Why Didn't Spanish America Unite Like Brazil?

Revolutions! Executions! Constitutions!

*cough* *cough* After Columbus landed in the Bahamas Spain’s possessions in the Americas now looked a bit like this. *eagle screech* Such a vast empire was divided into Viceroyalties which in turn were divided into intendencies or Captaincies which in turn could be divided into provinces which in turn were divi- Criollos were people of Spanish descent born in the Americas and Peninsulares were people of Spanish descent born you guessed it, in the Peninsula. Legally, they were equals, but in practice… Even though criollos were white and born to Spanish parents they had it much harder to access important roles in politics those were normally awarded to the few peninsulares that lived there.

Criollos were privileged, but not as privileged as peninsulares. And as you can imagine, this angered them quite a bit. It’s 1796, and Spain and France have just become allies against the British after signing the Second Treaty of San Ildefonso.

Spanish America was only allowed to trade with Spain so the British answered with a blockade. In response, Spain lifted the trade embargo and allowed its territories to trade with neutral countries. But for some, this was too little, too late.

Fast forward to 1806 and the British were daydreaming about South America they thought the Estuary of Río de la Plata the most favorable location for a British colony. are being sent to the more important city of Lima and not Buenos Aires… They sailed up the estuary and attempted an invasion. They saw some success at the start but they were ultimately defeated by local militia battalions led by revolutionaries with little to no help from Spain.

Where was Spain? You may ask. King Charles was probably enjoying his favorite sport after all, he wasn’t dubbed “The Hunter” for nothing.

The affairs of the state were left to his wife, María Luisa and to his prime minister, Manuel Godoy who according to Napoleon And as you may have guessed, María Luisa and him were very likely lovers Napoleon promised Godoy that he would split Portugal with him so Godoy allowed French troops through Spain to invade Portugal, which made the Portuguese Royal Family flee to Brazil moving the capital city of Portugal from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. A bit of foul play by Spain. The Spanish people hated Godoy and the mutineers believed that the King had given all the power to someone born in poverty so they FORCED King Charles to dismiss him.

Now, to say that these two hated each other, would be an understatement and their fight for the throne, gave Napoleon a bit of a headache so he invited the Royal Family to Bayonne and forced both of them to abdicate in favor of himself. He exiled them, and with the French troops already in Spain he occupied it, crowning his brother Joseph, king of Spain. To *literally* No One’s surprise this wasn’t well received by the Spanish so in absence of a legitimate ruler over 300 elected deputies met in Cádiz, and claimed: in what they called the "Cortes de Cádiz".

"Cortes" means Parliament, “de” means “of”, and Cádiz… is just the city. You’re a criollo from the Americas, who has witnessed the triumphs of the French Revolution and the American War of Independence. Two perfect success stories.

Napoleon’s invasion of Spain was the spark needed. Criollos had the perfect excuse to revolt without betraying the Spanish crown as, well there was no Spanish crown anymore. Even some royalists joined the Criollo revolution unhappy with a Frenchman ruling over Spain.

A new form of self government, independent from Spain, emerged the Juntas. They initially sought to rule in the name of Ferdinand until his return but as you may know, things turned sour. During the May Revolution, the Viceroy of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata was removed and the “First Junta” was established renaming the old Viceroyalty to the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

After this, the First Junta wanted to extend their authority to other provinces who didn’t approve of this new form of government. They chose this guy to act as a spokesperson in name of the United Provinces to convince the Paraguayans to join them. This caused Buenos Aires to make the disastrous decision to send troops to subdue Asunción.

The province of Paraguay was able to hold them back which should’ve come as good news to Spain The Spanish governor of Paraguay, believing the battle was lost fled Paraguarí and caused a panic in Asunción. *screams* It also didn’t help that he asked for military assistance to the Portuguese who were hated by the Paraguayans, and that he stopped paying his troops. This inevitably caused a military uprising, and the once loyal province created a power-sharing junta and sent a letter to Buenos Aires expressing their will to be independent but within a confederation of countries something which Buenos Aires was completely against, but they accepted.

You see, Buenos Aires wanted to unite all of the provinces into a unitary state, with the Buenos Aires province holding all of the power. Some of the provinces, expectedly, wanted some power for themselves, too. But why?

Well, you would think that a power vacuum at a continental scale would leave many wanting a piece of the cake, and you’d be right! Caudillos or warlords rose throughout Spanish America as they attempted to take a small region for themselves. Oh wait.

. . He must be.

. . Simón Bolívar Born in a wealthy criollo family in Caracas Bolívar went to Spain to study where he met the love of his life.

María Teresa. This pick up line somehow worked and they got married. Bolívar was madly in love.

The happy couple traveled back to Venezuela. . .

And tragedy, struck. . .

All of a sudden, María Teresa fell sick to: and died shortly after. Bolívar was devastated, he had already envisioned a life with her, and now, she was gone. Willing to mitigate his immense grief, he travelled to Europe.

It would be in his travels through the continent where he would be influenced by the Enlightenment which, in a nutshell, was an were incompatible with an absolute monarch. The void left by his wife’s death got filled with politics and an urge to liberate his homeland. In his own words, he now followed Mars’ chariot instead of Ceres’ plow.

According to some historians: He went back to South America where he participated as an observer during Venezuela’s declaration of independence of 1811 however, due to an earthquake and various royalist counter-revolutions the Republic was very short-lived. Bolívar travelled to Cartagena seeking support for the revolutionary cause and wrote the Cartagena Manifesto blaming federalism for the fall of the First Venezuelan Republic. He was also given an army, which he used to defeat the royalists in Ocaña and Cúcuta.

Oh, and who’s this? Could it be. .

. He was born in the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. After fighting in the ongoing Peninsular War for Spain and being influenced by the Enlightenment during his stay in Cádiz he travelled back to Buenos Aires to support the independence of South America.

On his arrival, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of cavalry. But he first had a problem to deal with… He quickly found himself in a race against time to prove his loyalty to the independence cause. So when he received intel claiming that the royalists were planning to land in the town of San Lorenzo he knew he had to get there first.

He gathered his men, and traveled over 300km (186 mi) in 5 days under the scorching summer Sun overtaking the royalists, who traveled by ship on the river. San Martín got there first, and knowing that the royalists intended to raid the San Carlos Convent, he concealed his men inside. *cute toy noise* At dawn, the troops prepared their formations behind the building.

His plan was to wait for the royalists to land and head towards the convent to make a surprise pincer movement and trap the enemy forces. These 2 columns would consist entirely of 60 cavalrymen each whilst the infantry would stay inside the building and fire only in case of a retreat. When the time came, the royalists, landed here and not here, as originally planned but San MartIN went IN.

His column was the first one to reach the enemy, and he led the charge himself. Cannon fire rained on the charging men, and San Martín’s horse got killed trapping him underneath. But after seeing him bravely lead the charge his men, weren’t going to let him die.

When a royalist was about to stab San Martín with a bayonet a patriot, saved his life. And another one, freed him just before being shot twice. A second charge by the cavalrymen caused the Spanish troops to retreat and even though they were outnumbered 2 to 1 the battle was a patriot victory.

San Martín had proven his loyalty, and after the victory in San Lorenzo he was appointed Commander of the Army of the North, which is a really cool title. But things were about to take a turn for the United Provinces. One year later, this province here known as the Eastern Province shockingly, wanted to be a bit more federal Buenos Aires was having none of it, and Montevideo was besieged by supporters of federalism.

Troops from Buenos Aires abandoned the city and the Eastern Province formed the Federal League an alliance of like-minded provinces that aimed to establish a confederal organization. These political differences meant only one thing: Speaking of Paraguay, how is their power-sharing junta going? Oh, wow, there’s just 2 of you left!

Aand, just one. With Francia as a dictator, Paraguay entered a long period of isolationism. Back in Venezuela, Bolívar was busy marching towards Caracas in his Admirable Campaign.

He wrote the Decree of War to the Death, which stated that He paraded through Caracas and proclaimed the creation of the Second Venezuelan Republic. *screams* The Cortes of Cádiz had approved the First Spanish Constitution in 1812 which basically said that the King didn’t hold all of the power anymore, the people did and he had to rule according to the Constitution. It also extended political rights for representation to Spanish America and the Philippines.

After abolishing the gains of the liberal Constitution of 1812 and returning Spain back to an absolute monarchy Ferdinand set his eyes overseas. Royalist troops already stationed in the Americas retook control of Venezuela and ended the Second Republic. Bolívar traveled to Cartagena seeking support from the New Granada government but they gave him an army to capture Santa Fe from other revolutionaries instead.

After being denied men and supplies from Cartagena which had recently been taken over by another revolutionary he besieged the city, but after a month and a half he became disillusioned and self-exiled to Jamaica. And after escaping an assassination attempt he traveled to Haiti. Meanwhile, royalist troops from the peninsula were pouring in and quelling rebellions throughout Venezuela, New Granada and Chile.

Effectively completing a partial reconquista after taking Santiago, Margarita Island and finally, Santa Fe. In Haiti, Bolívar received help from its government He then led republican forces in Angostura and captured the city promising freedom to slaves that joined his Liberation Army. Which was common practice by both sides who recruited mestizos, indigenous people or slaves and promised them social improvements if they won.

Even a small amount of criollos supported the royalist cause but only if it benefited their commercial interests. Back in the South of South America the Portuguese had just annexed by force the Eastern Province. Done!

But before we continue, we must get to know: the son of a Viceroy of Peru who was of Spanish and Irish ancestry. You see, San Martín and O’Higgins were part of the Lautaro Lodge a secret club and promote the independence of South America from Spain. And they became good friends!

Before the crossing, San Martín received provisions from both the government of Buenos Aires and the provincial caudillos without fully allying with either one as he considered that the civil wars didn’t take priority over the war for independence. Both San Martín and O’Higgins crossed the Andes and after some victories and some losses they ultimately won the decisive Battle of Maipú expelling the royalists out of Chile. San Martín was offered control over Chile, but he rejected it to help liberate the rest of South America so O’Higgins was proclaimed Supreme Director of Chile instead.

You may have noticed something by now, and that is that many areas of Spanish America were becoming independent at very different paces which meant that the idea of a super state was already fractured from the start. Back in Venezuela, Bolívar and the British. .

. Hold up, the British? Yeah during the Peninsular War, the British had declared neutrality in the American War for independence as they wanted to keep Spain as an ally against Napoleon.

However, after Napoleon’s defeat they started sending troops to help Bolívar’s revolution. So, Bolívar and the British crossed the Andes and captured Santa Fe after winning the Battle of Boyacá merging Venezuela and New Granada into Gran Colombia and renaming the city Bogotá. However, some of the territory was still under royalist control.

Hey, how’s the civil war in the United Provinces going? After the Federal League won the Battle of Cepeda against the unitarian government in Buenos Aires they reached a federal agreement with the Buenos Aires province in which each province became sovereign and a federal government replaced a national one. Now, you might be asking, what’s going on in North and Central America?

This was going on. There’s a lot to unpack, so let’s go step by step. Cuba and Puerto Rico remained part of Spain because they were undergoing a period of economic bonanza and by economic bonanza, I mean very profitable slavery.

After the Haitian slave revolution the sugar plantations in Cuba and Puerto Rico were in very high demand, and slave owners in both islands were fearful of a slave revolt or abolition if they were to become independent. Also, there was a very strong Spanish military presence so supporters of independence were kept at bay. On the other hand, the Captain General of Santo Domingo seeing that his island had been abandoned by Spain declared independence from Spanish rule, changing the name of the territory from this to Spanish Haiti.

And it got peacefully annexed by Haiti 3 months later The same couldn’t be said about New Spain or the Captaincy General of Guatemala which was divided into the provinces of After both of them gained their independence they joined and formed the Mexican Empire. This guy wrote "The Plan of the 3 Guarantees" so that Mexico would become a constitutional monarchy this guy wrote "The Plan of Casa Mata" which sought to establish a Mexican Republic but I'm sure this won't- Oh, there they go. The First Mexican Empire was a disaster, and after Iturbide’s abdication all of the old provinces of the Captaincy General of Guatemala decided to form their own country All except one.

The region of Chiapas had a very strong Chiapan-Indian identity as the rugged terrain had kept them isolated from the rest of the Captaincy General so they wanted to be Mexican. This southern region of Chiapas, Soconusco wanted to remain a part of Guatemala but was claimed by Mexico too, so the region remained in a gray area for some time. The rest of the provinces went on to form the Federal Republic of Central America Each with their own identity, culture, and political ideology but I’m sure they won’t start a civil war over this.

At this same time, the Philippines also had an uprising to become independent. Andrés Novales, a captain in the Spanish army along with an armed, angry mob at night killed the vice-governor and ex-governor whilst the mob chanted: This self-proclaimed empire only lasted one day as they were unable to get past the city gates. Novales was executed shortly after and with him, the idea of an independent Philippines… For now.

Let’s go back to Peru and rewind just 2 years. San Martín has declared the independence of Peru but some royalist pockets are still present within the territory. Bolívar, however, has defeated the last royalist troops in the Venezuelan part of Gran Colombia and has officially declared its independence.

Meanwhile, in Panama. . .

And just like that, Panama led a bloodless revolt and joined Gran Colombia. Fearing an annexation of Ecuador into Peru by San Martín Bolívar marched South, and Sucre, his Marshall, marched North. Sucre defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Pichincha and occupied Quito.

Bolívar quickly annexed both Quito and Guayaquil and paraded through the streets. Just one month later, San Martín arrived in Guayaquil but Bolívar made sure to be there first welcoming him into Gran Colombia. Nobody knows for certain what was said at the Guayaquil Conference but they both came to the conclusion that a union of all of Spanish America would be impossible.

Internal rebellions were rampant and many caudillos didn’t want to be the second-in-command of San Martín or Bolívar. Besides, the sheer size of such a big union would have been a logistical nightmare to manage. Gran Colombia was already having trouble managing itself the trading routes between the old viceroyalties and captaincies were underdeveloped as the terrain was too mountainous or forested, so communication was difficult.

As soon as the Guayaquil Conference ended, San Martín surrendered his army to Bolívar and traveled to Buenos Aires but tensions between unitarians and federalists were so high in the city that he left for Europe with his daughter. Bolívar’s focus was now on extinguishing the remaining royalist strongholds in Peru. With the help of his best marshal: Sucre they won a couple of battles and besieged the port of Callao.

Peru was about to be liberated completely and Bolívar was named dictator of Peru by the Peruvian Congress. Meanwhile, Sucre managed to secure the last royalist stronghold in Upper Peru, with a victory in the Battle of Tumusla. He called a meeting to decide the fate of the newly liberated region.

They could either unite with Peru, with the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata or become independent *groovy music* which angered Bolívar. It’s said that they named the country Bolivia to appease him. Finally, the last royalist forces at Callao surrendered.

Bolívar wrote the Constitution for the Peruvian Republic and went back to Gran Colombia leaving Peru under a governing council led by one of Bolívar’s Generals. Meanwhile in the East of the continent… War was declared, but after a couple of battles and several smaller clashes the war reached a stalemate. Alright!

The British have been chosen to mediate. They proposed the creation of Uruguay as a buffer state between both countries with Brazil and the United Provinces accepting the proposal in the Treaty of Montevideo. These guys weren’t invited.

Oh golly! There's a new Peruvian president! The governing council elected this guy who had fought alongside Bolívar in the wars of independence.

But he was having none of it, he had his own political ambitions and opposed the unification of South America under Bolívar’s rule. He even launched an invasion on the southern region of Gran Colombia but a defeat in the Battle of Tarqui by none other than Sucre himself and a coup from the Peruvian army, made him sign a peace treaty. And at last, Bolívar could rest, rejoicing in a strong and united Gran Colombia with no revolts and divisions whatsoever.

*screams* After numerous revolts and divisions, and maybe just maybe some support and financial aid from the British. Venezuela became independent and José Antonio Páez was named president. Due to the political differences that existed between supporters of federalism and centralism the regional tensions among the people that made up the republic and caudillos Gran Colombia split into New Granada, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Don’t worry, I’m not forgetting about these guys. Surely this mix of different cultures, dialects and ideologies will hold up, right? *glass shatters* You get where this is going.

A civil war broke out, as the federation couldn’t agree on whether to implement liberal or conservative reforms. Nicaragua was the first to secede, followed by Costa Rica and Honduras. Guatemala was caught in a civil war within a civil war when the state of Los Altos declared independence from Guatemala itself.

Guatemala seceded from the union and forcibly annexed Los Altos back. Remember this region here claimed by both countries? During the turmoil, Mexico annexed a big chunk of it.

El Salvador essentially declared independence from itself as it was the only state left in the federation. Wait. Does it say Empire of Brazil?

How did they manage to remain whole? After all, Spanish America had disintegrated into this mess. In 1815, the Portuguese Royal family elevated the status of Brazil from a viceroyalty to a kingdom.

But with no nobility there, John VI started selling nobility titles. He also removed trade embargoes, enacted several economic reforms and built universities and theaters Brazil quickly went through a period of economic boom. The people once saw the king as a foreign oppressor, but they were now seeing him as this really chill dude living in Rio and enjoying the beach and Brazilian cuisine.

His children were even raised like Brazilians. Wait. What are those?

Well, nobody's perfect. Back in Europe, Portugal, was fuming they demanded the return of their king after going through a liberal revolution. A constitutional monarchy was brewing.

John wanted to assure Brazilians that everything was going to remain the same. So after his son Dom Pedro stayed in Brazil, he named him prince regent. Dom Pedro then sent some Brazilian deputies to the Portuguese Cortes.

But before they arrived, the Cortes were able to pass a series of laws that returned Brazil to a colonial status, this angered them quite a bit and tensions started to rise. After this incident, in a famous scene in front of the Ipiranga River on September 7, 1822 Dom Pedro tore the Portuguese white and blue insignia from his uniform drew his sword and swore: Dom Pedro declared himself emperor of the Brazilian Empire and enacted a series of reforms such as: reducing his salary, centralizing the government, eliminating the tax on salt and refurbishing the justice system to make it more just. Wait.

What are those? Well, nobody's perfect. Some provinces tried to remain part of Portugal but the government was structured and the Brazilian army, strong.

The revolts were weak enough to not divide the country. It was easy for Brazil to maintain its national unity as there hadn’t been a power vacuum. Back in Portugal, the Cortes managed to approve a liberal Constitution, and King John signed it.

Before this second revolt though John, forced by his very conservative wife, his very conservative son and several very conservative military officials dissolved the Cortes, rejected the Constitution and restored absolutism. John died 3 years later, most likely, poisoned But hey, I’m sure his death won’t start a war, right?