on the throne. But the master of Europe underestimated the
fighting ability of Spaniards. Instead of humbly complying with
his mandate, they rose in arms against the usurper and created a
central junta, or revolutionary committee, to govern in the name
of Ferdinand VII, as their rightful ruler.

The news of this French aggression aroused in the colonies a
spirit of resistance as vehement as that in the mother country.
Both Spaniards and Creoles repudiated the "intruder king."
Believing, as did their comrades oversea, that Ferdinand was a
helpless victim in the hands of Napoleon, they recognized the
revolutionary government and sent great sums of money to Spain to
aid in the struggle against the French. Envoys from Joseph
Bonaparte seeking an acknowledgment of his rule were angrily
rejected and were forced to leave.

The situation on both sides of the ocean was now an extraordinary
one. Just as the junta in Spain had no legal right to govern, so
the officials in the colonies, holding their posts by appointment
from a deposed king, had no legal authority, and the people would
not allow them to accept new commissions from a usurper. The
Church, too, detesting Napoleon as the heir of a revolution that
had undermined the Catholic faith and regarding him as a godless
despot who had made the Pope a captive, refused to recognize the
French pretender. Until Ferdinand VII could be restored to his
throne, therefore, the colonists had to choose whether they would
carry on the administration under the guidance of the
self-constituted authorities in Spain, or should themselves
create similar organizations in each of the colonies to take
charge of affairs. The former course was favored by the official