Abstract :
The Spanish empire’s vertiginous collapse in the first decades of the nineteenth century has
long been a source of historiographical disputes. Historians seeking to explain the demise of Spain’s dominion
in the Americas and the emergence of independent nation-states have identified certain factors as decisive.
Among these are : the coalescence of an anti-colonial, national consciousness among creoles ; peninsular
misrule and economic mismanagement ; and the seismic effects of geopolitical upheaval, particularly the
Napoleonic occupation of Spain. This historiographical review recapitulates established explanations, introduces
a new wave of scholarship on the subject, and identifies topics that may be crucial for future research.
