South America (1828–1971 CE)

Republics, Frontiers, and the Modern Continent

Geographic Definition of South America
The region of South America encompasses all lands south of the Isthmus of Panama, including the subregions of South America Major—stretching from Colombia and Venezuela through Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northern Argentina and Chile—and Peninsular South America, which includes southern Chile, southern Argentina, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), and the Juan Fernández Islands.

Anchors include the Andes cordillera, the Altiplano, the Amazon, Orinoco, and Magdalena river systems, the Gran Chaco, the Llanos, the Pampas, and the Patagonian steppe, reaching south to the Strait of Magellan and the sub-Antarctic seas. This continental expanse unites rainforest and desert, mountain and plain, forming the world’s largest tropical forest system and one of its most diverse temperate frontiers.

Geography and Political Frontiers

Between 1828 and 1971, South America completed its transition from colonial empires to a constellation of modern nation-states. The nineteenth century was an age of consolidation—of borders, capitals, and frontiers—while the twentieth introduced urbanization, industrialization, and social revolution.

In the north and center, the Andes and Amazon defined the heartlands of South America Major: Brazil’s vast interior was opened by coffee, railways, and later industry; Peru, Bolivia, and Chile struggled over mineral frontiers; and the River Plate republics forged new economies on cattle and grain.
Farther south, Peninsular South America—Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and the southern islands—shifted from Indigenous autonomy to national incorporation under Chile, Argentina, and Britain. The conquest of Indigenous lands completed the continental frame of modern South America.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

With the close of the Little Ice Age, climate gradually warmed, though variability remained pronounced.

• Andes: Glacial retreat altered water regimes; earthquakes and volcanic eruptions repeatedly struck Chile and Peru.

• Amazon basin: Rainfall oscillated between flood and drought decades; deforestation and frontier ranching began to modify hydrology by the mid-twentieth century.

• Llanos, Chaco, and Pampas: Drought and locust plagues punctuated otherwise fertile cycles; agriculture expanded through mechanization.

• Patagonia and southern Chile: Winds remained fierce but temperatures moderated, fostering European colonization and ranching.

Environmental transformation followed human frontiers: new roads, plantations, and mines redrew both ecology and economy.

Subsistence and Settlement

Agrarian foundations persisted even as industry grew.

• Andean republics: Highland farmers maintained terraced maize and potato fields; haciendas, mines, and plantations supplied global markets with silver, tin, and copper.

• Brazil: Coffee, sugar, and later industrial production in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro powered national growth; Amazon rubber boomed and collapsed; steel and oil replaced gold.

• River Plate region: Argentina and Uruguay exported beef, wool, and grain, their estancias mechanized by the early twentieth century. Paraguay remained agrarian after its devastation in the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870).

• Northern Andes and Caribbean coasts: Cocoa, coffee, and oil wealth transformed Venezuela and Colombia; pipelines and ports knit the mountains to the sea.

• Southern Chile and Argentina: Wheat, forestry, and later nitrate and copper mining followed Indigenous dispossession; sheep ranching dominated Patagonia; Tierra del Fuego mixed gold rushes and estancias.

• Falklands and Juan Fernández: Remote yet strategic, they sustained small ranching and fishing communities within imperial or national frameworks.

Urbanization intensified: Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Lima, Santiago, Bogotá, Caracas, and Montevideo became centers of power, drawing millions from countryside and abroad.

Technology and Material Culture

Railways, telegraphs, and steamships linked interior basins to coastal ports.
By the 1880s, rail lines climbed the Andes and spanned pampas and deserts; river steamers plied the Amazon, Orinoco, and Paraná–Paraguay. Telegraphs and later telephones connected capitals; radio and cinema shaped modern culture.
Architecture mirrored aspiration: neoclassical capitols, baroque cathedrals, and art-nouveau theaters proclaimed republican modernity. Industrialization—from Chilean copper smelters to Brazilian steel mills—transformed material life. Yet regional craft traditions endured: Andean textiles, Afro-Brazilian percussion, Mapuche weaving, and Amazonian ceramics sustained living heritage.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

Continental circulation reached unprecedented scale:

• Migration: European settlers (Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese) repopulated Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay; internal migration urbanized Andean and coastal cities.

• Rivers and rails: The Amazon, Paraguay, and Magdalena bound hinterlands to export ports.

• Trade: Coffee, copper, nitrates, beef, and wool flowed to Atlantic and Pacific markets; oil joined after 1910.

• Integration projects: Early customs unions evolved into the ABC Pact (Argentina–Brazil–Chile) and the Latin American Free Trade Association (1960).

• Frontier expansion: Settlers, surveyors, and soldiers extended national authority into Amazonian forests and Patagonian plains, binding peripheries to capitals.

Cultural and Symbolic Expressions

Nations built mythologies of liberation and progress.
Romantic and modernist writers—José Hernández, Machado de Assis, Rubén Darío, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, and Jorge Luis Borges—forged continental literatures. Visual art ranged from Andean costumbrismo to Mexican and Brazilian muralism, celebrating Indigenous and African heritage as foundations of identity.
Catholicism remained pervasive yet plural: popular pilgrimages and saints’ festivals persisted beside secular nationalism and new Protestant and Spiritist movements.
In the south, national narratives glorified frontier conquest; in the north, Andean and Amazonian cosmologies reemerged through indigenismo. Across the continent, dance and music—samba, tango, cueca, candombe, and vallenato—embodied the fusion of African, Indigenous, and European rhythms.

Environmental Adaptation and Resilience

Traditional ecological systems endured beneath modernization:
Andean terraces and irrigation persisted; Amazonian forest gardens maintained biodiversity; smallholders and Indigenous communities adapted global crops—potatoes, maize, cassava—to local microclimates.
Mechanized agriculture and deforestation redefined landscapes: soybean expansion in Brazil, sheep and wheat in Patagonia, sugar and cotton in northeast Brazil.
By the 1960s, environmental awareness emerged—parks in the Andes, conservation on Juan Fernández, and debates over Amazonian deforestation signaling a new consciousness of ecological limits.

Technology and Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

The century and a half after independence was marked by recurring upheaval:

• Wars and diplomacy: The War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870), War of the Pacific (1879–1883), and border arbitrations defined national boundaries.

• Social transformation: Abolition of slavery (Brazil, 1888), land reforms (Bolivia, Mexico, mid-20th century), and peasant mobilization challenged oligarchies.

• Political cycles: Liberal republics gave way to populist and military regimes—Vargas in Brazil, Perón in Argentina, Velasco Alvarado in Peru—each promising modernization and social justice.

• Revolution and reaction: Bolivia’s 1952 revolution, Cuba’s 1959 example, and guerrilla movements in Colombia and Venezuela framed Cold War geopolitics.

• Southern frontiers: Argentina and Chile militarized Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego; Britain maintained the Falklands; boundary disputes simmered through the 20th century.

Technological change—aviation, electrification, oil extraction, and hydroelectric power—accelerated modernization while deepening regional inequality.

Transition (to 1971 CE)

By 1971, South America was a continent of contradictions: industrial cities beside impoverished rural zones, democratic ideals shadowed by coups, and booming exports amid environmental decline.
In the north, Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia led industrial and oil economies; in the south, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay oscillated between prosperity and political crisis.
The Amazon, Andes, and Patagonia—long the continent’s ecological and symbolic pillars—entered the modern age as frontiers of extraction, conservation, and imagination.

From the Inca terraces to the steel towers of São Paulo, from the Guiana forests to the Falklands sheep ranges, South America by 1971 stood as a continent unified by geography yet divided by history—its republics striving toward equity, identity, and stewardship in a world it had long supplied, inspired, and endured.

South America Major (1828–1971 CE)

Republics, Frontiers, and Modern Transformations

Geographic Definition of South America Major
The subregion of South America Major encompasses all lands north of the Río Negro, extending across the full continental span of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, northern Argentina and northern Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador(excluding the Cape lands at the Isthmian boundary), Colombia (excluding the Darién region, which belongs to Isthmian America), Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

Anchors include the Andes cordillera and Altiplano, the Amazon basin, the Orinoco and Magdalena river systems, the Venezuelan Llanos, the Gran Chaco, the Uruguayan Pampas, and the Guiana Shield.
Bounded by Isthmian America to the north and Subcontinental South America to the south, this subregion forms the continental heartland of South America—linking the Pacific and Atlantic worlds through its intertwined highlands, forests, plains, and river systems.

Geography and Political Frontiers

Between 1828 and 1971, South America Major evolved from newly independent republics into a mosaic of modern nations. The Andes continued to define borders and identity; the Amazon, Gran Chaco, and Pampas became frontiers of settlement, extraction, and nation-building. The century and a half after independence saw shifting alliances, wars over territory, and the gradual incorporation of frontier zones into national economies.
The Pacific coast urbanized through ports like Lima, Guayaquil, and Valparaíso; Atlantic Brazil expanded through coffee and industry; and inland Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay became landlocked crossroads of diplomacy and struggle. The Guianas remained colonial or semi-colonial enclaves until mid-century decolonization.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

The retreat of the Little Ice Age brought modest warming and rainfall fluctuations:

• Andes and Altiplano: Melting glaciers improved water availability for valleys but also triggered landslides and floods.

• Amazon basin: Rainfall cycles alternated between flood and drought decades, with deforestation beginning to affect local climates by the 20th century.

• Gran Chaco and Pampas: Droughts and locust plagues recurred through the 19th century; by the 20th, cattle ranching and grain cultivation transformed the landscape.

• Guiana forests and Llanos: Continued to alternate between wet and dry extremes, sustaining biodiversity yet increasingly opened by logging, mining, and plantations.

Environmental volatility shaped settlement patterns but also spurred innovation—irrigation in Andean valleys, drainage of pampas wetlands, and hydroelectric development along major rivers.

Subsistence and Settlement

Post-independence economies remained agrarian but diversified steadily:

• Andean republics (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia): Highland peasants maintained terraced maize–potato rotations; haciendas and plantations expanded in valleys. Mining revived—silver and tin in Bolivia, guano and nitrate in Peru, oil in Ecuador and Colombia.

• Brazil: Transitioned from sugar and gold to coffee (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro), rubber (Amazon), and later industrial production (Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul).

• River Plate region (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay): Cattle and sheep ranching dominated, later joined by grain exports. Paraguay remained rural after devastating wars; Uruguay balanced pastoral exports and political stability.

• Venezuela and Colombia: Coffee, cocoa, and oil reshaped economies; ranching persisted in the Llanos.

• Guianas: Plantation agriculture (sugar, rice) persisted under British, French, and Dutch control, worked by Afro-descended and Indo-Asian laborers.

Urbanization accelerated: Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Santiago, Bogotá, Quito, and Caracas became political and economic capitals, concentrating power and population.

Technology and Material Culture

Railways, telegraphs, and steamships integrated fragmented landscapes.
In the 19th century, rail lines climbed the Andes (e.g., Oroya Railway, Quito–Guayaquil) and linked interior ranches and mines to ports. Steam navigation on the Amazon and Paraná–Paraguay rivers expanded trade and migration.
European architectural styles—neoclassical capitals, baroque churches, and eclectic civic buildings—symbolized modernization.
Local crafts persisted: Andean textiles, Amazonian ceramics, Guaraní carvings, and Afro-Brazilian percussion instruments. By the 20th century, industrialization brought steelworks (São Paulo, Caracas), automobiles (Buenos Aires), and aviation links across the continent.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

Continental circulation intensified:

• River systems: The Amazon, Orinoco, Paraná–Paraguay, and Magdalena became arteries of commerce and colonization.

• Rail networks: Linked mines and ranches to ports, knitting national markets.

• Migration: Italian, German, Spanish, and Japanese immigrants settled Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, transforming agriculture and culture.

• Slave emancipation and internal migration: Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, and freed populations moved into cities and frontiers.

• Oil routes: Pipelines and refineries in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador shifted economies toward energy export.

Regional trade blocs, from early customs unions to mid-20th-century cooperation schemes, sought continental integration, while European and North American investment reshaped industrial growth.

Cultural and Symbolic Expressions

National identities crystallized from colonial legacies.
Romantic nationalism and liberal reform inspired literature, painting, and architecture celebrating Indigenous and creole heritage: Bolívarian epics, José Hernández’s Martín Fierro, Machado de Assis, Rubén Darío, and Andean costumbrismo.
In the 20th century, modernismo, muralism (led by Diego Rivera and Cándido Portinari), and revolutionary art redefined visual culture.
Catholicism remained pervasive but adapted: popular pilgrimages (e.g., Virgen de Copacabana, Círio de Nazaré) coexisted with secular nationalism and Protestant missions.
Afro-descended and Indigenous cultural forms—candomblé, samba, marimba, and Andean panpipe music—entered national consciousness as emblems of authenticity.

Environmental Adaptation and Resilience

Peasant and Indigenous communities maintained ecological knowledge despite land concentration:

• Highland terraces and irrigation persisted for local autonomy.

• Amazonian forest management—rubber tapping, shifting gardens, and agroforestry—balanced extraction with sustainability until industrial overreach in the mid-20th century.

• Ranching and agriculture expanded dramatically across the Pampas and cerrado, transforming ecosystems.

• Dams and deforestation along the Amazon and Paraná altered river regimes by the 1960s, initiating modern environmental debates.

Throughout, traditional practices—from Andean vertical exchange to Guaraní collective farming—anchored cultural and ecological continuity.

Technology and Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

Wars and revolutions marked the region’s political evolution:

• Post-independence conflicts: Civil wars, caudillo rivalries, and frontier disputes shaped early republics.

• Major wars: War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) decimated Paraguay; War of the Pacific (1879–1883) redrew borders between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia.

• Reforms and revolutions: Abolition of slavery (Brazil 1888), republican overthrow of the monarchy (Brazil 1889), and land reforms in Mexico and Bolivia signaled social transformation.

• 20th-century shifts: Populist regimes (Vargas in Brazil, Perón in Argentina), revolutions (Bolivia 1952, Cuba 1959), and guerrilla movements (Colombia, Venezuela) redefined state–society relations.

• External influences: The Good Neighbor Policy and Cold War interventions tied the region to U.S. geopolitical strategies, particularly during the 1960s and early 1970s.

Technological modernization—railways, telephones, automobiles, oil drilling, and aviation—interwove with social upheaval and uneven industrialization.

Transition (to 1971 CE)

By 1971, South America Major had completed its passage from colonial dependency to diverse modernity.
The region’s republics faced contrasts: booming urban economies alongside rural poverty, democratic aspirations shadowed by coups and authoritarianism.
The Andes still bore terraces and mines older than empire; the Amazon and Guianas remained ecological frontiers; and the Pampas and Llanos powered global agriculture.
From liberation heroes to modern reformers, the quest for sovereignty, equity, and identity defined this long age.
Despite enduring inequality and deforestation, South America Major emerged as a continent of resilience—its highlands, forests, plains, and coasts still bound by the enduring geography that had shaped all its worlds.

South America Major (1828–1839 CE): Early Republican Consolidation, Political Instability, and Nation-Building

Between 1828 and 1839 CE, South America Major—encompassing Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, northern Argentina, northern and central Chile, Colombia (excluding Darién) and Ecuador (excluding the Ecuadoran capelands), Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana—embarked on the complex task of building stable nations after achieving independence. This era was characterized by significant political instability, early republican experiments, ongoing economic challenges, and profound cultural and social redefinitions as newly independent states struggled to find cohesive national identities.

Political Developments

Fragile Republican Governments

The new South American republics faced immediate political instability:

• Gran Colombia, the ambitious union of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama under Simón Bolívar, fragmented definitively by 1830 into separate republics.

• Peru and Bolivia struggled with factional rivalries, frequent coups, and short-lived governments.

• Chile and Argentina faced internal conflicts and political competition between centralized authority and regional interests.

Brazil’s Unique Monarchic Path

Brazil maintained a relatively stable monarchy under Emperor Pedro I until his abdication in 1831. His successor, the child emperor Pedro II, assumed the throne under a regency marked by considerable instability and regional revolts (notably the Cabanagem and Farroupilha rebellions).

Paraguay’s Isolation and Stability

Paraguay continued its exceptional trajectory under dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (until 1840). Francia’s policy of political isolation, autarky, and strict authoritarianism sharply distinguished Paraguay’s stability from regional turmoil.

Economic Developments

Economic Reconstruction and Early Struggles

Economic recovery from revolutionary destruction remained slow and challenging. Mining activities (silver in Bolivia, gold in Brazil, emeralds in Colombia) further declined, prompting economic diversification attempts into agriculture, ranching, trade, and small-scale manufacturing.

Export Economies and Dependency

Newly independent republics increasingly relied on agricultural exports—coffee in Brazil and Venezuela, sugar and cattle ranching in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. However, reliance on European markets perpetuated economic dependency, limiting long-term development.

Continued Dependence on Slave Labor

Brazil maintained extensive slave-based agriculture, particularly in coffee and sugar production. Despite independence, slavery remained entrenched, continuing to provoke deepening ethical debates and social tensions.

Cultural and Technological Developments

Forming National Identities

New nations vigorously promoted cultural projects fostering national identities, histories, and symbols. Education, literature, and art flourished as vehicles for defining distinct national characters separate from colonial traditions.

Urban Renewal and Development

Urban centers—Lima, Quito, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro—began reorienting toward independent republican identities. Public buildings, plazas, universities, and national theaters symbolized new ideals of citizenship and national unity.

Social and Religious Developments

Social Reorganization and Ongoing Inequalities

Post-independence societies underwent gradual reorganization, with creole elites assuming power while indigenous populations, mestizos, and enslaved Africans continued to face marginalization. Social hierarchies, though challenged by independence, remained largely intact.

Catholic Church's Changing Role

The Catholic Church navigated complex adjustments, balancing traditional colonial influence with emerging republican demands for secularism and educational reforms. The Church continued as a vital cultural institution but faced increasing pressures toward reform and reduced privilege.

Indigenous Resistance and Frontier Dynamics

Indigenous communities continued to negotiate their roles within the new republics. Frontier tensions persisted, notably among the Mapuche in Chile and indigenous groups in Amazonian and Andean territories, influencing national policies and military strategies.

Long-Term Consequences and Historical Significance

The era from 1828 to 1839 CE marked critical formative years for South America's independent republics. Political instability, economic restructuring, ongoing inequalities, and profound cultural redefinitions underscored the challenges of nation-building. Despite internal divisions and regional differences—highlighted by Paraguay’s distinctive isolationism and Brazil’s unique monarchy—the era laid foundational patterns and tensions that defined subsequent political, social, and economic trajectories throughout the continent.

Uruguay at the time of independence has an estimated population of just under seventy-five thousand, of which less than twenty percent reside in Montevideo, the capital.

Indeed, the new nation is born with most of its population scattered throughout the countryside.

Political power centers on local leaders, or caudillos, who attract followers because of their power, bravery, or wealth.

There are three major caudillos at the time of independence: Fructuoso Rivera, Manuel Oribe, and Juan Antonio Lavalleja.

The first two are later elected presidents, Rivera from 1830 to 1835 and from 1838 to 1843 and Oribe from 1835 to 1838.

Their rivalry, which turns violent, leads to the formation of the first political groups, known as Colorados and Blancos because of the red and white hatbands, respectively, worn during armed clashes beginning in 1836.

The groups will subsequently become the Colorado Party and the National Party (the Blancos).

Internationally, the new territory of Uruguay is at the mercy of the influence of its neighbors.

This results from its lack of clearly defined borders, as well as from Rivera's ties with Brazil and Oribe's with Argentina.

The Uruguayan economy during the 1830-38 period comes to depend increasingly on cattle, on the proliferation of saladeros (meat-salting establishments), and on the export of salted beef and leather, but political instability is the most significant feature of this period.

Caudillos and their followers are mobilized because of disputes arising from deficient land demarcation between absentee landowners and squatters and between rightful owners and José Gervasio Artigas's followers who are granted land seized by Artigas.

Rivera remains in the countryside for most of his presidency, during which Lavalleja organizes three unsuccessful rebellions.

Rivera is followed as president by Oribe, one of the Thirty-Three Heroes, but they begin to quarrel after Oribe permits Lavalleja and his followers to return from Brazil.

Rivera initiates a revolutionary movement against President Oribe, who, aided by Argentine troops, defeatsRivera's forces at the Battle of Carpinteria on September 19, 1836.

In June 1838, however, the Colorados, led by Rivera, defeat Oribe 's Blanco forces; Oribe now goes into exile in Buenos Aires.

Lord John Ponsonby, envoy of the British Foreign Office in 1828, proposes making the Banda Oriental an independent state.

Britain is anxious to create a buffer state between Argentina and Brazil to ensure its trade interests in the region.

With British mediation, Brazil and Argentina sign the Treaty of Montevideo at Rio de Janeiro on August 27, 1828, whereby Argentina and Brazil renounce their claims to the territories that will become integral parts of the newly independent state on October 3.

However, Argentina and Brazil retain the right to intervene in the event of a civil war and to approve the constitution of the new nation.

Argentine and Brazilian troops begin their withdrawal from the Banda Oriental, while a constituent assembly draws up the constitution of the new country, creates its flag and coat of arms, and enacts legislation.

The constitution is approved officially on July 18, 1830, after having been ratified by Argentina and Brazil.

It establishes a representative unitary republic—the Republica Oriental del Uruguay (Oriental Republic of Uruguay), the word oriental (eastern) representing the legacy of the original designation of the territory as the Banda Oriental.

The constitution restricts voting, makes Roman Catholicism the official religion, and divides the territory into nine administrative jurisdictions known as departments.

Pedro, the elder son of King João VI of Portugal, had stayed in his father's stead as regent of Brazi when the latter left Brazil to return to his European territory in 1821.

One year later, Pedro had written a paper (not so well known as his alleged proclamation—"Independence or Death") to state the reasons for the secession of Brazil from Portugal and bequeathed a constitution instituting a constitutional monarchy in Brazil, assuming its head as Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, also known as "Dom Pedro.” Dom Pedro is liked by the common people, but displeases both the landed elite, who think him too liberal, and the intellectuals, who feel he is not liberal enough.

In 1822, about thirty percent, or one million, of Brazil's population had consisted of African-born or African-descended slaves.

Slavery is so pervasive that beggars have slaves, and naval volunteers take theirs aboard ship.

As Brazilian coffee exports have risen steadily, so have the numbers of imported slaves; in Rio de Janeiro alone, they have soared from 26,254 in 1825 to 43,555 in 1828.

In 1825, war had flared over Argentina's determination to annex the Cisplatine Province (present-day Uruguay, on the East bank of the Plata River).

The Empire of Brazil could little afford the troops, some of whom were recruited in Ireland and Germany, or the sixty warships needed to blockade the Río de la Plata.

A loan from London bankers had been expended by 1826, and Pedro had had to call the General Assembly to finance the war.

The blockade had raised objections from the United States and Britain, and defeats on land in 1827 had necessitated a negotiated end to the thirty million dollar Argentina-Brazil War.

The war, at least, leaves Uruguay independent instead of an Argentine province.

This is possible because, following the wars led by José Gervasio Artigas against the centralist government of Buenos Aires, many people neither want to submit to Buenos Aires, nor to Brazil.

In June 1828, harsh discipline and xenophobia provokes a mutiny of mercenary troops in Rio de Janeiro; the Irish are shipped home and the Germans sent to the South.

The army is reduced to fifteen thousand members, and the anti-slavery Pedro, now without military muscle, faces a Parliament controlled by slave-owners and their allies.

Neither side has gained the upper hand after five hundred days of war between Brazil and the regional federation of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (as the United Provinces of South America) and the breakaway Provincia Cisplatina.

Given the high cost of the war for both sides, and the unease of the United Kingdom, which conducts business with the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, conversations for a peace treaty begin.

With France and the United Kingdom as arbitrators, and under British pressure, the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata—aka Argentina—and the Brazilian Empire sign in Rio de Janeiro the Treaty of Montevideo acknowledging the independence of the República Oriental del Uruguay on August 27, 1828.