“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
that maintained their sovereignty.” 29 These notions of local autonomy, standing and justice would continue to play a powerful role in federalist discourse throughout the borderlands in the decades to come. With the 1813 instructions, the die was cast in the conflict between the loose federalist ideology emerging in the borderlands under Artigas and the stronger, centralized vision of the porteño elites in the old viceregal capital. Officials in Buenos Aires naturally found the federalist program expressed by Artigas and his followers wholly unacceptable. The porteño government rejected Artigas’ delegates, pushing the two sides closer to war. The government in Buenos Aires declared Artigas an outlaw and ordered his arrest. Artigas withdrew his forces from around Montevideo and marched northwards to secure support for his movement along the Uruguay River. Artigas’ demands for provincial equality resonated particularly with the littoral provinces along the Río de la Plata’s interior river network. These provinces had long resented Buenos Aires’ chokehold on the river trade. With Artigas on the march, substantial portions of these provinces now rallied to his side. By the end of 1813, a full-scale civil war had broken out between the rivertine provinces of Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Corrientes and the erstwhile central government in Buenos Aires. Artigas’ Federal League, as this loose association soon became known, clashed with porteño forces throughout 1814. In February, Artigas crushed an expeditionary force moving against him in Entre Ríos, guaranteeing his dominance over the Uruguay River basin. By the end of the year, the remaining opposition in Montevideo also collapsed. Artigas moved to consolidate his position by establishing a provisional capital for his new alliance at his 29 Ibid, Julio Djenderedijan, "Roots of Revolution: Frontier Settlement Policy and the Emergence of New Spaces of Power in the Río de la Plata Borderlands, 1777-1810," Hispanic Amercian Historical Review 28, no. 4 (2008). 48
military headquarters along the banks of the Uruguay River near Salto and in the center of the borderlands. Although triumphant for the moment, Artigas still faced a perilous political situation. To the east, imperial armies continued to threaten invasion. To the south, Buenos Aires remained a persistent threat. Although royalist opposition had faltered in Montevideo, the borderlands caudillo faced continued resistance from the city’s merchant community. Artigas had to find a means to forge a new base of power in the borderlands capable of sustaining a fight against these powerful enemies. To do so, Artigas turned to the small landowners in the Banda’s interior in order to establish a bulwark against his coastal enemies. As a former military commander in the borderlands, Artigas was acutely aware of the longstanding social tensions between peripheral inhabitants and coastal merchants over questions of property rights. To sustain his revolution, Artigas now tapped into these conflicts. Artigas drew upon the literature percolating throughout the Río de la Plata discussing the meaning of the revolution in the United States. From it, he articulated a new, Jeffersonian vision for the borderlands. He called for the creation of a class of small landowners, which would form the core of a new republic founded on notions of virtue, equality, patriotism and public service. Once removed from the parasitic yoke of the old colonial system and its vestiges in the viceregal capital, the borderlands could emerge as a prosperous and modern republic. Artigas would be its protector. 30 As the conflict between his followers and Buenos Aires intensified, Artigas began to move beyond notions of local autonomy and federalism and embrace a much more radical vision for a new social order in the borderlands. His social revolution reached its apogee in 1815 with the enactment of the Reglamento provisorio de fomento de la campaña y seguridad de sus 30 Salvatore, ed. Caudillismos Rioplatenses, 128-33. 49
- Page 7 and 8: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like the wandering
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- 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
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- Page 45 and 46: defend its possessions, peninsular
- Page 47 and 48: They requested that the Junta appoi
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- Page 51 and 52: The Paraguayan government proposed
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- Page 63 and 64: Artigas’ defeat did not spell the
- Page 65 and 66: economy. By 1822, the powerful merc
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- Page 69 and 70: Pedro abdicated the throne in 1831,
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- Page 73 and 74: operate throughout the borderlands
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- 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
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- Page 97 and 98: opposite direction from Porto Alegr
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that maintained their sovereignty.” 29 These notions of local autonomy, standing and justice<br />
would continue to play a powerful role in federalist discourse throughout the borderlands in<br />
the decades to come.<br />
With the 1813 instructions, the die was cast in the conflict between the loose<br />
federalist ideology emerging in the borderlands under Artigas and the stronger, centralized<br />
vision of the porteño elites in the old viceregal capital. Officials in Buenos Aires naturally<br />
found the federalist program expressed by Artigas and his followers wholly unacceptable.<br />
The porteño government rejected Artigas’ delegates, pushing the two sides closer to war. The<br />
government in Buenos Aires declared Artigas an outlaw and ordered his arrest. Artigas<br />
withdrew his forces from around Montevideo and marched northwards to secure support<br />
for his movement along the Uruguay River. Artigas’ demands for provincial equality<br />
resonated particularly with the littoral provinces along the Río de la Plata’s interior river<br />
network. These provinces had long resented Buenos Aires’ chokehold on the river trade.<br />
With Artigas on the march, substantial portions of these provinces now rallied to his side.<br />
By the end of 1813, a full-scale civil war had broken out between the rivertine provinces of<br />
Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Corrientes and the erstwhile central government in Buenos Aires.<br />
Artigas’ Federal League, as this loose association soon became known, clashed with porteño<br />
forces throughout 1814. In February, Artigas crushed an expeditionary force moving against<br />
him in Entre Ríos, guaranteeing his dominance over the Uruguay River basin. By the end of<br />
the year, the remaining opposition in Montevideo also collapsed. Artigas moved to<br />
consolidate his position by establishing a provisional capital for his new alliance at his<br />
<br />
29 Ibid, Julio Djenderedijan, "Roots of Revolution: Frontier Settlement Policy and the<br />
Emergence of New Spaces of Power in the Río de la Plata Borderlands, 1777-1810," Hispanic<br />
Amercian Historical Review 28, no. 4 (2008).<br />
48 <br />
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