“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
open the region’s consumer markets to goods piling up on merchants’ docks in the metropôle. The invasion was a disaster from the start. British forces occupied the viceregal capital with little resistance. The Spanish viceroy, Marqués de Sobremonte, fled Buenos Aires and retreated into the interior. Although prudent, the viceroy’s actions further underscored the increasingly obvious inability of peninsular authorities to defend their colonial possessions. With the departure of colonial officials, the task of resisting the British fell upon the local Creole militias. The French-born Santiago de Liniers, along with prominent porteño leaders like Juan Martín de Pueyrredón and Cornelio de Saavedra, rallied local forces in Montevideo. Marching across the delta, they quickly defeated and captured the British. A second British invasion under John Whitelocke the following year in 1807 first occupied Montevideo and then advanced against Buenos Aires. As the force entered the viceregal capital, it met fierce local resistance. Locals poured burning oil on the exposed British from rooftops over the narrow streets of San Telmo. After two days of heavy fighting, the exhausted British had failed to take the capital. Cutoff, the British sued for peace and abandoned the Río de la Plata altogether. 10 The British invasions reoriented porteño society. Creole elites had led the successful defense of their own colony. In the wake of the second invasion, a popular council had deposed the hapless Sobremonte. Following his triumphs, Liniers became the new viceroy. More importantly, the political authority of the Creole militias, along with the Creole- dominated Buenos Aires cabildo, waxed in the post-invasion colonial order. Unable to 10 Marcos M. de Estrada, Invasiones Inglesas al Río de la Plata, 1806-1807 (Buenos Aires: Librería Histórica Emilio J. Perrot, 2009). For an interesting account of the impact of the invasions from the perspective of a British merchant, see Malyn Newitt, ed. War, Revolution & Society in the Río de la Plata, 1808-1810: Thomas Kinder's Narrative of a Journey to Madeira, Montevideo and Buenos Aires (Oxford: Signal Books Limited, 2010). 34
defend its possessions, peninsular authority over the Río de la Plata revealed itself to be an anachronistic and burdensome relic for the Spanish Americans in the region. The future of the Río de la Plata’s colonies appeared to lie in self-governance, albeit while still formally adhering to the old empire. Events in the Iberian Peninsula rapidly intensified the ongoing transformation in the Río de la Plata, pushing Buenos Aires towards revolution. In 1807, Napoleon obtained permission to cross Spanish territories in order to seize pro-British Portugal. The Portuguese monarch narrowly escaped the advancing French forces. The royal court fled on British warships across the Atlantic to Brazil. Arriving in 1808, Rio de Janeiro became the new imperial capital. With Spain and Portugal ostensibly at war with each other as the proxies of the British and French, the move alarmed Spanish subjects throughout the Río de la Plata. Local authorities, still recovering from the British invasions, feared that the long- simmering conflicts over the borderlands with the Portuguese would reignite as the empire turned its gaze southwards. Officials in Buenos Aires immediately undertook efforts to reduce tensions with imperial Brazil in order to avoid costly military entanglements along the old viceroyalty’s eastern peripheries. Events from Europe, however, continued to run ahead of attempts in the Río de la Plata to ease political unrest. With his troops across the Pyrenees, Napoleon elected to seize the Spanish monarchy. Conflicts within the Spanish dynasty provided the opening for Napoleon’s plan. He persuaded the Spanish king, Fernando VII, to travel to France. Napoleon ostensibly promised to resolve remaining disputes with his recently deposed father, Carlos IV, over the Spanish throne. With both Bourbon monarchs under his control in Bayonne, Napoleon instead compelled the young king to abdicate the thrown. Napoleon then named his brother Joseph as the new Spanish monarch. Popular opposition to the 35
- Page 1 and 2: “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDING
- Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACT This dissertation explores
- Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii ACKN
- Page 7 and 8: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like the wandering
- Page 9 and 10: Upon returning to the United States
- Page 11 and 12: INTRODUCTION IN EARLY 1828, A FRENC
- Page 13 and 14: Juan Manuel de Rosas and Facundo Qu
- Page 15 and 16: By moving between stories of law an
- Page 17 and 18: in the continental interior. They d
- Page 19 and 20: the fluid character of borderlands
- Page 21 and 22: and geographic conceptions. Extendi
- Page 23 and 24: local legal norms and practices in
- Page 25 and 26: that has greatly expanded the space
- Page 27 and 28: along rivertine trading corridors.
- Page 29 and 30: strains articulated by men like Art
- Page 31 and 32: Bringing the courts back into the s
- Page 33 and 34: of borderlands leaders to negotiate
- Page 35 and 36: Removing the old colonial order, ho
- Page 37 and 38: the city remained a sparsely popula
- Page 39 and 40: smugglers and other imperial outlaw
- Page 41 and 42: Imperial Collapse and Fragmentation
- Page 43: ivers, deserts and a few vagrant an
- Page 47 and 48: They requested that the Junta appoi
- Page 49 and 50: manufactured products for the Andea
- Page 51 and 52: The Paraguayan government proposed
- Page 53 and 54: Montevideo in January of 1811, he i
- Page 55 and 56: Ríos. From there, he continued to
- Page 57 and 58: easoning. 25 They had rejected the
- Page 59 and 60: military headquarters along the ban
- Page 61 and 62: sovereignty rooted in borderlands p
- Page 63 and 64: Artigas’ defeat did not spell the
- Page 65 and 66: economy. By 1822, the powerful merc
- Page 67 and 68: universal laws that would further r
- Page 69 and 70: Pedro abdicated the throne in 1831,
- Page 71 and 72: CHAPTER 2 THE (RE)EMERGENCE OF BORD
- Page 73 and 74: operate throughout the borderlands
- Page 75 and 76: and staple exports instead of the o
- Page 77 and 78: Ríos in particular witnessed a dra
- Page 79 and 80: goods as far north as the cities of
- Page 81 and 82: simmering struggles. By 1840, local
- Page 83 and 84: merchants, traders and landowners.
- Page 85 and 86: earning the faction’s colorado ti
- Page 87 and 88: Guarch’s deal with Carvalho revea
- Page 89 and 90: web of reciprocal relationships tha
- Page 91 and 92: the border in Brazil. In this way,
- Page 93 and 94: In short, over the course of a deca
defend its possessions, peninsular authority over the Río de la Plata revealed itself to be an<br />
anachronistic and burdensome relic for the Spanish Americans in the region. The future of<br />
the Río de la Plata’s colonies appeared to lie in self-governance, albeit while still formally<br />
adhering to the old empire.<br />
Events in the Iberian Peninsula rapidly intensified the ongoing transformation in the<br />
Río de la Plata, pushing Buenos Aires towards revolution. In 1807, Napoleon obtained<br />
permission to cross Spanish territories in order to seize pro-British Portugal. The<br />
Portuguese monarch narrowly escaped the advancing French forces. The royal court fled on<br />
British warships across the Atlantic to Brazil. Arriving in 1808, Rio de Janeiro became the<br />
new imperial capital. With Spain and Portugal ostensibly at war with each other as the<br />
proxies of the British and French, the move alarmed Spanish subjects throughout the Río de<br />
la Plata. Local authorities, still recovering from the British invasions, feared that the long-<br />
simmering conflicts over the borderlands with the Portuguese would reignite as the empire<br />
turned its gaze southwards. Officials in Buenos Aires immediately undertook efforts to<br />
reduce tensions with imperial Brazil in order to avoid costly military entanglements along the<br />
old viceroyalty’s eastern peripheries.<br />
Events from Europe, however, continued to run ahead of attempts in the Río de la<br />
Plata to ease political unrest. With his troops across the Pyrenees, Napoleon elected to seize<br />
the Spanish monarchy. Conflicts within the Spanish dynasty provided the opening for<br />
Napoleon’s plan. He persuaded the Spanish king, Fernando VII, to travel to France.<br />
Napoleon ostensibly promised to resolve remaining disputes with his recently deposed<br />
father, Carlos IV, over the Spanish throne. With both Bourbon monarchs under his control<br />
in Bayonne, Napoleon instead compelled the young king to abdicate the thrown. Napoleon<br />
then named his brother Joseph as the new Spanish monarch. Popular opposition to the<br />
35 <br />
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