Latin American Wars of Independence
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50 free Latin American Wars of Independence trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
In little more than a generation, almost all of Spanish and Portuguese America went from colony to independent state. The upheaval began in the Caribbean in the 1790s, gathered speed when Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal, and ended in the 1820s with new nations stretching from Mexico to Chile. This quiz follows the whole story: the grievances that set it off, the campaigns of Simón Bolívar in the north and José de San Martín in the south, Mexico's long insurgency, Brazil's very different road, and the people and battles that decided each one. Dates appear as clues inside the questions, so it also works as a check on the timeline. It suits students revising a world history unit, teachers who want a ready-made review, and anyone curious about how two empires lost a continent. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Venezuelan river town, host of Simón Bolívar's 1819 congress, gave its name to a cocktail bitters?
Angostura
Angostura bitters began as a stomach tonic mixed by Johann Siegert, a German surgeon general in Bolívar's army. The town on the Orinoco is now called Ciudad Bolívar.
Q 02Which disease destroyed much of the army Napoleon sent to retake Saint-Domingue in 1802, killing its commander Leclerc?
Yellow fever
Yellow fever killed around 15,000 French soldiers in just two months. The disaster helped persuade Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the United States.
Q 03Which parish priest rang his church bell on 16 September 1810 to launch Mexico's war of independence?
Miguel Hidalgo
Miguel Hidalgo is honored as the Father of the Nation. Mexico's president rings the same bell from the National Palace each year on the eve of Independence Day.
Q 04José de San Martín led his army across which mountain range in 1817, a 21-day march often compared to Hannibal's?
The Andes
The Andes crossing set out from Mendoza and brought his army down into Chile to free it from Spanish rule.
Q 05Which nation, the only country in history founded by a slave revolt, declared independence from France in 1804?
Haiti
Haiti was also the first country in the Americas to officially abolish slavery and the second republic in the hemisphere.
Q 06Which brother of Napoleon was made king of Spain in 1808, a usurper that Spanish America refused to obey?
Joseph Bonaparte
Joseph Bonaparte later emigrated to the United States, where he lived for years on an estate at Bordentown, New Jersey.
Q 07The Portuguese royal court fled Napoleon in 1807 and ruled its empire for thirteen years from which Brazilian city?
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro thus governed a whole European empire from a colony, which some historians call a metropolitan reversal. The prince regent at once opened Brazil's ports to foreign shipping.
Q 08Which United States policy of 1823 warned European powers against meddling in the newly independent Americas?
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was set out in an annual message to Congress but did not carry President James Monroe's name until 1850.
Q 09Simón Bolívar was granted which title by the town council of Caracas in 1813, the name he still goes by?
The Liberator
The Liberator, or El Libertador, was a title first given to him months earlier by the citizens of the Venezuelan town of Mérida.
Q 10Which natural disaster struck Caracas in 1812 and was preached by royalists as God's punishment on the rebels?
An earthquake
An earthquake hit on Maundy Thursday while the war was raging. Simón Bolívar reportedly answered that if nature opposed them, they would fight nature and make it obey.
Q 11Which formerly enslaved general led the revolution in Saint-Domingue and died in a French fortress prison in 1803?
Toussaint Louverture
Toussaint Louverture took his surname from the French word for an opening. He died months before the colony won the independence he had made possible.
Q 12Which colonial class, people of Spanish descent born in the Americas, led most independence movements against Spain?
Criollos
Criollos such as Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín ranked just below Spanish-born officials, for whom the top posts in church and government were reserved.
Q 13Which Venezuelan, whose name is carved on the Arc de Triomphe, designed his country's yellow, blue and red flag?
Francisco de Miranda
Q 21Which Spanish word, used for councils formed to resist Napoleon in 1808, now describes a ruling military committee?
Junta
Junta means a meeting or committee. Cities across Spanish America soon formed their own in reaction to the crisis in Spain.
Q 22Before independence in 1821, Mexico was the heart of which viceroyalty, whose reach extended to the Philippines?
New Spain
New Spain was a name coined by Hernán Cortés in a 1520 letter to Charles V, and its port of Acapulco traded with Manila by galleon.
Q 23In which viceregal capital did the May Revolution of 1810 remove Spain's viceroy and set up a local government?
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires removed Viceroy Cisneros after a week of upheaval that ended on 25 May, a date Argentina still keeps as a national day.
Francisco de Miranda served as a French revolutionary general at the Battle of Valmy. He first flew his tricolor on a failed 1806 expedition to free Venezuela.
Q 14What name do historians give Simón Bolívar's republic, which joined Venezuela, New Granada and Quito until 1831?
Gran Colombia
Gran Colombia called itself simply the Republic of Colombia. Historians coined the longer name to tell it apart from the modern country, which took the name in 1863.
Q 15Which 1824 battle in Peru's highlands, where the viceroy was wounded, sealed the end of Spanish rule in South America?
Ayacucho
Ayacucho ended with the capitulation of the whole royalist army, though Spanish garrisons at Callao and Chiloé held out until 1826.
Q 16Which prince, left as regent when the Portuguese king sailed home in 1821, declared Brazil independent the next year?
Dom Pedro
Dom Pedro reigned as Emperor Pedro I until 1831, when he abdicated in favor of his young son and sailed for Europe.
Q 17Which illegitimate son of a viceroy of Peru ruled Chile as Supreme Director from 1817 to 1823?
Bernardo O'Higgins
Bernardo O'Higgins's father, Ambrosio, was born in County Sligo, Ireland. The son took the post after José de San Martín declined it, and later died in exile in Peru.
Q 18Which two islands were all that remained of Spain's empire in the Americas once the mainland wars ended in the 1820s?
Cuba and Puerto Rico
Cuba and Puerto Rico stayed under Madrid's rule until 1898, when Spain lost both in the Spanish–American War.
Q 19Which religious image, taken from the church at Atotonilco, became the banner of Mexico's rebel army in 1810?
The Virgin of Guadalupe
The Virgin of Guadalupe went into battle on the rebels' banner and on their hats. Royalists answered by taking the Virgin of Remedios as their own patroness.
Q 20Which Venezuelan general, a lieutenant of Simón Bolívar, gave his name to Bolivia's constitutional capital?
Antonio José de Sucre
Antonio José de Sucre served as president of Bolivia from 1825 to 1828. He was assassinated in an ambush in 1830, aged just 35.
Q 24From which Caribbean island did the exiled Simón Bolívar write an 1815 letter setting out his hopes for Spanish America?
Jamaica
Jamaica gave the letter its name. Bolívar wrote it as a reply to Henry Cullen, a merchant on the island, whose own letter is now lost.
Q 25Which royalist officer switched sides in 1821, secured independence, and briefly reigned as Emperor of Mexico?
Agustín de Iturbide
Agustín de Iturbide was crowned in 1822 and abdicated within a year. When he returned from exile in 1824 he was arrested and executed.
Q 26Which priest led Mexico's rebellion after its first leader was executed and convened the Congress of Chilpancingo?
José María Morelos
José María Morelos was captured, defrocked by the Inquisition and executed in 1815. His birthplace, Valladolid, was later renamed Morelia in his honor.
Q 27Which 1819 battle at a river bridge, won by Simón Bolívar's army in two hours, secured New Granada's independence?
Boyacá
Boyacá destroyed the royalist army in central New Granada, and the viceroy fled his capital soon after news of the defeat arrived.
Q 28Which officer, dismissed from the Royal Navy after a stock exchange fraud conviction, led Chile's fleet against Spain?
Thomas Cochrane
Thomas Cochrane, nicknamed the Sea Wolf by Napoleon, later commanded Brazil's navy too. He inspired fictional captains such as Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey.
Q 29Which Quito-born revolutionary saved Simón Bolívar from assassins in 1828 by urging him to escape through a window?
Manuela Sáenz
Manuela Sáenz stayed behind to confront the intruders while he fled. She had already received Peru's highest distinction from José de San Martín for her services to the revolution.
Q 30In which Pacific port city did Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín meet in July 1822 to discuss Peru's future?
Guayaquil
Guayaquil ended in disagreement: San Martín favored constitutional monarchies and Bolívar republics. Afterwards San Martín retired and left Bolívar to finish the war in Peru.