<P> The royalists were the American and European supporters of King Ferdinand . Americans and formed the royalist army, with Americans composing 9% of the royalist forces in all fronts . There were two types of units: the expeditionary units created in Spain and militias created in the Americas . The militias included some veteran units (called the disciplined militia). Only 11% of the personnel in the militias were European or American whites . </P> <P> After Rafael del Riego's revolution, in 1820, no more Spanish soldiers were sent to the wars in the Americas . In 1820 there were only 10,001 Spanish soldiers in the Americas, and Spaniards formed only 10% of all the royalist armies, and only half of the soldiers of the expeditionary units were European . By the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824, less than 1% of the soldiers were European . </P> <P> Other factors included Enlightenment thinking . The Enlightenment spurred the desire for social and economic reform to spread throughout Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula . Ideas about free trade and physiocratic economics were raised by the Enlightenment . </P> <P> Independence movements in South America can be traced back to slave revolts in plantations in the northernmost part of the continent and Caribbean . In 1791, a massive slave revolt sparked a general insurrection against the plantation system and French colonial power . These events were followed by a violent uprising led by José Leonardo Chirino and José Caridad González that sprung up in 1795 Venezuela, allegedly inspired by the revolution in Haiti . </P>

What encouraged latin american countries to gain freedom from european masters