGLE IN LATIN AMERICA".
- ^ Lynch, Spanish American Revolutions, 36–37, 134–135. Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 52–53. Kinsbruner, Independence in Spanish America, 45–46, 53.
- ^ Lynch, Spanish American Revolutions, 121, 131–132. Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 13–19, 22,
- ^ Lynch, Spanish American Revolutions, 57-71, 162–163, 240–242. Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 111–113, 126–136, 153–159, 176–179. Kinsbruner, Independence in Spanish America, 53, 59.
- ^ Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 169–172. Kinsbruner, Independence in Spanish America, 56–57.
- ^ Lynch, Spanish American Revolutions, 336. Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 106.
- ^ Lynch, Spanish American Revolutions, 162. 171–172, 207. Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 173–175, 192–194
- ^ Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 194. Kinsbruner, Independence in Spanish America, 88, 114, 120–121, 127–128.
- ^ Lynch, Spanish American Revolutions, 335–340. Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 194–195. Kinsbruner, Independence in Spanish America, 89.
- ^ Lynch analyzes the events through the older theory of a "conservative revolution": Spanish American Revolutions, 319–323. Compare to Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 196–197, 199–210, 241–242. Kinsbruner, Independence in Spanish America, 97–99. Peter F. Guardino, "The War of Independence in Guerrero, New Spain, 1808-1821" in Archer, The Wars of Independence in Spanish America, 121–125.
- ^ Lynch, Spanish American Revolutions, 333–340. Rodríguez, Independence of Spanish America, 210–213. Kinsbruner, Independence in Spanish America, 100, 146–149.
- ^ "An Analysis of Shared Values: Spain 1808".
- ^ Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto: 39–60.
Bibliography
- Kenneth J. Andrien and Lyman L. Johnson (1994). The Political Economy of Spanish America in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1850. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-1489-5
- Timothy Anna (1983). Spain & the Loss of Empire. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-1014-1
- Christon I. Archer (ed.) (2000). The Wars of Independence in Spanish America. Willmington, SR Books. ISBN 0-8420-2469-7
- Benson, Nettie Lee (ed.) (1966). Mexico and the Spanish Cortes. Austin: University of Texas Press.
- Michael P. Costeloe (1986). Response to Revolution: Imperial Spain and the Spanish American Revolutions, 1810-1840. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-32083-2
- Jorge I. Domínguez (1980). Insurrection or Loyalty: The Breakdown of the Spanish American Empire. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-45635-8
- Jay Kinsbruner. Independence in Spanish America: Civil Wars, Revolutions, and Underdevelopment (Revised edition). Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8263-2177-1
- John Lynch. The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808-1826 (2nd edition). New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. ISBN 0-393-95537-0
- Marie Laure Rieu-Millan (1990). Los diputados americanos en las Cortes de Cádiz: Igualdad o independencia. (ISBN 978-84-00-07091-5
- Jaime E. Rodríguez O. (1998). The Independence of Spanish America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62673-0
- Mario Rodríguez (1978). The Cádiz Experiment in Central America, 1808 to 1826. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03394-8
- Tomás Straka (2000). "La voz de los vencidos. Ideas del partido realista de Caracas, 1810-1821!. Caracas, Universidad Central de Venezuela, ISBN 978-980-00-1771-5