ABSTRACT
The origins of war in Venezuela and New Granada can, in common with other regions of Spanish America, be traced to one original source: the breakdown of authority at the center of the monarchy and the subsequent fragmentation of the system of government into divergent parts. The primary source of conflict that led to warfare was not rooted in some general American opposition to Spain or hatred of Spaniards, nor in the opposition of plebeians to the privileged. While these played their parts in fomenting discord, the conflict initially issued from the dispute between towns that defended Spain's authority and those who claimed the right to form autonomous or independent governments of their own. Then, as conflict spread and persisted, armed struggle among the white elites spread to other social and ethnic groups. Such lower-class mobilization usually began, not as spontaneous uprisings by subalterns against the privileged groups, but as offshoots of struggles among elites who competed to win popular support for their opposing causes. It was, as we shall also see, to have quite different effects in Venezuela and New Granada, depending on the social composition of the communities that were affected by war.
