Napoleon removes the Spanish king

In 1807 French troops entered Spain on the pretext of attacking Portugal and then occupied key Spanish cities. In May 1808 Napoleon summoned King Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII to Bayonne, France, and forced both to give up the crown. He made his brother Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain. Madrid rose against the French on May 2, 1808, and Spaniards formed local juntas (governing committees) that claimed to rule in the name of the captive Ferdinand.¹²

Spain's American territories were governed as possessions of the crown, through viceroys and councils. When the king disappeared, a basic question had no clear answer: did sovereignty pass to the Spanish juntas, to the viceroys, or to the peoples of each kingdom? Many creoles, American-born Spaniards who had long been passed over for the top posts, argued that the Americas had the same right as Spanish provinces to form their own juntas. Spain was also cut off from its colonies by war and by British naval power.⁴

In 1810 juntas appeared in Caracas on April 19, Buenos Aires on May 25, and then Bogota and Santiago. At first most swore loyalty to Ferdinand, but loyalty soon turned into independence. A Spanish parliament, the Cortes of Cadiz, adopted a liberal constitution in 1812 that gave Americans some representation, but not equality. When Ferdinand returned in 1814 he rejected the constitution and sent armies across the Atlantic, which pushed moderates toward full independence.³⁴⁵