[Sidenote: Discontent in Spain]

[Sidenote: Foreign aid invoked]

The South American colonies had now in great part secured independence.
Spain was thereby robbed of her best resources. As financial distress
became more widespread, the spirit of discontent rose. The King's plottings
with the extreme Royalists of France lost him the confidence of his
subjects. In the south the triumphant party of the so-called Exaltados
refused obedience to the central administration. The municipal governments
of Cadiz, Cartagena and Seville took the tone of independent republics. In
the north, the Serviles, instigated by French agitators and their money,
broke into open rebellion. After the adjournment of the Cortes, Ferdinand
attempted to make a stroke for himself. The Royal Guards were ordered to
march from Aranjuez to Madrid to place themselves under the King's personal
command. The people took alarm, and several regiments of disaffected
soldiers were induced to head off the guards. A fight ensued in the streets
of Madrid. The guards were scattered. The King found himself a prisoner in
his own palace. He wrote to Louis XVIII. that his crown was in peril. The
Bourbon sympathizers in the north at once seized the town of Seo d'Urgel,
and set up a provisional government. Civil war spread over Spain.
Napoleon's final prophecy that Bourbon rule would end in the ruin of Spain,
and the loss of all the best colonies was near fulfilment. It was then that
the Continental powers of Europe proposed to interfere on behalf of the
Spanish monarchy. The death of old Minister Hardenberg in Berlin did not
loosen Metternich's hold on Prussia. Emperor Alexander hoped to conciliate
his army, burning to fall upon the Turk, by treating them to a light
campaign in Spain. In France, the Spanish war party likewise had the upper
hand.

[Sidenote: Monroe Doctrine]

Nothing could save Spain; but Spanish South and Central America presented
another issue. The new republics had developed a thriving trade with Great
Britain and the United States of America, which made it impossible for
these countries to ignore their flags. In America, Henry Clay on the floor
of Congress, had already urged the recognition of South American
independence. In his annual message to Congress in 1822 President Monroe
took up the question. On behalf of the United States he declared that, the
American continents were henceforth not to be considered a subject for
further colonization b