Answer:
Portuguese royal authorities strictly limited access to printing presses in the Americas.
The Peninsular War, which resulted from the Napoleonic occupation of Spain, caused Spanish Creoles in Spanish America to question their allegiance to Spain, stoking independence movements that culminated in the wars of independence, lasting almost two decades. The crisis of political legitimacy in Spain with the Napoleonic invasion sparked reaction in Spain’s overseas empire. The outcome in Spanish America was that most of the region achieved political independence and instigated the creation of sovereign nations. The areas that were most recently formed as viceroyalties were the first to achieve independence, while the old centers of Spanish power in Mexico and Peru with strong and entrenched institutions and the elites were the last to achieve independence. The two exceptions were the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, which along with the Philippines remained Spanish colonies until the 1898 Spanish-American War. At the same time, the Portuguese monarchy relocated to Brazil during Portugal’s French occupation. After the royal court returned to Lisbon, the prince regent, Pedro, remained in Brazil and in 1822 successfully declared himself emperor of a newly independent Brazil.
The chaos of the Napoleonic wars in Europe cut the direct links between Spain and its American colonies, allowing decolonization to begin.