THE CENTENNIAL OF SOUTH AMERICAN
INDEPENDENCE
WE celebrate in this present year the centenary of the
Battles of Junin and Ayacucho, battles which de-
termined the achievement of South American Inde-
pendence. After fifteen years of struggle and all kinds
of sacrifices, the patriotic army was able to destroy, in the
central part of the Andes, the stronghold of the Spanish
power. It is possible to differentiate two periods in the
struggle for independence. In the first period, starting in
the year 1809, and ending in the year 1813, the revolution
was led by the Cabildos, the colonial municipal institutions,
protesting loyalty to the King of Spain, Ferdinand the
Seventh, imprisoned by Napoleon, and asserting at the same
time the right of the people of South America to establish
the government with entire independence of the political
organism of Spain. The second period, 1813 to 1824, is
not led by institutions or corporations, but by great in-
dividuals or heroes. The motto was no longer loyalty to
the dethroned king, but the achievement of complete inde-
pendence from Spain.
The movement in the first period was doomed to fail.
The Spanish authorities succeeded in suppressing the rev-
olution everywhere. The Peruvian vice-royalty was the
centre of the Spanish power and influence, and from Peru
expeditions were sent to Quito, Charcas, and Chile. The
Republic of Cundinamarca and Cartagena fell under the
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