During the government of the Viceroy Abascal, whose administration lasted from 1806 to 1816, events occurred in Spain which precipitated the revolution in South America, though under all circumstances it could not have been long delayed. Napoleon had taken advantage of the debility and corruption of the Spanish monarchy under Charles IV. to invade Spain, hoping that the flight of the Braganzas to America would be followed by that of the Bourbons, and that the sceptres of both Spain and Portugal would thus easily be placed within his grasp. Charles, however, abdicated, in 1808, in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII.; and, in order to carry out his ambitious designs, Napoleon was obliged to resort to perfidy. After attracting the monarch and his father to Bayonne with specious promises, he sent General Murat to occupy Madrid at the point of the sword. All Spain was roused to rebellion against the invader, but the arrival of Napoleon himself with his veterans secured a final victory for the French, and Joseph Bonaparte was crowned king, orders being sent out from Bayonne that the Spanish-American colonists should transfer their allegiance to the new ruler. By a decree of Charles V., in 1530, confirmed by his successor in 1563, the American colonies were authorized, in cases of emergency, to convoke general _Juntas_ or political assemblies; and in the present crisis, when the imprisonment of their rightful sovereign had caused the authority of the Crown to be suspended, this right was exercised, in order to save the colonies from the yoke of a usurping power. The leaders of the revolution saw beyond this purpose the greater one, which was to achieve the final independence of the colonies. But the masses could not be led into any radical measures against their sovereign. The influence of the monarchy, which had excited strong religious as well as political claims to their allegiance for three centuries, was all-powerful on the minds of a naturally conservative and loyal people; and it was only through fidelity to their king that the Spanish-Americans were first induced to take up arms against the constituted authorities of their country.