<P> After several failed revolts, The Portuguese colony of Brazil declared independence, forming a separate, local Empire founded by Prince Regent Dom Pedro I . The war between the Brazilians and Portuguese lasted from February 1822, with the burst of first skirmishes between militias, to November 1823, when the last Portuguese garrisons surrendered . The Brazilian Empire lasted until a coup in 1889 overthrew the monarchy leading to its current status as a republic . </P> <P> The crisis of political legitimacy in Spain with the Napoleonic invasion sparked reaction in Spain's overseas empire . The outcome in Spanish America was that most of the region achieved political independence and instigated the creation of sovereign nations . The areas that were most recently formed as viceroyalties were the first to achieve independence, with the old centers of Spanish power in Mexico and Peru with strong and entrenched institutions and elites were the last to achieve independence in this era . The two exceptions to independence were the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, which with the Philippines, remained Spanish colonies until the 1898 Spanish - America War . </P> <P> After the defeat of Spain in the Peninsular War and the abdication King Ferdinand VII, the Spanish colonial government of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, present - day Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, became greatly weakened . Without a rightful king in the Spanish throne to render the office of the Viceroy as legitimate, the right of Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros to govern came under fire . The local elites, tired of the Spanish trade restrictions and taxes, seized the opportunity and during the May Revolution of 1810, removed Cisneros and created the first local government, the Primera Junta . </P> <P> Following a half a decade of battles and skirmishes with provincial royalist forces within the former Vice-royalty along with military expeditions across the Andes to Chile, Peru and Bolivia led by General José de San Martín to finally end Spanish rule in America, a formal declaration was signed on July 9, 1816 by an assembly in San Miguel de Tucumán, declaring full independence with provisions for a national constitution . The Argentine Constitution was signed in 1853, declaring the creation of the Argentine Republic . </P>

Who were the leaders of the latin american revolution