HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



223 



CHAP. XiV. 



Spanish Provinces of America — Revolutions in.— Trnced to 

 Causes. — The Colonies divided into two grand Parties. — Civit 



their 

 ivil War 



begun. 



THESpanishprovincesof Ame- 

 rica, by their geographical po- 

 sition and immense extent, seem 

 tlestineil by the hand of nature to 

 form five great independent states: 

 Mexico, Terra Firma,* Paraguay, 

 Peru, and Chili. It is not in na- 

 ture, that regions so vast, and some 

 of them so far distant from each 

 other, should remain always under 

 the same authority; much less that 

 the whole, amidst the revolutions 

 of states, the progress of know- 

 ledge, and the force of example, 

 should continue for any great 

 lapse of time, to be governed by 

 a country situated in another he- 

 misphere. 



The Spanish Americans were an 

 oppressed and insulted people. 

 Their grievances were many and 

 various. But the principal of them 

 may be reduced to two heads : 

 restrictions on conimcice, and 

 even on the free cultivation of the 

 soil ;-j- and an exclusion from all 

 places of profit, trust, and power 

 in the administration of the pro- 

 vinces. The monopolization of 

 commerce was as detrimental to 

 the inhabitants of Old Spain in 

 general as to the colonists, and 

 benefited only the merchants of 



Cadiz, the emporium in which 

 that trade centered. The com- 

 merce of the Spanish colonies in 

 America was in a very languishing 

 state, and threatened with total 

 ruin. There was not an opening 

 for the reception of their com- 

 modities in Spain, nor could Spain 

 furnish shipping for transporting 

 them to any other part of Europe. 

 The colonies that suffered most 

 from the monopolization of com- 

 merce were those of Caraccas, 

 Buenos Ayres, and the great is- 

 land of Cuba ; whose articles of 

 commerce, being of a bulky na- 

 ture, required a great deal of ship- 

 ping, and were, farther, of so pe- 

 rishable a nature, that they were 

 liable to be lost if kept on board 

 for any great length of time. 



The Central Junta, willing to 

 unite all hands and hearts in sup- 

 port of the tottering and falling 

 monarchy, declared the ultra-ma- 

 rine possessions to be integral 

 parts of the Spanish empire, and 

 their rights to representation in 

 the general congress. But all the 

 provisory governments that suc- 

 ceeded eacli other, though they 

 recognized their rights in theory, 

 continued to trample on them in 



* Comprehending, besides Terra Firma Proper, or Daricn, Popayan, Quito, and 

 New Grenada. 



t It is not, we believe, a hundred years since an order was, sent from Madrid to 

 tut down the vine, fig, and olive trees in certain of the provinces. 



