The biggest impact of the Latin American Wars for Independence was freedom from Spanish rule and national sovereignty for former Spanish colonies in Latin America, including the countries now known as Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and Peru. These wars for independence were mostly independent efforts fought through separate revolutionary movements in each individual Latin American Spanish territory, though they were part of a global spirit of revolution that had taken hold in the United States and in European nations such as France in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These revolutionary efforts were successful in part due to the weakening of Spanish central authority in the wake of France invading Spain in 1808.
