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Show I FAMOUS 1 PEACE TREATIES Iiy II. IRVING KING j ' ' ) lL'ojY ( iht , il!. hy (he Alt' ' I u re Nws p:ii ncJK'U i k.) TREATY OF BUENOS AYRES, 1823 When South America Emerged From Spanish Domination, U Hing the Revving Colonies. The independence of Spanish South America Mas rendered possible by l!V' Treaty of I'.uenos Ayres, which united all of Spain's revolted colonies below the Isthmus of Panama in a league against the mother country, or any other country which should question their right to set up for themselves as fret; anil independent nations. Strangely enough, the South American Amer-ican revolution started in an uprising of the colonists in behalf of the legitimate legiti-mate king of Spain. Ferdinand VII. Napoleon having placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain. Venezuela, Ven-ezuela, New (Jrannda (Colombia) and Iiuenos Ayres (Argentina), revolted almost simultaneously in 1810, deposed the royal ollieers, and established juntas with the avowed purpose of holding those colonics for King Ferdinand In Mar. h of 1S11 a Veil-v.Uelitn Veil-v.Uelitn congress was convened and Ml July 1 a declaration of independence independ-ence was adopted. In New Granada 'he province of Cartagena declared Its independence In the same year. p.ogol', or the province of Cudiaa-pjarca. Cudiaa-pjarca. proclaimed itself independent "during the captivity of the kin.:." The eastern provinces sought an al'i-ii al'i-ii nee with Venezuela. Meantime a revolution broke out in Keundor. which was joined by the part of New firiinada adjoining, but this seems to have been a rather mixed up affair, the revolutionists riot exactly sure of what they wanted. Revolution Expanded. The revolution In Buenos Ayres spread over all that section, but it was not until after Independence was declared, de-clared, what is now the Argentine He-public He-public taking the name of the United Provinces of La Plata. Paraguay, 1-h.ieh revolted in 1.810, proclaimed ks independence in-dependence tho next year and refused to unite with La Plata, which, as yet, had not revolted. Uruguay had been made a part of Iirn7.ll in some of the royal and Imperial deals of Europe and was hold by a Portuguese army. The revolution broke out In Chile in 1S12 and was suppressed only to break out again. It was not until 1818 that Chile finally declared her independence. independ-ence. 1814 King Ferdinand had been restored re-stored to the Spanish throne, so those colonies which remained In revolt and had not declared their Independence seemed tn have little excuse for their lulepenilcnce or existence as governments. govern-ments. I'.etween the beginning of flic uprisings upris-ings In 1S10 and the Treaty of Puienos Ayres In 1S23 there was constant warfare between the Spanish and colonial co-lonial forces, each colony playing a lone hand. Peru was the center of the Spanish power and from there the Spanish viceroys waged, war on the other colonies. In I'pper Peru, or what Is now Iiolivia. however, there was a strong antagonism to the royal authority which spread gradually to the other parts of vicoroyalty and rendered the Spanish supremacy precarious. pre-carious. In 1821 this Peruvian movement move-ment had gained such strength that an assembly of Peruvians declared independence, though the viceroy still held his post and. by the command of the sea which he possessed and the strength of the royal forces, still fought to subdue South America to the Spanish crown. Brazil's Independence Declared. In 1822 Ilra.il declared its independence inde-pendence of Portugal and set up as an empire under the head of the royal house of I'.raganza, who gave up his claims to the Portuguese throne. In the tumult which raged around her in South America Brazil took no part. Her revolution was peacefully accomplished accom-plished and her independence peacefully peace-fully secure. But all Spanish-America was in a state of chaos. The revolted colonies could not even agree among themselves and were rent by international discords, "it. looked aa if Spain, by a vigorous effort, might yet restore her authority in South America, attacking the revolted colonies col-onies In detail. Simon Bolivar hsd now succeeded in forming out of Venezuela. New Ciranada and Ecuador '-he Republic of Colombia. He saw that union was necessary for the seturing of the independence in-dependence o! the colonies and in January of lS2.'i sent Don Joaquin Mosquera to Buenos Vyres to propose a defensive alliance of the United Province of La Plata and the Republic Repub-lic of Colombia. Hoped to Have Colonies Unite. Rivadnvia was provisionally Id charge of the La Plata government. His idea was to have all the colonies unite in a peaceful understanding with the mother country by wdiich the revolution rev-olution should be completed; be 'was evidently listening to the siren song of the royal commissioners. Mosquera insisted upon a military alliance against Spain. The result was that for the first lime Spanish South America showed a united front. The treaty was signed on March 8, 1823. On December 9, 1S24, was fought In southern Pert the battle of Ayacucho in which General Gen-eral Sucre with the allied army defeated de-feated and captured the Spanish viceroy, vice-roy, La Serna. Fourteen Spanish generals gave up their swords thai day and the war of Independence was at an end, except for a few mlnoi engagements. TREATY OF FREDERIKSHAVN, 1809 Sweden Gave Up to Russia All of Finland and the Aland Islands. Amid the breaking up of empires, the birth of new nations and the rebirth re-birth of old ones, Finland seems to have come In for a place as an independent inde-pendent country, something that she never has been before since the thir- tfenth century, when the Finns were subjugated and Christianized by Hie Swedes. For over a hundred years Finland Fin-land formed an integral part of the Swedish realm and furnished to that kingdom a host of men eminent in war and peace. Under Swedish rule Finland enjoyed an autonomous constitutional con-stitutional government and developed h unique civilization of Its own. Swedish was spoken In the towns and hy the cultured class, but the peasantry peas-antry clung to the old Finnish tongue. Then came the Invasion of Finland hy Russia in ISO!) and the treaty of Frederikshavn. by which Finland passed to Russia and the troubles of the Finns began. The Finns are a rather singular people peo-ple to find in the northwestern corner of Europe, being Mongolians, a tribe of Hint race which. wandering or driven V rrom the great plateau of Central Asia, found a resting place at last between the Baltic sen and the Arctic ocean. Near the Finnish Border. When Peter the Great built his new capital amid the swamps of the Neva he placed it only 33 miles from the Fin-pish Fin-pish bonier and from that hour Russia (oked upon Finland as something that must eventually be hers. The adventures adven-tures of Charles XII of Sweden afforded af-forded Peter bis first opportunity to c. ic'u part of the coveted territory. Charles was as determined to crush the p-nwing power of Russia as Peter w.is to make her t lie "-dossus of the North." At the battle of Pultnwn. June 27. I7H'. fought In what now calls itself the Ukraine, the destinies of the two nations for a while hung In the balance. But "victory passed to the Iriuniphant czar" and Charles escaped l, fugitive into Turkey. By the treaty , r Xystadt in 1721 Czar Peter granted ace to the exhausted Swedes, but fuly upon their relinquishing the Baltic Bal-tic provinces to Russia and also the province of Viliorg, a part of Finland. By taking Viborg Peter pushed the Finnish border bat-K ,?r,il -.vl:eri the French ambas.Jador Interceded for the retention of this province Hy Sweden, pcler replied that it "was not pleasant to see his neighbor's grounds from his own windows." But a good chance to grab all Finland Fin-land did not present Itself to Russia until the general upheaval of the Napoleonic Na-poleonic wars. After the peace of Tilsit, Russia and France being allies, al-lies, the czar had a free hand with regard to Sweden and resolved to seize Finland. He called It himself "au act of bad faith toward a relative and an ally." In February of 1808 a Russian army invaded Finland. The aged and incapable field marshal Kllngspor, who commanded an army of Finns and Swedes In Finland, was ordered by the panic-stricken Swedish king, Gustavus IV, to save his troops as best he could. "Gibraltar of the North." With the fall of Sveaborg, which the Swedes called the "Gibraltar of the North," all hope of saving Finland was lost ; but during the summer a Finnish army fought several battles with the Russian troops not without success. In the fall, however, the Russian army was Increased, and on September 14 was fought the battle of Oravais, famous fa-mous In Finnish annals. The battle lasted 15 hours and was only decided in favor of the Russians by the timely arrival of re-enforcements. In this battle the Swedes and Finns lost 2.00C killed, one-third of the whole force with which they went Into battle. The remnants rem-nants of the army withdrew under the cover of night, when the increased number of Russians made it folly to continue the battle, and crossed the Swedish frontier. Finland was now 'ost. In Stockholm when the disastrous news reached there, the king was deposed de-posed and his son, Prince Charles made regent. In Seelaml lay a French army under Rernadotte--destined to become be-come king of Sweden Intel ready to attack. The regent now turned his attention to Russia nod attempted to drive out a Russian army which occupied oc-cupied West Bothnia. lie was unsuccessful, unsuc-cessful, bul finally that army withdrew j of its own accord. The cvur now signified sig-nified that he was willing u treat for ; peace and on September 17 signed at j Frederikshavn a treaty by which Swe-I Swe-I den gave up to Russia all of Finland and the Aland islands. After that treaty Finland was in a constant state of unrest and content!."!,-) rvlfii her Russian Rus-sian masters. Now she proposes 'o set Uf for herself. |