Spanish American Wars of Independence

The Spanish American wars of independence were a series of conflicts fought across the Spanish Empire in the Americas from 1808 to 1833, beginning shortly after the Peninsular War broke out as part of the wider Napoleonic Wars. Royalists favoring continued unitary rule from Spain fought Patriots who wanted autonomous constitutional monarchies or fully independent republics, drawing support in places from the United Kingdom, the United States and Haiti. The wars ended in Patriot victory and the political fragmentation of Spanish America into a series of new independent states, while Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule until 1898.