Anthony McFarlane is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Warwick, UK. His research has focused chiefly on the histories of Colombia and Ecuador, seen within the context of the history of the Spanish world in the period c.1700-c.1850. It includes study of Colombia's economic history during and after the colonial period, the history of rebellions, slavery and crime in the late colonial period, and the movements for independence in the early nineteenth century. He has also been interested in the comparative history of late colonial Spanish America [particularly the viceroyalties of Peru and New Granada] and in British American colonial history [the origins and growth Britain's 'First Empire' in North America and the Caribbean]. His current research centers on the Spanish American wars of independence in the period 1810-1825.