Short answers, pulled from the story.
Napoleon Bonaparte's 1808 forced abdication of the Spanish royal family and the installation of his brother Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain created a political power vacuum. This collapse of legitimate royal authority led Spanish Americans to form local governing councils called juntas, which eventually escalated into armed conflicts between Royalists and Patriots across the empire.
Defined strictly by military campaigns, the wars ran from the 1809 Battle of Chacaltaya in present-day Bolivia to the 1829 Battle of Tampico in Mexico. Royalist resistance continued into the early 1830s, and Spain did not formally renounce sovereignty over continental America until 1836.
Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín were the principal Patriot commanders, leading forces from northern and southern South America respectively in a continent-wide campaign that culminated in the Battle of Ayacucho on the 9th of December 1824. Other significant leaders included Antonio José de Sucre, Francisco de Paula Santander, Bernardo O'Higgins, and, in Mexico, Miguel Hidalgo and Vicente Guerrero.
The Bourbon Reforms of the mid-eighteenth century shifted the status of overseas territories from "kingdoms" to "colonies" and replaced Criollo officeholders with peninsular-born appointees, frustrating the ambitions of Spanish American elites. The 1804 Act of Consolidation further threatened elite wealth by forcing repayment of church mortgages, pushing many landowners toward bankruptcy and into opposition against the crown.
Women participated as spies, informants, political organizers, and in some cases combatants. Manuela Sáenz served as Simón Bolívar's confidante and archivist, saved his life twice, and was made a Colonel of the Colombian Army. Javiera Carrera organized women's groups in Chile and sewed the first Chilean flag, while Juana Azurduy de Padilla fought for independence in the Río de la Plata region.
Slavery was not immediately abolished in most new states. In areas where it was a primary labor source, including Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Argentina, emancipation proceeded gradually through free-womb laws and compensated emancipation programs. By the early 1850s, slavery had been abolished across the independent nations of Spanish America.