.

"OUR OLD KING OR NONE".
The movement which led eventually to the emancipation of the colonies differed from the local uprisings which occurred in various parts of South America during the eighteenth century.

Either the arbitrary conduct of individual governors or excessive taxation had caused the earlier revolts.

To the final revolution foreign nations and foreign ideas gave the necessary impulse.

A few members of the intellectual class had read in secret the writings of French and English philosophers.