Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Peninsula. These two events set the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
on the course of civil war and independence.
And what was to result from independence? Not the republican para-
dise that the Creole leaders had envisioned, but rather political chaos
and disunity in which several colonial social maladies would survive.
Schooled by the colonial order in racial discrimination, social violence,
and political corruption, the Creole leaders preserved many practices
that had plagued Argentina since its settlement by the Spaniards.
Revolution in France
The French Revolution of 1789 altered the balance of power that had
characterized previous European warfare. After being defeated by
republican France in 1795, Spain retained a tenuous partnership with
the more powerful country while Great Britain's navy remained the
guarantor of Portugal's independence. Therefore, whenever France and
Great Britain engaged in hostilities, which they did frequently after the
French Revolution, Portugal and Spain were drawn in. These conflicts
were too costly to Spain, whose empire lay across oceans commanded
by hostile British fleets. In the wars lasting from 1797 to 1802 and from
1805 to 1808, British ships blockaded Spanish ports, cutting off its
commerce with Buenos Aires just as colonial commerce was reaching
its highest levels in 200 years.
In these times of war against Britain, the Spanish merchants in
Buenos Aires and throughout the Río de la Plata were particularly on
the defensive. Their advantage had always consisted of their monopoly
ties to the powerful merchant houses in the Spanish ports. Imports
of Spanish mercury dropped off, so consequently, silver production
declined and tax collections slumped. Spain was forced to permit more
foreign shipping into its colonial ports. Yankee and German vessels
began to appear frequently and had few reservations about trading
with Creole merchants eager to deal in contraband goods. Spanish
merchants now had to compete with Creoles without the assistance
of imperial advantages. The native-born merchants of Buenos Aires
developed a taste for authentic free trade and requested that commerce
be extended to non-Spanish vessels even during peacetime. They were
turned down.
Because the wars following the French Revolution exposed the
Spanish Empire's weaknesses, the most glaring of which was Spain's
utter dependence on the financial resources of its colonies, Spanish
officials made additional demands on taxpaying colonists. Looking
