166 CHAPTER 8 THE INDEPENDENCE OF LATIN AMERICA
Colombia envisaged striking a heavy blow at Span-
ish forces from a completely unexpected direction.
While llanero cavalry under Páez distracted and
pinned down the main body of Spanish troops in
northern Venezuela with swift raids, Bolívar ad-
vanced with an army of some twenty-fi ve hundred
men along the winding Orinoco and Arauco riv-
ers, across the plains, and then up the towering Co-
lombian Andes until he reached the plateau where
lay Bogotá, capital of New Granada. On the fi eld of
Boyacá, the patriot army surprised and defeated
the royalists in a short, sharp battle that netted six-
teen hundred prisoners and considerable supplies.
Bogotá lay defenseless, and Bolívar entered the
capital to the cheers of its people, who had suffered
greatly under Spanish rule.
Leaving his aide, Francisco Santander, to or-
ganize a government, Bolívar hurried off to Angos-
tura to prepare the liberation of Venezuela. Then
thrilling news arrived from Spain: on January 1,
1820, a regiment awaiting embarkation for South
America had mutinied, starting a revolt that forced
Ferdinand to restore the liberal constitution of
1812 and give up his plans to reconquer the colo-
nies. This news caused joy among the patriots and
gloom and desertions among the Venezuelan roy-
alists. In July 1821 the troops of Bolívar and Páez
crushed the last important Spanish force in Ven-
ezuela at Carabobo. Save for some coastal towns
and forts still held by beleaguered royalists, Ven-
ezuela was free.
Bolívar had already turned his attention
southward. The independence of Spanish America
remained precarious as long as the Spaniards held
the immense mountain bastion of the central An-
des. While Bolívar prepared a major offensive from
Bogotá against Quito, he sent his able young lieu-
tenant, Antonio José Sucre, by sea from Colombia’s
Pacifi c coast to seize the port of Guayaquil. Before
Sucre even arrived, the creole party in Guayaquil
revolted, proclaimed independence, and placed the
port under Bolívar’s protection. With his forces
swelled by reinforcements sent by the Argentine
general José de San Martín, Sucre advanced into
the Ecuadoran highlands and defeated a Span-
ish army on the slopes of Mount Pichincha, near
Quito. Bolívar, meanwhile, advancing southward
from Bogotá along the Cauca River valley, en-
countered stiff royalist resistance, but this crum-
bled on news of Sucre’s victory at Pichincha. The
provinces that comprised the former viceroyalty
of New Granada—the future republics of Venezu-
ela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama—were now
free from Spanish control. They were temporarily
united into a large state named Colombia or Gran
Colombia, established, at the initiative of Bolívar,
by the union of New Granada and Venezuela in
1821.THE SOUTHERN LIBERATION MOVEMENT
AND SAN MARTÍN
The time had come for the movement of liberation
led by Bolívar to merge with that fl owing north-
ward from Argentina. Ever since the defeat of the
British invasions of 1806–1807, the creole party,
although nominally loyal to Spain, had effectively
controlled Buenos Aires. The hero of the invasions
and the temporary viceroy, Santiago Liniers, coop-
erated fully with the creole leaders. A new viceroy,
sent by the Seville junta to replace Liniers, joined
with the viceroy at Lima to crush abortive creole
revolts in Upper Peru (Bolivia). But in Buenos Ai-
res he walked softly, for he recognized the supe-
rior power of the creoles. Under their pressure he
issued a decree permitting free trade with allied
and neutral nations, a measure bitterly opposed
by representatives of the Cádiz monopoly. But this
concession could not save the Spanish regime.
Revolution was in the air, and the creole leaders
waited only, in the words of one of their number,
for the fi gs to be ripe.
In May 1810, when word came that French
troops had entered Seville and threatened Cádiz,
the secret patriot society organized a demonstra-
tion that forced the viceroy to summon an open
town meeting to decide the future government of
the colony. This fi rst Argentine congress voted to
depose the viceroy and establish a junta to govern
in the name of Ferdinand. The junta promptly at-
tempted to consolidate its control of the vast vice-
royalty. The interior provinces were subdued after
sharp fi ghting. Montevideo, across the Río de la
Plata on the eastern shore (modern Uruguay),