Between 1810 and 1824, all the Spanish American provinces, except Cuba and Puerto Rico, went through turbulent periods of war ending in independence from the Spanish empire. In La restauración en la Nueva Granada (1815–1819), Colombian historian Daniel Gutiérrez Ardila studies a very specific but extremely convoluted and dynamic period of Colombian independence, when the reestablished Spanish monarchy, having just recovered from the Napoleonic invasion, attempted to regain political and military control of their ultramarine territories. As Gutiérrez Ardila shows, the process of restoring monarchical rule in New Granada was extremely difficult; during this period, different political groups emerged and confronted each other, created new alliances, and established different political measures that responded not only to the viceroyalty's local circumstances but also to crucial changes in Spanish rule.
In 1808, Napoleon's forces occupied Madrid and imprisoned the Spanish king, Ferdinand VII, in France. The episode unleashed a political crisis...
