Caudillos and Fragmentation After Independence

Independence left Spanish America politically fragmented. Gran Colombia split into Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador in 1830–31, and the United Provinces of Central America broke apart by 1841. Bolívar, near death in 1830, despaired that those who had served the revolution had 'plowed the sea'. Power often passed to caudillos, military strongmen whose authority rested on personal loyalty and armed followers, such as Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina and José Antonio Páez in Venezuela.

Historians explain this by long, destructive wars that militarized politics, weak institutions, regional rivalries, economic disruption and conflict between liberals and conservatives over the Church and federalism. Comparison with the United States is instructive: the US also faced regional conflict but had stronger colonial institutions, a federal constitution accepted by elites and a more unified economy, though it too eventually fought a civil war.