The Spanish American wars of independence were a series of conflicts fought across Spanish America during the early 19th century. Beginning shortly after the outbreak of the Peninsular War, the conflicts were fought between Royalists, who favoured rule from a unitary Spanish monarchy, and Patriots, who supported either autonomous constitutional monarchies or independent republics, separated from Spain and each other. These struggles ultimately led to the independence and secession of most of Spanish America from Spanish rule, which, beyond this conflict, resulted in a process of Balkanization in Hispanic America. If defined strictly in terms of military campaigns, the time period in question ranged from the 1809 Battle of Chacaltaya in present-day Bolivia, to the 1829 Battle of Tampico in Mexico.