The Consequences of Independence

The Battle of Ayacucho in 1824 marked the end of Spanish dominance in the Americas, with the exception of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

The new republics now had to face major challenges: restoring peace to their lands, rebuilding the economy, seeking out new international alliances, establishing state institutions, and settling their borders.

The new Latin American elites were divided politically and ideologically between federalists and centralists, liberals and conservatives, so the question of what political model to adopt was a problem. This led to new, violent conflicts and civil wars in the years following independence.

In 1830, Gran Colombia split into three independent states: Ecuador, Venezuela and New Granada. The Federal Republic of Central America, created in 1824, followed suit, giving rise to the states of Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica in 1838, Guatemala in 1839 and El Salvador in 1841.

Another consequence of independence was the presence of new international powers in Spanish America. The most influential of these was the United Kingdom, particularly in South America, where it not only provided diplomatic support to the new republics, but also negotiated trade treaties and was the main financial partner until the 1825 financial crisis.

Since the Monroe Doctrine, the United States had also been strengthening its presence in Central America and the Caribbean. Aside from an expansionist policy towards Cuba, periodic tensions arose with Mexico. The two countries went to war in 1846. Two years later, Mexico was forced to cede more than half its territory to the United States.

As far as the economy was concerned, the wars of independence and the armed conflicts that followed led to stagnation in the new republics, although there were significant regional differences.

While the mining strongholds of Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia declined in importance (with the exception of Chile, which managed to exploit new copper deposits), regions dedicated to agriculture and livestock grew stronger, thus laying the foundations for the export economies that would characterise countries such as Argentina and Brazil. Meanwhile, traditional crafts remained the main economic activity for large sections of the population throughout much of the 19th century. Concurrently, slavery was gradually abolished in decades following the independence of these new countries.

The loss of its colonies had a devastating effect on Spain. As its territories gained independence, it saw its revenues from tariffs drop dramatically and many of its export markets for industrial products disappeared.