ABSTRACT
In 1815–16, the independent states in New Granada and Venezuela had vanished, overwhelmed by a combination of internal royalist opposition and Spanish armed invasion. In their wake, only pockets of resistance remained. The patriots who refused to surrender scattered into local groupings dedicated primarily to surviving the royalist counterinsurgency. Their position was precarious. By mid-1816, Spain had retaken control of all the major cities and regions of New Granada and Venezuela, and Morillo's expeditionary army, replenished by American recruits, provided unprecedented military support for resurgent royalist governments.
