High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Spanish American wars of independence were the numerous wars against Spanish rule in Spanish America that took place during the early 19th century, after the French invasion of Spain during Europe`s Napoleonic Wars. The conflict started with short-lived governing juntas established in Chuquisaca and Quito opposing the composition of the Supreme Central Junta of Seville. When the Central Junta fell to the French invasion, numerous new juntas appeared across the Spanish domains in the Americas. The conflicts among these colonies and with Spain eventually resulted in a chain of newly independent countries stretching from Argentina and Chile in the south to Mexico in the north a little over decade later. After the death of King Ferdinand VII, in 1833, only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule. Spanish control over these islands lasted only until its defeat by the United States during the Spanish–American War in 1898.