Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies

Between 1810 and 1825, seven thousand British, Scottish, and Irish mercenaries traveled to Gran Colombia to fight against Spanish colonial rule under the rebel forces of Simón Bolívar.

Their motives were mixed. Some traveled for money, others for honor. Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies explores the lives of these men—their encounters with other soldiers, indigenous people, local women, and slaves—as recounted in adventure stories, military histories, and British imperial history. As Matthew Brown illustrates, the history of Britain and its colonial subjects can no longer be easily defined. The colonists were themselves adventurers, penetrating Latin America beyond the formal boundaries of the empire during the early nineteenth century, and even (as these narratives show) fighting for its independence.

As Brown demonstrates, these “foreigners” were an essential part of the revolution that eventually gave Spain's colonies their freedom. Using archival research from England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia, Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies clearly shows the active role these mercenaries played in the creation of Latin America as we know it today.