Viceroyalty of La PlataCreated in 1776, the Viceroyalty of La Plata (in spanish, Virreinato del Río de la Plata) was the last and most shortlived viceroyalty created by Spain. It's limits roughly contained the territories of present Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. The General Capitany of Chile was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. It was mainly created because of security concerns on the increasing interest of other world powers on the area, mainly Portugal and -in some extent- Great Britain.
Origin and CreationIn 1680, portuguese governor of Rio de Janeiro Manuel Lobo created the Department of Colonia and founded Colonia: a fort located in present Uruguay's coast and the department's capital. The main objective was to secure the region from spanish expansionism. José de Garro quickly attacked and seized the fort for Spain, but on May 7, 1681 it was handed back to Portugal due to the Provisional Treaty of Lisbon. On the other hand, the Viceroyalty of Peru required all commerce to be performed through Lima's port, which restrained the Buenos Aires natural port potential economy, a problem that also deemed into large contraband activities in the region, specially Asunción, Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Under this conditions, King Charles III of Spain, requested to former Government of Buenos Aires governor Cevallos to think a way of developing and securing the area, on April, 1776. This meant a way of conquering Colonia and the islands of Santa Catalina from the portuguese, in the Banda Oriental (East Bank of the Rio de la Plata, namely Uruguay), and modernizing the poor-developed Buenos Aires. Early viceroyaltyThe portuguese prime minister Pombal continued to encourage the ocupation of territory which had already been decided to be spanish in the Treaty of Paris in 1763. King Charles III, quickly reacted to the advantageous conditions: France was bound to be an ally as a guarantor of the treaty, and England due to it's own colony problems couldn't help being neutral. Cevallos sent a warning and started aggresions against Santa Catalina, from where the portuguese had already fled and thus it was conquered in less than a month with no casualties. Then Cevallos sailed towards Montevideo and with Buenos Aires governor Vertiz aid reclaimed Colonia, also without resistance. Cevallos advanced until Maldonado city, where he stopped his advance towards the Rio Grande, as he was informed of the Treaty of San Ildefonso which ended hostilities in the area. Cevallos was then free of other matters and started significant tranformations in the area, including free commerce (entablished on September 6, 1777) with the aid of the Potosí minerals which were meant to be the viceroyalty's main source of revenue. The bourbonic reforms in 1778 reforms also helped greatly on the region development, and between 1792-1796 the bloom was unpreceded. Viceroyalty's declinationBuenos Aires had a production of around 600,000 cattle a year, of which around 1/4 fourth was consumed locally, which considerably helped the development of the area. But wars with Great Britain meant a great setback into the region economy as the maritim communications were practically paralized. The Alto Peru region started to show contempt as the expenses of administration and defense of the Rio de la Plata estuary were mainly supported by the declining Potosí production. For instance, in the first years of the viceroyalty, around 75% of the expenses were covered with revenues that came from the north. And also the Alto Plata (mostly present Paraguay) had problems with the Buenos Aires administration, particularly because of the monopoly of the embarcations in it's port. By 1805, Spain had to help France because of their 1795 alliance, and had lost it's navy in the Battle of Trafalgar, but the spanish prime minister had warned the viceroyalty of the likelyhood of a british invasion, and that in such event the city of Buenos Aires would be on it's own. In 1806 a small british force under Col. William Carr Beresford succesfully invades Buenos Aires after a failed attempt to stop him from viceroy Rafael de Sobremonte, who flees. The british force was drawn back by the criollos and started a militia which eventually stopped the second british attempt in 1807. As of 1811, Argentina was self-governed since one year ago, Paraguay had already declared it's independence and the viceroyalty was to bound to be finished. It concluded with the independences of Argentina (1816), Uruguay (1822), and Bolivia (1825). By the end, it was clear that the Viceroyalty of La Plata were just several unrelated regions put up together in an attempt of the Spanish crown to maintain it's power over the region. Lack of internal cohesion and support from Spain, among other reasons, lead to the independence of a region which was initially loyal to the crown. See Also: May Revolution Viceroyalty's dependencies
1 Gobernación in spanish Viceroy List
See Also
Categories: History of Argentina | Viceroyalties | South American history |
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