This is an account of how Spanish America gained its independence. There were about thirteen and a half million people living in Spanish America in 1800 with almost six million of those people living in New Spain which is present day Mexico. These were the Americas that Spain wanted as their own and for a while they were but war and bloodshed and certain people changed all of that. .
Spanish territory was broken up into high courts or audiencias. These audiencias were diverse with all different races living in them. People were judged by their class and not so much by their ethnicity. There were four areas that the Spanish Crown possessed outside of Spain. Beginning with the main centers which had a money system, industry, and things expected to be in a major city. Theses centers were in New Spain, Guatemala, Quito, Upper Peru, Peru, and New Granada. There was also land for grazing for cattle, as well as large agricultural lands that supplied Chile, and the Rio de la Plata. Next possessions were the tropical areas which was mainly in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and other coastal lands. Last, there were the regions known as the frontier. Much like the American frontier these were lands between settled areas and Indians. .
The eighteenth-century rulers of Spain wanted to take power away from the New World and bring them back down to a colonial status. Following the War of Spanish Succession the new Bourbon monarch took control. Their attitude towards ruling was different than that of the former Habsburg concept. The Bourbons wanted a more centralized government in Spain to rule over everything taking a lot of the power away from its American possessions. .
These reforms by the Bourbons met large opposition in the New World. Some people used certain laws many like city ordinances to slip past the reforms, but when that did not work others would revolt. The New World's greatest complaint was the massive tax increase.