Revolution armed, revolution victorious: Understanding how Latin American independence was won

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[Abstract by the author] The end of the Napoleonic Wars ushered in a period of relative peace in Europe. The situation was far different across the Atlantic. There, 1815 marked a dramatic escalation of the war between Spain and its insurgent colonies, a war that would end a decade later in Latin American independence. But as 1815 drew to a close, the cause of Latin American independence appeared to be on the verge of total defeat. Within a couple of years, however, the insurgents had regained the initiative and begun the continent-spanning campaigns that would ultimately end Europe’s oldest and largest overseas empire. This article examines one of the factors in the sudden revival of insurgent fortunes: the massive importation of weapons from demobilized Europe. These not only armed the troops of Bolivar and San Martin, but, perhaps more importantly, helped generate mass political support by the insurgency by lending it a new sense of credibility.