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A few years after United Statesians said fuck you Britain GTFO, a more southern-located American named Túpac Amaru II, who later got a rapper named after him, launched an unsuccessful rebellion in Peru against Spain and got executed in horrific fashion for his trouble. Three decades later people on the continent were still thinking about that and said fuck it, let’s try this revolution thing again.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: May 25, 1809--
The Chuquisaca Revolution began in modern-day Sucre, which is one of two capital cities of Bolivia, on May 25, 1809. It became known as the “First cry of freedom” for sparking the Spanish American wars of independence. Allegedly.
Remember that Napoleon douche? He was rampaging around Europe, Spain included. Ferdinand VII had lost power in Spain to the invading French, and people in the University of Chuquisaca were saying hey I think this means the government ruling us is totes not legit and we’d probably be justified in giving these motherfuckers an anaconda enema and kicking them the fuck out. Self-determination, motherfuckers!
The would-be revolutionaries deposed the governor in Chuquisaca, and then a more violent rebellion spread to La Paz, which is the other capital of Bolivia, and they weren’t just about self-government but wanted full independence from Spain to form their own nation. But then the region’s viceroy, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, sent in an army and brutally crushed the rebellion. So much for that.
Except no. It was all inspirational and shit. The idea of independence spread to other areas of the continent, with successful uprisings following shortly after in Buenos Aires, and revolutionary armies along with guerrilla movements springing up across the continent. The resulting conflicts qualify as both a civil war and national wars of independence because it was Spanish Americans fighting against other Spanish Americans. On one side people were saying hey fuck Spain we want to run our own show and on the other side were “loyalists” to Spain saying nah Spain is awesome we like things the way they are and we will fight you. Big surprise that the latter enjoying the status quo were the more elite members of society.
Anyway, some military dude named Simón Bolívar got in on the fun and kicked a bunch of loyalist ass across the continent and independence was mostly won by 1825 and now there are statues of Bolívar all over South America. I’ve seen one in person in this cool iguana park in Guayaquil, Ecuador. I don’t think the iguanas give a shit.
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