Colonial Period Argentina: Conquest, Colonization, Society and Featured Personages

The Argentine colonial era is the name given to the period of history in which the Argentine Republic was under the control of the Crown and the Spanish conquerors. It covers the entire period from the establishment of the first homes by Europeans in the country until its independence in 1816.

During this period Argentina was considered one of the minor colonies for Spain, because the center of European government of this region was in Peru due to the important presence of resources that the area presented and the lack of minerals that were in Argentina.

The colonial era began formally in 1536, when the first Spanish settlement was established in this region. Interestingly, the Portuguese had been the first Europeans to set foot on albiceleste land, through the explorer Gonçalo Coelho in the company of Amerigo Vespucci, in 1502.

Control of Argentina was also hampered in the first instance by the large number of nomadic tribes in the region. However, in 1776 the Spanish Crown recognized the importance of Argentina with the establishment of a viceroyalty in Rio de la Plata, which gave more power to the region within less than half a century of its total independence.

During the colonial era, the Argentine settlements were increasingly becoming areas where a national identity was established in its inhabitants. This, together with the economic development of the region, were the main catalysts for the independence of Argentina.

Over the course of almost 300 years from its discovery to its independence, Argentina gained worldwide recognition and became one of the Latin American economic powers of the time.

Conquest

During the pre-Columbian period, the land that today is known as Argentina had a small number of inhabitants. The tribes that inhabited the area were mainly nomads, which means that they did not settle in a fixed place but changed their location according to the availability of resources in each area.

The only indigenous presence of great significance that existed in Argentina before the Spanish Conquest was that of the Inca Empire, which was made with a large area of ​​land throughout the north of the country that is known today.

The first indigenous groups that opposed the Spanish explorers were the Charrúas, a tribe native to the area that includes the border of Argentina and Uruguay. During the arrival of the first explorers from Spain, commanded by Juan Díaz de Solís, the Charrúa tribe faced the navigators and murdered several of them.

Indigenous resistance

The conquest of Argentina was, despite the presence of regional tribes, quite peaceful by the standards of the time. This was due to the small amount of inhabitants that were in the vast expanse of land.

In addition, the presence of the Incas had been put under control by the Spaniards prior to the conquest of Argentina, since the dominion of Peru had already been established.

Despite this, the Spaniards faced problems with some indigenous groups present in the Calchaquíes valleys. There were short but constant battles over 35 years, from 1630 to 1665. At that time the Spaniards finally imposed control in the region and the aborigines left the area.

There was a general retreat of all the tribes in the area (including the nomads) and even some were unified with the Mapuche to try to retake the lost lands. The alliance was not successful and the Spaniards continued with the advance towards the south of the country.

It was the Jesuit priests who managed to appease a large number of aborigines in the area and, in part, the little bloodshed is due to these religious.

Expansion

The conquest stage was one of the most extensive in the continent: even having established the colonies, resistance continued to be presented and the large expanse of land to the south populated with nomadic aborigines complicated a faster advance of the Spaniards.

It should be noted that the occupation of Argentina was not given priority when it was discovered that the region was not rich in silver or minerals in general, unlike other lands already colonized further north, such as Peru.

Spanish colonization

The first Europeans - of whom there is a record - who came to the region were the Portuguese. During the expedition that departed from Joao (Lisbon) in 1512, Río de la Plata was sighted for the first time. There was a short exchange between Portuguese and indigenous (mainly Charrúas), but no European colony was established.

Three and a half years later, in 1516, the first Spanish expedition was sent to Argentina. It was led by Juan Díaz de Solís, considered the first Spanish explorer to set foot on Argentine soil as a product of this expedition. 20 years later the first Spanish colony in Argentina was established in what is now the capital: Buenos Aires.

The colonization stage in Argentina was slow and, in many ways, unproductive. They spent more than three decades for the inauguration of the second colony after the abandonment, in 1541, of what was the only Spanish colony. This happened in 1573, when Cordoba was founded.

At that time, Córdoba was established with the purpose of expanding the viceroyalty of Peru, whose capital was Lima and now would have territory in Argentina.

Several inhabitants arrived from Peru to populate the area and settled in the region, which was one of the first areas of South America that was populated without the purpose of obtaining wealth, because La Plata did not have ample resources of rich minerals.

Development of the first cities in Argentina

After the establishment of Córdoba in 1573, a second settlement was established in 1580, also belonging to the Viceroyalty of Peru.

Throughout the entire period of Spanish occupation in what later became Argentina, there were three main towns that developed unique characteristics of internal leadership and considerable economic strength:

San Miguel de Tucumán

One of these cities was San Miguel de Tucumán, whose leadership lasted almost 150 years: from the middle stage of the 16th century to the end of the 17th century. The population of Tucumán possessed a wide jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical controls of the region, as well as an important political participation.

Tucumán also had absolute control of local commerce. As Argentina was not rich in natural resources, cattle ranching was widely exploited. Tucumán produced a significant amount of livestock, and this was sent to the upper part of the viceroyalty of Peru (the area that today occupies the map Bolivia) in exchange for goods brought from Spain.

Cordova

The city of Córdoba used a system quite similar to that of San Miguel de Tucumán. The reason why the influence of Cordoba increased was mainly the expansion that this town had, becoming a central area in the territory of the viceroyalty that allowed easier access to trade.

In 1613 the University of Córdoba was also established, which made the city one of the main intellectual centers of the region.

Buenos Aires

The city of Buenos Aires was the most influential in the entire Argentine territory. It gained prominence in the late eighteenth century, less than a century before the independence of Argentina. The city became a center of economic, cultural and political progress that symbolized the beliefs with which the independent republic was founded.

Economic measures were taken to reduce the importance of the income obtained from the silver mines of Peru, which were being left with few resources after centuries of constant mining.

Buenos Aires began to trade directly with European nations, being the first Argentine city to open the transatlantic trade open with the Old Continent.

In Europe, the cultural movement known as the Enlightenment had already been launched, and the progressive ideas of this movement reached Buenos Aires. The intellectuals of the city were interested in ideas, which proposed that knowledge cultivated in human beings was capable of fighting ignorance.

This generated a directional change of the intellectualism of Cordoba towards Buenos Aires, which was followed by an absolute reorientation of the political life of the region with the establishment of the viceroyalty of La Plata in 1776.

Viceroyalty of La Plata

The viceroyalty of Peru came to have Buenos Aires as its capital city in 1776, and was given the name of Viceroyalty of La Plata. It extended through all the Argentine territory and of what is now Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.

The main reason for the establishment of this new viceroyalty was completely economic, but the concentration of power in Buenos Aires generated counterproductive consequences for the Spanish Crown. These resulted in the political destabilization of the viceroyalty of La Plata and the eventual independence of Argentina.

Spain sought to protect its colonial territory from Portuguese and British expansion. However, there was already a high level of discontent on the part of the inhabitants of the colonies due to the restrictions and limitations imposed by Spain.

In spite of the attempts of the Crown to appease the viceroyalty cities, it did not take long for revolutions to take place caused by the criollos, who established governing boards in the region. These were the first antecedents of the independence of Argentina, which was consolidated a few years later, in 1816.

Colonial society in Argentina

After the colonization of Rio de la Plata, attempts were made to establish ports along the coast. However, this event could not happen, because the water was not deep enough.

This caused that the goods that had to arrive directly to the Silver could not accede by means of the sea, that was the main way to do it at the time.

As a consequence of this, all kinds of cargo had to first pass through the Peruvian port of Callao, near Lima. The diversion of trade caused as a domino effect that smuggling was one of the most common ways of obtaining income in the societies of the viceroyalty regions of Peru, which today make up Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

The economy of Spain began to decline at the beginning of the 17th century. At that time, the Creoles and Europeans with more purchasing power began to buy land from the Spanish Crown, where they inaugurated a large number of farms throughout the entire Argentine territory.

When the viceroyalty of La Plata was established in 1776, the society of what would be Argentina already had a high understanding of the power of the region and the criollo forces soon began to start revolutions to destabilize Spanish control.

Outstanding characters from the Argentine colonial era

Jerome Luis de Cabrera

Cabrera was the founder of the colonial city of Córdoba. In addition, he acted as governor of the province of Tucumán and was one of the most influential political figures of the beginning of Spanish activities in the colonies of South America.

Juan de Garay

Garay was one of the main emissaries of the Spanish Crown in the viceroyalty of Peru, being governor of what is now Paraguay. This conqueror was commissioned to found an important number of cities that later became part of Argentina, including Buenos Aires.

Manuel Belgrano

Manuel Belgrano was one of the main liberators of Argentina. His influence in the final stage of the Argentine colonial period (prior to independence) led not only to the independence of Argentina, but also collaborated with that of Paraguay.

He was the creator of the Argentine flag. In 1816 he participated in the congress of Tucumán, where the independence of his country was declared.

Santiago de Liniers

Liniers was a Frenchman who worked with the Spanish army, and became one of the main leaders who retook Buenos Aires without Spanish help after the invasion of the British. His performance led to his appointment as viceroy of the city, without prior consultation with the King of Spain.

This was one of the most important events in colonial Argentina, creating a high regionalist feeling in the area that strengthened the independence efforts 5 years later.

References

1. Argentina, Encyclopedia Britannica, (n.d.). Taken from britannica.com
2. History of Argentina, (n.d.). Taken from latinamericancollection.com
3. Argenitne history, from its origin to its colonization; (n.d.). Taken from argentina-excepcion.com
4. The Nation of Argentina, (n.d.). Taken from nationsonline.org
5. BBC Argentina Country Profile, (n.d.), May 29, 2012. Taken from bbc.co.uk
6. Colonial Rule, (n.d.). Taken from footprinttravelguides.com
7. History of Argentina, (n.d.), March 12, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
8. Pedro de Mendoza, (n.d.), March 9, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
9. Juan de Garay, (n.d.), March 6, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
10. Santiago de Liniers, (n.d.), November 13, 2017. Taken from wikipedia.org
11. Manuel Belgrano, (n.d.), February 25, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org