War and Independence In Spanish America

During the period from 1808 to 1826, the Spanish empire was convulsed by wars that spread throughout its dominions in Iberia and America. The cycle of conflicts opened in Spain, where resistance to Napoleon's usurpation of the Spanish monarchy triggered a war of national resistance. This collapse of the Spanish monarchy provoked challenges to the colonial regime in virtually all Spain's American provinces, and demands for autonomy and independence triggered political turbulence and violenc confrontation on a transcontinental scale. During the two decades after 1808, Spanish America witnessed warfare on a scale scarcely seen since the conquests three centuries earlier. Warfare, Revolution, and Independence in Spanish Americaprovides a unified account of war in Spanish America during the period after the collapse of the Spanish government in 1808. It traces the courses and consequences of war in both a broad narrative of the development and distribution of armed conflict, and analyzes its characteristics and patterns. It maps the main arenas of war, traces the major campaigns by both rebels and royalists, and comments on the crucial battles fought by the contending forces. Readers will come away with a fully realized understanding of the impact of war and military mobilization on Spanish American societies and states.