 These differences would become more acute after the restoration of Ferdinand VII, because the king opted to support the conservative position.Regional rivalry also played an important role in the internecine wars that broke out in Spanish America as a result of the juntas.The disappearance of a central, imperial authority—and in some cases of even a local, viceregal authority (as in the cases of New Granada and Río de la Plata)—initiated a prolonged period of balkanization in many regions of Spanish America.