Notes on the History of
Argentine Independence
——A PAPER READ BY——
February 6th, 1920
Before the
American Club
Buenos Aires
NOTES ON THE HISTORY
OF
ARGENTINE INDEPENDENCE.
A Paper read Before the American Club
of Buenos Aires
by Mr. C. W. WHITTEMORE.
In a former paper read before this Club, effortwas made to show how settlements inthe Argentine came east and south fromPerú, step by step, until Buenos Aires waseventually founded by Juan de Garay in 1580.In Argentine history this is known as the "Refoundation"of the city, a sentimental fiction ofobscure origin for there was no connectionbetween the permanent work of Garay and theephemeral passing of Pedro de Mendoza forty-fouryears previously. In the present paper,we will trace the history of Argentine Independenceas it extended west and north, step bystep, reversing the march of early settlement,until the final battles were fought and won inPerú, the stronghold of Spanish power in SouthAmerica.
The Fathers of Argentine Independence tookit for granted that the new nation wouldembrace all the territory included in theViceroyship of the River Plate, which wascreated in 1776 (note the year:) as an afterthought[Pg 4]of the Spanish Government andintended to quiet the discontent of the Argentinepeople over trade restrictions and to providea bulwark against Portuguese aggressions, atthat time a serious menace. It included thepresent Republics of Argentine, Uruguay, Paraguayand Bolivia, then called Upper Perú,this last having a considerable frontage on thePacific Ocean. The population in 1776, includingslaves and tame Indians, was probably lessthan five hundred thousand people, of whichfully one-half lived in Upper Perú.
A noteworthy feature, the only one in allSpanish America, of the primary Argentinecolonization was that it absorbed the Indianpopulation. In Perú as in Mexico and elsewhere,the conquerors implanted a feudalism whichhad as its principal basis the distribution of thenatives as laborers among the mine and ranchowners. The Indian races crossed with theSpaniards but were not assimilated. In theArgentine, on the contrary, the Indians wereassimilated, there was a minimum of oppression,a limitation to human exploitation, arudimentary recognition of equality, with theresult that at an early day the native sons werethe backbone of the settlements, assumedpositions of authority, led exploring expeditionsand founded other colonies. Seeds ofeventual freedom were planted from the verybeginning.
Spain settled America for the benefit ofSpain, the welfare of the colonies was neverconsidered, and one of the fundamentalmanifes