The Dawn of Independence
The revolutionary movement in the Rio de la Plata basin began during the age of the viceroys through a gradual transformation of colonial society in response to political turmoil in Europe and its repercussions in the Americas. In 1776 the British were deprived of their major colonial market in North America, and they shifted their commercial interest to Spanish America. The period until the turn of the new century witnessed a series of British attempts to promote the emancipation of Spanish America and the acquisition of new commercial markets. Spain's neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars (1804-15) in Europe was disrupted by a British seizure of Spanish ships en route from the New World in 1804. The incident led to a formal alliance between France and Spain and their naval defeat in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The destruction of the Spanish fleet left the colonial empire unprotected.
In 1806 and 1807 the British twice invaded Buenos Aires, which brought about important political and commercial consequences for the Rio de la Plata basin. The invasions stimulated thoughts of freedom and emancipation from Spain among Argentina's criollo society while giving it an opportunity to test its capacity for organizing a military defense and a provisional government. Once the British attempts were successfully repelled, the cabildo abierto (open town council) of Buenos Aires sent an emissary to inform the crown of the criollo victory. Revolutionary propaganda calling for negotiations for independence under a British or Portuguese protectorate quickly gained momentum.
Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 1808. When the news reached Buenos Aires, considerable turmoil arose over the question of who would rule the colony in the absence of a legitimate king. In 1809 criollo rebels from Buenos Aires began to meet secretly in order to organize an uprising against Spanish authority in the viceroyalty. Finally, on May 20, 1810, they presented Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros with an ultimatum for his resignation and for the convocation of a cabildo abierto, which met two days later.
The 246 persons present at the cabildo abierto of Buenos Aires personified the victory of the liberal ideas of eighteenth century European economists, philosophers, and encyclopedists. Their writings had inspired criollo intellectuals such as Mariano Moreno, Bernardino Rivadavia, and Manuel Beigrano in their search for a new social and economic order. On May 25 the cabildo abierto — despite resistance from some regular cabildo members — deposed the viceroy and appointed the Provisional Revolutionary Junta to govern and ensure independence throughout the area.
The revolutionaries intended to compel all local cabildos to depose royal officials and take over local administration until a central government could be established. However, conservative oligarchies in Buenos Aires and the interior opposed such measures and sought only the establishment of a provisional government until royal authority was restored in Spain.
As members of the upper classes of wealthy merchants, landowners, and the high clergy, they had vested interests in the viceroyalty. They had no intention of jeopardizing their privileged position and thus refused to accept the broader aims of the junta. Spontaneous rebellions against the junta broke out in the interior, as well as in Montevideo (in present-day Uruguay) and Asunción, which led porteño revolutionaries to organize unsuccessful liberating expeditions to those areas.
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