Primera Junta
State | Defunct
1810 CE
The Primera Junta or First Assembly is the most common name given to the first independent government of Argentina.
It is created on May 25, 1810, as a result of the events of the May Revolution.
The Junta initially has representatives from only Buenos Aires.
When it is expanded, as expected, with the addition of the representatives from the other cities of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, it becomes popularly known instead as the Junta Grande (Grand Council).
The Junta operates at El Fuerte (the fort, where the modern Casa Rosada stands), which had been used since 1776 as a residence by the Viceroys.
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The military conflict in Spain has worsened by 1810.
The city of Seville has been invaded by French armies, which are already dominating most of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Junta of Seville has disestablished, and several members have fled to Cádiz, the last portion of Spain still resisting.
They have established a Council of Regency, with political tendencies closer to absolutism than the former Junta. This begins the May Revolution in Buenos Aires, as soon as the news is known.
The territory of modern Argentina is part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, with its capital city in Buenos Aires, seat of government of the Spanish viceroy.
Modern Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia are also part of the viceroyalty, and begin their push for autonomy during the conflict, becoming independent states afterwards.
The vast area of the territory and slow communications have led most populated areas to become isolated from each other.
The wealthiest regions of the viceroyalty are in Upper Peru, (modern-day Bolivia).
Salta and Córdoba have closer ties with Upper Peru than with Buenos Aires.
Similarly, Mendoza in the west has closer ties with the Captaincy General of Chile, although the Andes mountain range is a natural barrier.
Buenos Aires and Montevideo, who have a local rivalry, located in the La Plata Basin, have naval communications allowing them to be more in contact with European ideas and economic advances than the inland populations.
Paraguay is isolated from all other regions.
In the political structure, most authoritative positions are filled by people designated by the Spanish monarchy, most of them Spanish people from Europe, also known as peninsulares, without strong compromises for American problems or interests.
This has reated a growing rivalry between the Criollos, white people born in Latin America, and the peninsulares, Spanish people who arrived from Europe (the term "Criollo" is usually translated to English as "Creole", despite being unrelated to most other Creole peoples).
Despite the fact that all of them are considered Spanish, and that there is no legal distinction between Criollos and Peninsulares, most Criollos think that Peninsulares have undue weight in political matters.
The ideas of the American and French Revolutions, and the Age of Enlightenment, promote desires of social change among the criollos.
The full prohibition imposed by Spain to trade with other nations is also seen as damaging to the viceroyalty's economy.
The population of Buenos Aires had been highly militarized during the British invasions of the Río de la Plata, part of the Anglo-Spanish War.
Buenos Aires had been captured in 1806, then liberated by Santiago de Liniers with forces from Montevideo.[
Fearing a counter-attack, all the population of Buenos Aires capable of bearing arms had been arranged in military bodies, including slaves.
A new British attack in 1807 had captured Montevideo, but was defeated in Buenos Aires, and forced to leave the viceroyalty.
The viceroy Rafael de Sobremonte had beenb successfully deposed by the criollos during the conflict, and the Regiment of Patricians has become a highly influential force in local politics, even after the end of the British threat.
The transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil has generated military concern.
It is feared that the British will launch a third attack, this time allied with Portugal.
However, no military conflict takes place, as when the Peninsular War started, Britain and Portugal had become allies of Spain against France.
When the Spanish king Ferdinand VII is captured, his sister Carlota Joaquina seeks to rule in the Americas as regent, but nothing comes out of it because of the lack of support from both the Spanish Americans and the British.
Javier de Elío creates a Junta in Montevideo and Martín de Álzaga seeks to make a similar move by organizing a mutiny in Buenos Aires, but the local military forces intervene and thwart it.
Spain appoints a new viceroy, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, and Liniers hands the government to him without resistance, despite the proposals of the military to reject him.
Several citizens think that Cisneros, appointed by the disestablished Junta, does not have the right to rule anymore, and requests the convening of an open cabildo to discuss the fate of the local government.
The military gives their support to the request, forcing Cisneros to accept.
The discussion rules the removal of viceroy Cisneros and his replacement with a government junta, but the cabildo attempts to keep Cisneros in power by appointing him president of such junta.
Further demonstrations ensue, and the Junta is forced to resign immediately.
It is replaced by a new one, the Primera Junta.
Buenos Aires requests the other cities in the viceroyalty to acknowledge the new Junta and send deputies.
The precise purpose of these deputies, join the Junta or create a congress, is unclear at the time and generated political disputes later.
The Junta is initially resisted by all the main locations around Buenos Aires: Córdoba, Montevideo, Paraguay and the Upper Peru.
Santiago de Liniers comes out of his retirement in Córdoba and organizes an army to capture Buenos Aires, Montevideo had naval supremacy over the city, and Vicente Nieto organizes the actions at the Upper Peru.
Nieto proposes to José Fernando de Abascal y Sousa, viceroy of the Viceroyalty of Peru at the North, to annex the Upper Peru to it.
He thinks that the revolution can be easily contained in Buenos Aires, before launching a definitive attack.
The victories and defeats of the military conflict delimit the areas of influence of the new United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.
With the non-aggression pact arranged with Paraguay early on, most of the initial conflict will take place in the north, in Upper Peru, and in the east, in the Banda Oriental.
In the second half of the decade, with the capture of Montevideo and the stalemate in Upper Peru, the conflict will move to the west, to Chile.
A movement for full independence led by Manuel Belgrano, a patriot junta member, quickly gathers steam in Buenos Aires.
In the so-called May Revolution from May 18–May 25, armed citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Viceroy and establish a provincial government for Argentina (the Primera Junta) to rule in the name of Spain’s deposed King Ferdinand VII.g
However, the improvised army gathered by Liniers at Cordoba deserts him before battle, so the former Viceroy attempts to flee to Upper Peru, expecting to join the royalist army sent from the Viceroyalty of Peru to suffocate the revolution at Buenos Aires.
Colonel Francisco Ortiz de Ocampo, who leads the patriot army, captures Liniers and the other leaders of the Cordoba counter-revolution on August 6, 1810, but, instead of executing them as he has been instructed, he sends them back to Buenos Aires as prisoners.
As a result, Ocampo is demoted and Juan José Castelli is appointed as the political head of the army.
On August 26, Castelli executes the Cordoba prisoners and leads the Army of the North towards Upper Peru.
Cabildo also announces mobilization and Velasco leaves with troops for the Yaguarón to establish defensive positions.
The political future of Paraguay will be decided by conflicts between three groups, each of which hasd different plans for the future: gachupines (born in Spain), porteños (inhabitants of Buenos Aires) and the local Paraguayan-born Creole elite, which is led by Fulgencio Yegros and Pedro Juan Caballero.
An earlier rebellion in Upper Peru during 1809 had been crushed by Royalist forces under the command of Generals Vicente Nieto and José de Córdoba y Rojas, leaving the region firmly under Spanish control.
After the 1810 May Revolution, the Republicans send an expeditionary army, led by Antonio González Balcarce, to Upper Peru with the mission of conducting a reconnaissance of the region.
Departing from Buenos Aires, its ranks swell en route as volunteers join the march.
Among these is a group of gauchos led by Martín Miguel de Güemes, who will go on to play a key role in the southern revolution.
By the time the expedition reaches Upper Peru, it is six hundred men strong with ten field pieces.
Castelli, after securing the loyalty of the northwestern Provinces to the May Revolution through elections of representatives to the Junta in Buenos Aires, had sent General Antonio González Balcarce into the Upper Peru, but he had been defeated at the battle of Cotagaita on October 27.
Castelli had then sent him reinforcements, leading to the first patriotic victory at the battle of Suipacha, on the margin of the Suipacha river in the Sud Chichas province (Potosí Department, in today Bolivia), which gives Buenos Aires control over the Upper Peru.
The royalist generals Vicente Nieto, Francisco de Paula Sanz and José de Córdoba y Rojas are captured and executed.
A first battle was fought on December 19, 1810, at Campichuelo, where the Patriots claim victory.
However, they had been completely overwhelmed at the subsequent battles of Paraguarí on January 19 and Tacuarí on March 9.
Thus, this campaign ends in failure as well from a military point of view; however, just two months later, Paraguay, inspired by the Argentine example, will break its links with the Spanish crown by declaring itself an independent nation.
The double victories of the Creole army over Manuel Belgrano have weakened the position of the royalists and governor Velasco and have increased the local patriotism of Creole officers, who foment a plot to overthrow Velasco.
Initially the plan calls for a military uprising to start on May 25, the one-year anniversary of the May Revolution in Buenos Aires.
The military forces, under Fulgencio Yegros, are expected to march from Itapua supported by garrisons in other towns, but the negotiations of governor Velasco with Portuguese representatives from Brazil hasten the uprising.
Yegros, born to a family of military tradition, had also pursued a military career. A grandson of governor Fulgencio Yegros y Ledesma, he had studied in Asunción and joined the Spanish colonial army.
He had first experienced combat in 1802 against the Portuguese and in 1807 when he was part of the Paraguayan forces that defended Buenos Aires during British invasions of the Río de la Plata.
Reaching the rank of captain in 1810, he had been given the governorship of Misiones; he will later establish the first military academy in independent Paraguay.
In early 1811 he had participated in the defense of Paraguay against the invaders from Buenos Aires led by Belgrano.