This book examines the Spanish response, military, economic and social, to the anti-imperial revolutions of Latin America in the early nineteenth century. History has for the most part concentrated on the heroic careers of the great liberators of America: but what did Spaniards themselves think of Simon Bolivar and his fellow revolutionaries? How did they view the events in America? What policies were adopted, what were their effects on Spanish trade and the merchants who conducted it, and what action did Spain take to meet American demands or to suppress them? It is with these and many related questions that this study is concerned. Analysing a broad spectrum of Spanish opinion which reflects the views of politicians, diplomats, merchants, journalists, the military and others, Professor Costeloe explains how Spaniards responded to revolution and how in retrospect, in the aftermath of defeat, they regarded the end of their nation's long role as a major imperial power.