Río de la Plata, Viceroyalty of
Substate | Defunct
1776 CE to 1814 CE
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, (Spanish: Virreinato del Río de la Plata), is the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty is established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extend over the Río de la Plata Basin, roughly the present day territories of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Buenos Aires, located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata estuary, opposite the Portuguese outpost of Colonia del Sacramento, is chosen as the capital.
Usually considered one of the late Bourbon Reforms, its creation is both motivated on commercial grounds (Buenos Aires is by this time a major spot for illegal trade), as well as on security concerns brought about by the growing interest some foreign powers have over the area, namely Great Britain and the Kingdom of Portugal.However, the Enlightening reforms prove counterproductive, or perhaps too late to quell the colonies' demands.
In fact, the entire existence of the Viceroyalty is characterized by growing unrest and instability.
Between 1780 and 1782, the Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II inspirez a violent Aymara-led revolt across the Upper Peru highlands, evidencing the huge resentment towards colonial authorities from both mestizos and indigenous populations.
Twenty-five years later, two successive British attempts at conquering Buenos Aires and Montevideo are successfully repealed by Criollo-led defenses, enhancing their perceived autonomous capabilities as the Spanish troops are unable to help.In 1809, the criollo elite revolts against colonial authorities at La Paz and Chuquisaca, establishing revolutionary Juntas.
Albeit short-lived themselves, they provide some strong theoretical basis for the legitimacy of the locally based governing juntas that prove decisive at the 1810 May Revolution events that depose Viceroy Cisneros at Buenos Aires.The revolution spreads all over the Viceroyalty, except for Paraguay (which declares itself an independent nation in 1811) and Upper Peru (which remains controlled by royalist troops from Lima, and is eventually re-incorporated into the Viceroyalty of Peru).
Meanwhile, the Governor of Montevideo Francisco Javier de Elío, appointed as a new Viceroy by the Cortes of Cádiz in 1811, declares the Buenos Aires Junta seditious.
However, after being defeated at Las Piedras he is only left in control of Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo, so he returns to Spain on November 18 and resigns as Viceroy on January 1812.
By 1814, as the patriots enter Montevideo, following a years-long siege, the Viceroyalty effectively ceases to exist.
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In 1552 the first bishopric in Upper Peru was established in La Plata; in 1605 La Paz and Santa Cruz also became bishoprics.
In 1623 the Jesuits had established the Royal and Pontifical Higher University of San Francisco Xavier of Chuquisaca, Upper Peru's first university.
Native reaction to colonial rule and conversion to Christianity varies.
Many natives adapt to Spanish ways by breaking with their traditions and actively attempting to enter the market economy.
They also use the courts to protect their interests, especially against new tribute assessments.
Others, however, cling to their customs as much as possible, and some rebel against the white rulers.
Local, mostly uncoordinated, rebellions occurred throughout colonial rule.
More than one hundred revolts occur in the eighteenth century alone in Bolivia and Peru.
Although the official Incan religion had disappeared rapidly, the natives had continued their local worship under the protection of local native rulers, but as Christianity influenced the natives, a new folk-Catholicism had developed, incorporating symbols of the indigenous religion.
Whereas early native rebellions were anti-Christian, the revolts at the end of the sixteenth century were based in messianic Christian symbolism that was Roman Catholic and anti-Spanish.
The church is tolerant of local native religions.
In 1582, for example, the bishop of La Plata had permitted the natives to build a sanctuary for the dark Virgen de Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca (Copacabana has been a traditional Aymara religious center ever since).
The city's commercial activity is expanded by the introduction of the slave trade to the southern part of the continent because Montevideo is a major port of entry for enslaved Africans.
Thousands of enslaved Africans are brought into Uruguay between the mid-eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, but the number is relatively low because the major economic activity—livestock raising—is not labor intensive and because labor requirements are met by increasing immigration from Europe.
The viceroy is aided by the audiencia (council), which is simultaneously the highest court of appeal in the jurisdiction and, in the absence of the viceroy, also has administrative and executive powers.
The wealth of Upper Peru and its remoteness from Lima persuade the authorities in Lima to create an audiencia in the city of Chuquisaca (present-day Sucre) in 1558.
Chuquisaca had become particularly important as Potosí's administrative and agricultural supply center.
The jurisdiction of the audiencia, known as Charcas, initially covered a radius of one hundred "leagues" (179,600 hectares) around Chuquisaca, but it soon included Santa Cruz and territory belonging to present-day Paraguay and, until 1568, also the entire district of Cuzco.
The president of the audiencia has judicial authority as well as administrative and executive powers in the region, but only in routine matters; more important decisions are made in Lima.
This situation leads to a competitive attitude and the reputation of Upper Peru for assertiveness, a condition reinforced by the economic importance of the region.
Spain exercises its control of smaller administrative units in the colonies through royal officials, such as the corregidor, who represent the king in the municipal governments that are elected by their citizens.
By the early seventeenth century, there are four corregidores in Upper Peru.
Easily susceptible to European diseases, the native population had decreased rapidly.
The situation of the natives worsens in the eighteenth century when Spain demands higher tribute payments and increases mita obligations in an attempt to improve the mining output.
These profound economic and social changes and the breakup of native culture contributes to the increasing addiction of natives to alcohol.
Before the Spanish arrived, the Incas had consumed alcohol only during religious ceremonies.
Native use of the coca leaf has also expanded, and, according to one chronicler, at the end of the sixteenth century "in Potosí alone, the trade in coca amounts to over half a million pesos a year, for 95,000 baskets of it are consumed."
The Portuguese, seeking to expand Brazil's frontier in 1680, had founded Colonia del Sacramento on the Rio de la Plata, across from Buenos Aires.
Forty years later, the Spanish monarch orders the construction of Fuerte de San Jose, a military fort at present-day Montevideo, to resist this expansion.
With the founding of San Felipe de Montevideo at this site in 1726, Montevideo becomes the port and station of the Spanish fleet in the South Atlantic.
The new settlement includes families from Buenos Aires and the Canary Islands to whom the Spanish crown distributes plots and farms and subsequently large haciendas in the interior.
Authorities are appointed, and a cabildo (town council) is formed.
Montevideo is on a bay with a natural harbor suitable for large oceangoing vessels, and this geographic advantage over Buenos Aires is at the base of the future rivalry between the two cities.
The establishment of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata in 1776, with Buenos Aires as its capital, aggravates this rivalry.
Montevideo is authorized to trade directly with Spain instead of through Buenos Aires.
Criollos begin to assume active roles in the economy, especially in mining and agricultural production, and thus resent the trade barriers established by the mercantilist policies of the Spanish crown.
In addition, criollos are incensed that Spain reserves all upper-level administrative positions for peninsulares (Spanish-born persons residing in the New World).
The Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason, questioning of authority and tradition, and individualistic tendencies, also contributes to criollo discontent.
The Inquisition has not kept the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and others out of Spanish America; their ideas are often discussed by criollos, especially those educated at the university in Chuquisaca.
At first the criollos of Upper Peru are influenced by the French Revolution, but they eventually reject it as too violent.
Although Upper Peru is fundamentally loyal to Spain, the ideas of the Enlightenment and independence from Spain continues to be discussed by scattered groups of radicals.
The Bourbon rulers give the audiencia of Chile (Santiago) greater independence from the Viceroyalty of Peru.
One of the most successful governors of the Bourbon era is the Irish-born O'Higgins, whose son Bernardo will lead the Chilean independence movement.
Ambrosio O'Higgins promotes greater self-sufficiency of both economic production and public administration, and he enlarges and strengthens the military.
In 1791 he also outlaws encomiendas and forced labor.
Exchange increases with Argentina after it becomes the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata in 1776.
Ships from the United States and Europe are engaging in direct commerce with Chile by the end of the eighteenth century.
However, the total volume of Chilean trade remains small because the colony produces few items of high unit value to outsiders.
Freer trade brings with it greater knowledge of politics abroad, especially the spread of liberalism in Europe and the creation of the United States.
Although a few members of the Chilean elite flirt with ideals of the Enlightenment, most of them hold fast to the traditional ideology of the Spanish crown and its partner, the Roman Catholic Church.
Notions of democracy and independence, let alone Protestantism, never reach the vast majority of mestizos and native Americans, who remain illiterate and subordinate.
The Spanish, to combat smuggling, protect ranchers, and contain the natives, form a rural patrol force called the Blandengues Corps.
The Rio de la Plata Province had been divided in 1617 into two smaller provinces: Paraguay, with Asunción as its capital, and Rio de la Plata, with headquarters in Buenos Aires.
With this action, Asunción had lost control of the Rio de la Plata Estuary and has become dependent on Buenos Aires for maritime shipping.
In 1776 the crown creates the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata; Paraguay, which had been subordinate to Lima, now becomes an outpost of Buenos Aires.
Located at the periphery of the empire, Paraguay serves as a buffer state.
The Portuguese block Paraguayan territorial expansion in the north, the Jesuits—until their expulsion—had blocked it in the south, and the natives block it in the west.
Paraguayans are forced into the colonial militia to serve extended tours of duty away from their homes, contributing to a severe labor shortage.