What were the effects of the South American revolutions?

The South American revolutions, or wars of independence, occurred between 1808 and 1826. In that short period, eight nations (Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela) gained their independence from Spain and Brazil gained its independence from Portugal. Several of the new nations became republics, and Brazil crowned a king, Dom Pedro I. Revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar, a friend of Napoleon, admirer of the American Revolution, and student of the Enlightenment, was the pivotal figure in most of these revolutions, and eventually united much of the territory gained from Spain into a loose federation called Gran Colombia. His vision for a unified South American republic like that in North America was never realized, but the revolutions resulted in independence for most of the continent.