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The Cry of Independence

The Cry of Independence

Nobody knew exactly what would happen on July 20, 1810, but one could sense an atmosphere that something would happen. It was a Friday, marketday and all the people walking the streets of Santa Fe.

After the abdication of the Spanish king Fernando VII after the French invasion of Spain in 1808, carried out by Napoleon Bonaparte in Spainwere organized together of local government to resist the invader and, in turn, govern in the absence the deposed king. These meetings soon joining a government organized "alternative" to the occupationgovernment imposed by Napoleon.

This alternate government had representatives from all provinces in Spain and its colonies. However, the representation of the colonies was lower than that of theSpanish kingdoms. In the case of the American colonies were only 9 representatives in contrast to 36 of the peninsula. This made in America or seeks greater representation or greater autonomy and evenindependence of the metropolis.

Already in 1809 he had produced the first cries of freedom in Spanish America, in what is now Ecuador and Bolivia. In New Granada had gestated in a similar manner,and cities such as Cartagena and had formed together Mompos independence seeking greater autonomy or even complete independence from Spain.

In the province of Santa Fe had created a board composedof notable civil authorities and intellectuals Creoles. The main representatives of the oligarchy that made the meeting were: José Miguel Pey, Camilo Torres, Gomez Acevedo, Joaquin Camacho, Jorge TadeoLozano, Antonio Morales, among others.

They began to perform successive meetings in members' homes and then in the Astronomical Observatory, whose director was Francisco Jose de Caldas. Thesemeetings began to think that political tactics was limited and transient cause a public nuisance and take advantage to take power.

The board then proposed to create a remarkable incident with the...