Latin America Breaks Free

CHAPTER 10 · 1810–1825 · The Age of Revolutions, 1775–1848

Cross the Atlantic once more and watch three centuries of empire dissolve in fifteen years. The detonator is European: when Napoleon kidnaps Spain’s kings in 1808 (Chapter 7), Spanish America’s cities face a genuine constitutional void — sovereignty, by Spain’s own law, reverted to the people pending the king’s return. Juntas bloom in 1810 — Caracas in April, Buenos Aires in May, Bogotá in July, Santiago in September — most claiming loyalty to captive Ferdinand while quietly practicing self-rule. In New Spain it begins from below instead: the priest Hidalgo’s Grito de Dolores (September 1810)

The turn: Ayacucho, 9 December 1824.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.