Answer:
a. Most of the region’s colonies were ruled by European nations and were ready to fight for independence.
Step-by-step explanation:
Most of South America was ruled by either the Spanish or the Portuguese emipres (as evidenced by languages spoken in South America today) for around 300 years before 1800. In the 18th century however, some changes occurred that spurred the inhabitants of these colonies to seek independence such as, Spanish Bourbon reforms that brough about tensions between the Colonists and their rulers, the alliance of Spain and France against Britain in 1795 which Britain being the dominant sea power at the time then used as an excuse to blockade Spain and weaken it's hold over it's colonies and Napoleon's invasion of Portugal which sent Portuguese ruler, Prince Regent John fleeing to Brazil which he then made the administrative capital of his empire.