Supreme Central Junta facts for kids

The Supreme Central and Governing Junta of Spain and the Indies was a special Spanish government. It was also called the Supreme Central Junta or Junta of Seville. This group held all the main powers (executive and legislative) in Spain. It was active during the time when Napoleon's army occupied Spain, known as the Peninsular War.

The Junta was created on September 25, 1808. This happened after Spain won the Battle of Bailén. It also followed a decision by the Council of Castile to cancel the abdication (giving up the throne) of Kings Charles IV and Ferdinand VII. These kings had given up their power to Napoleon in May 1808. The Junta worked until January 30, 1810. It first met in Aranjuez and was led by the Count of Floridablanca. It had 35 members who represented different areas of Spain.

Why the Junta Was Formed

The Supreme Central Junta was created because of a lot of political confusion. This confusion started when the Spanish royal family (the House of Bourbon) gave up their power. At first, the Spanish government, including the Council of Castile, accepted Napoleon's plan. Napoleon wanted his brother, Joseph, to become the King of Spain.

However, most Spanish people did not agree with Napoleon's plan. They showed their disagreement through local and provincial governments. These local groups then formed their own "juntas" (which means "councils" or "committees"). They believed that the king's power came from an agreement between the king and the people. So, if the king was gone, the people had the right to govern themselves.

This led to even more confusion because there was no main government. Many local juntas did not recognize each other's claims to represent the whole country. For example, the Junta of Seville claimed power over all of Spain's overseas lands. This was because Seville had historically been the main port for trade with these lands.

To fight against the French, the different juntas realized they needed to work together. Several important provincial juntas, like those from Murcia, Valencia, Seville, and Castile and León, asked for a central junta to be formed. After many talks, the Supreme Central Junta finally met in Aranjuez. This Junta acted as a stand-in government for the missing king. It also decided to call for a special meeting called the "Extraordinary and General Cortes of the Spanish Nation." This meeting would create a new constitution for Spain and its empire.

What the Junta Did

The Supreme Central Junta was made up of two representatives from each of Spain's main regions. The Junta quickly decided not to have a small group of people (a regency) hold all the power. Instead, the Junta itself took on the role of governing. It even used the title "Majesty" for itself, just like a king.

In November 1808, the Junta had to leave Madrid because of the French army. It moved to the Alcázar of Seville and stayed there from December 16, 1808, to January 23, 1810. This is why it was sometimes called the "Junta of Seville."

The Junta took charge of the war effort against the French. It created new war taxes and organized an army. On January 14, 1809, it signed an important agreement to become allies with the United Kingdom. As the war continued, the Junta decided in April 1809 to move forward with the plan to call the Cortes. They issued an official order on May 22, and a committee led by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos worked on the details.

The Junta also decided that the "overseas kingdoms" (Spain's colonies) would send one representative each. These "kingdoms" included the viceroyalties of New Spain, Peru, New Kingdom of Granada, and Buenos Aires. They also included the captaincies general of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Chile, Venezuela, and the Philippines. This plan was criticized in America because it did not give equal representation to the large overseas territories. Some big cities, like Quito and Charcas, felt they should have direct representation. This led to some local juntas forming in these cities in 1809, but Spanish authorities quickly stopped them. Even so, many capital cities in the colonies elected representatives to the Junta in early 1809, though none arrived in time to serve.

The war started to go badly for Spain under the Junta's leadership. By early 1810, Spanish forces suffered major defeats, like the Battle of Ocaña and the Battle of Alba de Tormes. The French took control of southern Spain. This forced the Spanish government to retreat to Cádiz, which was the last safe place they had in Spain. Because of these problems, the Central Junta dissolved itself on January 29, 1810. It then created a new five-person group called the Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies. This new council was tasked with finishing the work of calling the Cortes.

The Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies

The Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies helped Spain recover most of its land from the French. It also oversaw the creation of the Cortes of Cádiz, which wrote the Spanish Constitution of 1812. The Council included important figures like General Francisco Javier Castaños.

The Council approved the decision to have the Cortes meet as a single body, rather than separate groups for different social classes. When the Cortes began its work on September 24, 1810, it took over the power to make laws and oversee the Regency.

The end of the Supreme Central Junta was a very important moment for the wars of independence in Spanish America. Many people in Spanish America felt they no longer needed to recognize a government that was about to be captured by the French. They started to form their own local juntas to protect their independence from French control. These movements were successful in places like New Granada (Colombia), Venezuela, Chile, and Río de la Plata (Argentina). While these juntas claimed to act in the name of the deposed king, just like the Spanish juntas had done, their creation gave people who wanted full independence a chance to openly promote their ideas. This led to a long conflict that resulted in most of Spanish America becoming independent.

See also

In Spanish: Junta Suprema Central para niños