Spanish Empire - Twilight of The Global Empire (1800–1899)

Twilight of The Global Empire (1800–1899)

The first major territory Spain was to lose in the 19th century was the vast and wild Louisiana Territory, which stretched north to Canada and was ceded by France in 1763 under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau. The French, under Napoleon, took back possession as part of the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800 and sold it to the United States (Louisiana Purchase, 1803).

The destruction of the main Spanish fleet, under French command, at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) undermined Spain's ability to defend and hold on to its empire. The British invasions of the Río de la Plata attempt to seize the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1806. The viceroy retreated hastily to the hills when defeated by a small British force. However when the Criollos militias and colonial army defeated the now British.

The later intrusion of Napoleonic forces into Spain in 1808 (see Peninsular War) cut off effective connection with the empire. But it was internal tensions that ultimately ended the empire in the Americas.

Napoleon's sale in 1803 of the Louisiana Territory to the United States caused border disputes between the United States and Spain that, with rebellions in West Florida (1810) and in the remainder of Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi, led to their eventual cession to the United States, along with the sale of all of Florida, in the Adams–Onís Treaty (1819). In 1806 Baron Nikolai Rezanov attempted to negotiate a treaty between the Russian-American Company and Viceroyalty of New Spain but his premature death in 1807 ended any treaty hopes.

In 1808, Napoleon forced the abdication of the Spanish monarchy and placed his brother on the throne, however his unpopularity provoked an uprising from the Spanish people and the grinding guerrilla warfare, which Napoleon dubbed his "ulcer", the Peninsular War, (famously depicted by the painter Goya) ensued, followed by a power vacuum lasting up to a decade and turmoil for several decades, civil wars on succession disputes, a republic, and finally a liberal democracy.

Napoleon forces the Abdications of Bayonne on May 5 and places his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne a month later. Popular uprising against the French and the abdications starts the Peninsular War. Resistance coalesces around juntas, emergency ad-hoc governments. A Supreme Central and Governing Junta of the Kingdom, ruling in the name of Ferdinand VII, is created on September 25 to coordinate efforts among the various juntas.