With the Abdications of Bayonne and imprisonment of Ferdinand VII by Napoleon during the Peninsular war and the absence of a legitimate successor, the criterion was used to justify self-government in Spain. But the Junta of Seville had no authority to send or appoint viceroys in America, and Americans had instead the same rights as Spaniards to govern themselves as the rightful king was absent. The principle was employed by many independentist movements in South America of that time, such as the Chuquisaca Revolution or the May Revolution.