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Rh retirement of the French from Spain, the regency, which succeeded to Joseph Bonaparte, and after it the restored king, Ferdinand VII., continued the same measures, totally ignoring the loyalty which the colonies had originally displayed at the beginning of the French occupation. Nothing remained for the colonies but a war for independence, a war which terminated, as already mentioned, with the battle of Ayacucho, sixteen years after the first outbreak at Caraccas.

The story of the South American war of independence would fill many volumes. Juntas were established in Caraccas, Buenos Ayres, Santiago, and other South American cities widely separated from each other, during 1810, and the repressive measures adopted by the colonial authorities only added to the vigor of the movement. In Buenos Ayres the viceroy was deposed, and the powers of government were assumed by a junta acting in the name of the deposed and captive king, Ferdinand VII. From Buenos Ayres the disturbance extended to Chili, where another junta deposed the viceroy and assumed the reins of government; about the same time there was an insurrection in Upper Peru (now called Bolivia) and later another in Peru. From a state of tranquillity, in 1808, the whole of South America was in a condition of open or partial revolt in less than four years, with the single exception of Brazil. Brazil was a colony of Portugal, not of Spain. In 1807, when Napoleon declared war against Portugal, its king, John VI., fled to Brazil, accompanied by many courtiers and followed by numerous emigrants. After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, Brazil was raised to the rank of a kingdom; John assumed the title of King of Portugal, Algarve, and Brazil, and on the 26th of February, 1821, he proclaimed the constitution. A revolutionary movement took place in the following April; Brazil was proclaimed an independent empire; it adopted a constitution in 1824,