Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Worse, war with England, beginning in 1796 and lasting off and on for the next decade, meant confronting the world’s most powerful navy, for these were years when “Britannia ruled the waves.” The Spanish navy was overwhelmed, and the number of Atlantic sailings dropped drastically, strangling colonial trade. Spanish Americans watched all this with dismay but without seeing it as a cue to rebel. After all, foreign wars often evoke feelings of loyalty to king and country, and the English were hereditary enemies who frequently attacked Spanish American ships and ports." [Born in Blood & Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, 4th Ed., p. 98]