After three centuries of colonial rule, independence came rather
suddenly to most of Spanish and Portuguese America. Between 1808 and
1826 all of Latin America except the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto
Rico slipped out of the hands of the Iberian powers who had ruled the
region since the conquest. The rapidity and timing of that dramatic
change were the result of a combination of long-building tensions in
colonial rule and a series of external events.
I hope this helped!!!
