Revolution and Independence (1789-1816)

Spain's empire, riddled with corruption and mismanagement, declined in power throughout the 18th century as those of Britain and France ascended. A series of costly wars between the great powers drained Spain's finances, and Spain came to rely heavily on the wealth of its colonies. Higher taxes in the Río de la Plata were hardly popular, and the authority-questioning literature of Locke, Voltaire, and others found a receptive audience among the criollo elites of Buenos Aires and Córdoba. The house of cards was ready to crumble. It was just waiting for the right moment.

That moment came in the form of the French Revolution of 1789 and its aftermath. First, the revolution itself offered inspiration to would-be revolutionaries in Latin America. Then in 1806, as part of the effort to defeat Napoleon's advance, Britain briefly occupied Buenos Aires—a vital port of France's nominal ally, Spain. The viceroy, his retinue, and other peninsulares fled, leaving the job of repelling the British to criollo militias. Any legitimacy the peninsulares once had was fading fast.

When Napoleon turned on his erstwhile ally Spain, occupying most of the country and imprisoning the Spanish royal family, chaos was unleashed across Spanish America. In 1810 the Spanish viceroy was deposed. On July 9, 1816, a congress at Tucumán officially declared the independence of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. That same year, Argentine general José de San Martín defeated a royalist incursion from Peru with his army of mulattos and African Argentines. Argentina was free, but far from stable and united.

Building Argentina