“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
- 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 and 44: ivers, deserts and a few vagrant an
- Page 45 and 46: defend its possessions, peninsular
- 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: easoning. 25 They had rejected the
- 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
- Page 95 and 96: that he had employed to first arran
- Page 97 and 98: opposite direction from Porto Alegr
- Page 99 and 100: Pinto sought to have the property d
- Page 101 and 102: dealings with Vázquez and the Carv
- Page 103 and 104: Ríos or by ship to Montero’s out
- Page 105 and 106: alliances with the blancos to open
- Page 107 and 108: connections up and down the river t
military headquarters along the banks of the Uruguay River near Salto and in the center of<br />
the borderlands.<br />
Although triumphant for the moment, Artigas still faced a perilous political situation.<br />
To the east, imperial armies continued to threaten invasion. To the south, Buenos Aires<br />
remained a persistent threat. Although royalist opposition had faltered in Montevideo, the<br />
borderlands caudillo faced continued resistance from the city’s merchant community. Artigas<br />
had to find a means to forge a new base of power in the borderlands capable of sustaining a<br />
fight against these powerful enemies. To do so, Artigas turned to the small landowners in<br />
the Banda’s interior in order to establish a bulwark against his coastal enemies. As a former<br />
military commander in the borderlands, Artigas was acutely aware of the longstanding social<br />
tensions between peripheral inhabitants and coastal merchants over questions of property<br />
rights. To sustain his revolution, Artigas now tapped into these conflicts. Artigas drew<br />
upon the literature percolating throughout the Río de la Plata discussing the meaning of the<br />
revolution in the United States. From it, he articulated a new, Jeffersonian vision for the<br />
borderlands. He called for the creation of a class of small landowners, which would form<br />
the core of a new republic founded on notions of virtue, equality, patriotism and public<br />
service. Once removed from the parasitic yoke of the old colonial system and its vestiges in<br />
the viceregal capital, the borderlands could emerge as a prosperous and modern republic.<br />
Artigas would be its protector. 30<br />
As the conflict between his followers and Buenos Aires intensified, Artigas began to<br />
move beyond notions of local autonomy and federalism and embrace a much more radical<br />
vision for a new social order in the borderlands. His social revolution reached its apogee in<br />
1815 with the enactment of the Reglamento provisorio de fomento de la campaña y seguridad de sus<br />
<br />
30 Salvatore, ed. Caudillismos Rioplatenses, 128-33.<br />
49 <br />