ABSTRACT
At the time of Ferdinand VII's restoration, the wars in the Río de la Plata followed a different course from wars elsewhere in Spanish America. Whereas the independent governments of Venezuela and New Granada were swept away in 1815–16, that of Buenos Aires remained intact. Indeed, after capturing royalist Montevideo in mid-1814, Buenos Aires was able to return to rebuilding its position in the war against royalist Peru. It did not, however, continue to be the main stronghold of independence in Spanish America during the years of Ferdinand's restoration. On the contrary, the political directorate in Buenos Aires gradually lost its position as the leading force for revolution in South America's Southern Cone, and its independent regime moved in a diametrically opposite direction from that of the incipient Republic of Colombia. In Venezuela, Bolívar moved from a position where unified leadership and central authority were weak to one where they were strong; thanks to his military success, Bolivar managed to impose a single authority on the regional caudillos of Venezuela and establish the foundations of a unified republic on the old Viceroyalty of New Granada. The Supreme Directors of Buenos Aires, on the other hand, were forced to abandon their ideal of a centralized government exercising authority over the old viceroyalty and had instead to acknowledge the multiple sovereignties of autonomous provinces linked in a loose confederation. In short, whereas Bolívar took Venezuela and New Granada from federalism to an authoritarian centralism, the Supreme Directorate of the United Provinces moved in the opposite direction.
