Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Neither Spain nor Portugal could escape the widening repercussions of the French Revolution (1789–99) and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815) that eventually engulfed all of Europe. In practical terms, Spanish American independence began to exist de facto in 1808, when the Spanish king was imprisoned by Napoleon." [Born in Blood & Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, 4th Ed., p. 98]