The Buenos Aires Expedition and Spain's Secret Plan to Conquer Portugal, 1814-1820

One of the most provocative questions about the process of Spanish American independence is why Spain was not able during the period of the so-called “first absolutist restoration”— 1814 to 1820—to capitalize on its massive military victories in America and restore royal power to its fullest. In 1814 and 1815 royal armies in America destroyed the rebel governments and suppressed the rebel armies in Mexico, New Granada, Venezuela, Quito, Peru and Chile. Only in the Río de la Plata did an independent government continue to exist. It was clear that independence was not the inevitable destiny of the Spanish kingdoms in America. In Spain itself the king, Ferdinand VII, crossed the Spanish border after six years of captivity in France at the hands of Napoleon and on May 4, 1814, restored the absolute power of the throne by a coup d'etat, annulling the Constitution of 1812 and the liberal Cortes. Throughout the empire loyalists rejoiced. In both Spain and America the forces of conservatism had overcome the threat of radical political and social reforms. Few great imperial states in world history have been granted such a second chance, such an opportunity for rebuilding and reconciliation.