a puppet of the powerful French leader
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821), who
became first consul, or dictator, of France
in 1799 and emperor of an expanding
empire in 1804. His attempts to domi-
nate the European continent led to the
Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815), which
embroiled numerous nations, westward
from Russia to Portugal and southward
from Sweden to Naples. In the midst of
the wars, in 1800, Napoleon forced Spain
to cede Louisiana back to France, thus
taking away a large section of its North
American empire, and an important
buffer between northern New Spain and
the aggressive frontiersmen of the young
United States. The buffer was lost for
good in 1803, when Napoleon decided to
sell the Louisiana territory to the United
States for $15 million.
The British navy was largely able to
cut Spain off from its valuable American
colonies, and it won a devastating victo-
ry over the allied Spanish and French
navies at Trafalgar, on the southwest
coast of Spain (1805). The final
Napoleonic insult for Spain came in
1808, after a palace revolution that year
forced Charles IV to abdicate in favor of
his son, Ferdinand VII (1784–1833;
reigned 1808, 1814–1833). Seeing the
turmoil, Napoleon took the opportunity
to occupy Madrid and force both
Charles and Ferdinand to abdicate in
favor of Napoleon’s brother, Joseph
Bonaparte.The Spanish people rose in revolt, as
did the Portuguese, whose country had
been occupied by Napoleon since 1807.
In what was known as the Peninsular
War (1808–1814), Britain came to the aid
of Spanish and Portuguese rebels, work-
ing with Spanish guerrillas to liberate
the entire Iberian Peninsula by the time
of Napoleon’s first abdication in 1814.
Though sent into exile that year by his
victorious enemies in the Napoleonic
Wars (1799–1815), Napoleon escaped,
returned, and was not finally defeated
until the battle of Waterloo (in present-
day Belgium) in 1815.
The Peninsular War, which Napo-
leon called his “Spanish ulcer,” con-
tributed to his defeat by tying down
troops and devouring resources. But it
also drastically weakened Spain’s control
of its empire. Not only did it prompt rev-
olutions throughout many parts of
Spanish America, but it left one part,
Florida, in peril of takeover from a for-
eign power: the United States.
Florida had been a flash point for
contention with the United States since
the end of the American Revolution.
Borders were disputed and immigrants to
Florida from the United States pressed
for American annexation. The Treaty of
Paris in 1783, which ended the war, failed
to establish a clear border between the
new United States and West Florida,
which had been won by Spain from Great
Britain. What is more, because of their70 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
ON THEIR
OWN
The ineffectiveness of Spanish colo-
nial rule was brought home forcibly to
the people of Buenos Aires in 1806.
That June, a British expeditionary
force occupied this city, the viceregal
capital of Río de la Plata (which
included present-day Argentina and
adjoining regions), in pursuance of
Britain’s war against Napoleon and
his then-ally Spain. Far from repelling
the attack, the Spanish viceroy fled to
the interior, leaving the people of
Buenos Aires to fend for themselves.
They formed a volunteer army that
drove out the British that August and
expelled another British force the fol-
lowing year.
The incident taught the colonials
several lessons: that Spain was too
weak to defend them; that they were
strong enough to defend themselves;
and that they were ready to organize
themselves under the leadership of
Creoles rather than peninsulares. Just
three years later, in 1810, the people
of the region began their revolution
against Spain. Said one historian,
“The great victory of Buenos Aires
had a resounding impact on the
world, and above all in the hearts of
Americans, who were now made con-
scious of a force which had been pre-
viously unknown.”German explorer Alexander von
Humboldt (Library of Congress)Venezuelan freedom-fighter Simón
Bolívar (Library of Congress)