South America from the Wars of Independence to Today, 1808–2026

From Two Crowns to Twelve Republics

In 1808 almost all of South America belonged to two European crowns: Spain's viceroyalties and Portugal's Brazil. Napoleon's invasion of the Iberian Peninsula that year broke both. Within two decades Spanish rule on the continent had ended and Brazil had become an independent empire. The borders that followed were far from settled: confederations formed and broke apart, wars cut whole provinces from the losers, and the new states pushed into Patagonia, Araucanía and the Chaco, lands that Indigenous peoples had held until then.

This map follows that story across 46 keyframes, year by year through the wars of independence and then from treaty to treaty up to today's twelve republics and French Guiana.

The Wars of Independence, 1808–1826

The Portuguese court fled Napoleon and reached Rio de Janeiro in March 1808. In Spanish America the first revolt came at Chuquisaca in 1809, followed in 1810 by juntas from Caracas to Buenos Aires. Paraguay and Venezuela declared independence in 1811, but royalist armies struck back: Chile fell after Rancagua in 1814, and Morillo's expedition retook Cartagena in 1815 and Bogotá in 1816. When the Congress of Tucumán declared Argentine independence on 9 July 1816, only the Río de la Plata was still free.

San Martín crossed the Andes and won at Chacabuco (1817) and Maipú (1818). Bolívar won at Boyacá on 7 August 1819, and in December the Congress of Angostura founded the Republic of Colombia, usually called Gran Colombia. Carabobo (1821), Pichincha (1822) and Sucre's victory at Ayacucho on 9 December 1824 ended Spanish rule on the continent. Brazil declared independence on 7 September 1822, and Spain's last strongholds, Callao and Chiloé, surrendered in January 1826.

New States Break Apart

Brazil had annexed the Banda Oriental as the province of Cisplatina in 1821; after a rising in 1825, a British-mediated peace in 1828 created Uruguay as a buffer state. Bolívar died on 17 December 1830 as Gran Colombia split into Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador. Britain took the Falkland Islands in 1833. Andrés de Santa Cruz's Peru–Bolivian Confederation (1836–39) ended when Chile won at Yungay. In Brazil the Riograndense Republic held out from 1836 to 1845, and the State of Buenos Aires seceded from Argentina after Rosas fell at Caseros in 1852, rejoining after the Battle of Pavón in 1861.

The Great Wars of the Nineteenth Century

In 1865 Paraguay invaded Mato Grosso and Corrientes, starting the Paraguayan War against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. It ended with the death of Francisco Solano López at Cerro Corá on 1 March 1870; Paraguay lost about 40% of the territory it had claimed.

On 14 February 1879 Chile occupied Antofagasta, starting the War of the Pacific against Bolivia and Peru. Chilean troops entered Lima in January 1881, and the Treaty of Ancón (1883) gave Chile Peru's nitrate province of Tarapacá and a ten-year occupation of Tacna and Arica. Bolivia lost its coast. Tacna returned to Peru only in 1929, while Chile kept Arica.

Conquering the Interior

In 1808 the pampas, Patagonia, Araucanía and much of the Chaco were Indigenous land. Chile reached the Strait of Magellan in 1843. Argentina's Conquest of the Desert reached the Río Negro in 1879, and by 1885 Patagonia and Araucanía had been conquered. The 1881 boundary treaty divided Patagonia along the Andes and split Tierra del Fuego. In the Amazon, Bolivia ceded land to Brazil in 1867 and lost Acre in 1903.

The Twentieth Century

Brazil became a republic in 1889. Panama separated from Colombia on 3 November 1903 with US naval backing. The Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay (1932–35) left Paraguay holding most of the Chaco, confirmed by the treaty of 1938. Peru invaded Ecuador in 1941, and the Rio Protocol of 1942 cost Ecuador its Amazon lands; the last stretch of that border was settled in 1998. Guyana became independent in 1966 and Suriname in 1975. Argentina occupied the Falklands on 2 April 1982; Britain retook them by 14 June.

How to Read the Map

Colours show who actually held the land where that is known: royalist or patriot armies during the wars, and occupying forces in later wars. Royalist-held land is drawn as the Spanish Empire in golden ochre. In the thinly settled Amazon the colours follow the generally mapped claims, and Indigenous land beyond state control has its own grey layer until the state conquered it. Short-lived states such as the Federal League of Artigas, the Peru–Bolivian Confederation and the State of Buenos Aires get their own colours.

Territories follow modern provincial borders, with hand-drawn cuts where the old line ran elsewhere. Small disputes such as Amapá, Palmas, the Beagle Channel islands and the Essequibo claim appear as markers only, and frontier lines in the pampas, the Chaco and the upper Amazon are approximate. Other markers note events that moved no borders, such as the inauguration of Brasília (1960) and the founding of Mercosur (1991).

How the Map Was Made

Every province or state of today's South American countries received its own dated list of owners, with fortress cities and disputed strips cut out where needed, and several hundred test places were checked against these timelines. Sources are the Wikipedia articles on the wars of independence and on each war, treaty and arbitration named in the markers; borders come from Natural Earth.

Chronological Timeline

• 1808 — The Portuguese court arrives in Rio de Janeiro
• 1810 — Juntas in Caracas and Buenos Aires
• 1816 — Argentine independence declared at Tucumán
• 1819 — Battle of Boyacá; Gran Colombia founded
• 1822 — Brazil declares independence
• 1824 — Battle of Ayacucho
• 1828 — Uruguay created
• 1830 — Gran Colombia breaks in three
• 1833 — Britain takes the Falkland Islands
• 1836–1839 — Peru–Bolivian Confederation
• 1865–1870 — Paraguayan War
• 1879–1883 — War of the Pacific
• 1879–1885 — Conquest of Patagonia and Araucanía
• 1889 — Brazil becomes a republic
• 1903 — Panama secedes; Acre goes to Brazil
• 1932–1935 — Chaco War
• 1942 — Rio Protocol
• 1966 — Guyana independent
• 1975 — Suriname independent
• 1982 — Falklands War
• 1998 — Peru and Ecuador settle their border