Governing the Countryside: Microsocial Analysis and Institutional Construction in Late Eighteenth-Century Río de la Plata

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-80
Author(s):  
Darío G. Barriera
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
La Plata ◽  
Andean Cordillera ◽  
The Strait Of Magellan ◽  
The Government

At the end of the eighteenth century, the Hispanic Monarchy imagined new solutions for governing its territories between the south of the Amazon, the Strait of Magellan, and the Andean cordillera. Populated by farmers and shepherds, these huge rural areas remained poorly known to the authorities. Yet among the reforms conducted in America by Charles III—including the adoption of the intendancy system—none tackled the administration of the countryside head-on. This problem is key for two reasons. First, most of the population of the Río de la Plata lived in rural areas. Second, the enormous distances that separated these areas from the urban centers where representatives of the Monarchy resided (Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, or Madrid) posed a challenge that the authorities had to face in order to govern these populations. Shifting from a “top-down” perspective to a ground-level analysis attentive to local dynamics makes it possible to shed new light on how these spaces far removed from the centers of power functioned. Through the microhistorical analysis of a series of institutional transformations affecting the Río de la Plata, this article shows how subjects came to participate in the government of their region, mobilizing their networks to create a community and institutions on a local scale.

Disorder, Wild Cattle, and a New Role for the Missions: The Banda Oriental, 1776–1786

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (04) ◽  
pp. 517-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Sarreal
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
La Plata ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Transatlantic Trade ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Material Goods

Upon assuming office in 1784, Viceroy Nicolás del Campo, Marqués de Loreto, observed that ruin threatened the Guaraní missions in the viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. Scholars concur that after the Jesuit expulsion in 1768, the missions fell into disrepair and lost their important role in regional affairs. This change marked a significant shift. Until the late eighteenth century, the Guaraní missions attracted the largest indigenous population of all of Spain's Catholic missions and served an important economic and political role in the Río de la Plata region. During the last third of the century, the Guaraní missions declined as a result of Crown reforms that spurred transatlantic trade and reshaped the missions. Expenses far surpassed revenues, buildings and infrastructure deteriorated, distributions of material goods to the Indians decreased, and fewer Guaraní inhabited the missions.

Organizing Sovereign Provinces in Independent America: The Republic of Córdoba, 1776–1827

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (02) ◽  
pp. 223-253
Author(s):  
Geneviève Verdo
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
La Plata ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Institutional Construction ◽  
The Revolution

Abstract This article considers the different political forms that emerged after the former viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (which would eventually become Argentina) became independent. Based on the case of the Republic of Córdoba in the 1820s, it analyzes the territorial and institutional construction of an original political entity, the sovereign province. At the end of the eighteenth century, the reforms put in place under the Spanish Monarchy reinforced and politicized the territorial bodies that made up its empire, a process that continued after the revolution of independence. This created a tension between the sovereignty of these territorial bodies and the sovereignty of the “nation,” which operated according to different territorial constructions and brought different conceptions of sovereignty into play. While the Republic of Córdoba consolidated its internal sovereignty, it was also working toward integration into a larger political entity, envisaged as a confederation.

The Service of William A. Harris at Buenos Aires 1846–1851

1960 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-269
Author(s):  
William Dusenberry
Keyword(s):  
Buenos Aires ◽  
The United States ◽  
Buenos Aires Province ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
Entire Area ◽  
La Plata ◽  
The Government ◽  
Argentine History

William A. Harris ably served the United States as chargé d'affaires at Buenos Aires from June, 1846, until October, 1851, during one of the most critical periods in Argentine history. When he went to his post of duty, Argentina was suffering both from external and internal strife. France and England had intervened in affairs in the Río de la Plata, and had blockaded the coast. Relations between Argentina and two of her neighbors, Paraguay and Brazil, were strained. The government of Buenos Aires was fomenting civil war in Uruguay. There was mounting tension between Buenos Aires and the back country provinces. Public discontent prevailed within Buenos Aires Province. Foreign nationals residing there became increasingly apprehensive about the future of their business enterprises. The heavy hand of the violent caudillo, Juan Manuel de Rosas, Governor of Buenos Aires Province, was felt throughout the entire area of the Río de la Plata. His position was so strong that in most respects he controlled affairs of the whole Argentine Confederation, comprising fourteen provinces.

scholarly journals El escándalo de las quiebras en la Real Hacienda: las Cajas Reales de Oruro y Carangas, 1784-1804

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 161-183
Author(s):  
María Concepción Gavira Márquez
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
La Paz ◽  
Multiple Failures ◽  
La Plata ◽  
Mining Centers ◽  
Bourbon Reforms ◽  
Del Rio

The aim of this research paper is to critically analyze the effectiveness of the Bourbon Reforms in the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. In 1802 the chaotic situation and multiple failures of the Royal Treasury led the Crown to send a visitor to the Viceroyalty. It had been denounced as scandalous the  bankruptcies that took place in much of the Charcas’ Cajas Reales: La Paz, Oruro, Carangas. This work deals with bankruptcies  occurred in the two Cajas located in the mining centers of Oruro and Carangas during the last two decades of the Eighteenth-century, a period associated with the Bourbon reforms and its success in the taxation of the American colonies.El objetivo de este trabajo de investigación es analizar críticamente la eficacia de las Reformas Borbónicas en el Virreinato del Río de la Plata. La situación de caos y múltiples quiebras en las instituciones de la Real Hacienda propició que en 1802 la Corona decidiera enviar un visitador al Virreinato, pues se habían denunciado como escandalosas las quiebras en gran parte de las Cajas Reales charqueñas: La Paz, Oruro, Carangas. El trabajo que presentamos aborda la quiebra que se produjo en las dos Cajas ubicadas en los centros mineros de Oruro y Carangas durante las dos últimas décadas del siglo XVIII, periodo vinculado a la reformas borbónicas y su éxito en la fiscalización de las colonias americanas.

Disorder, Wild Cattle, and a New Role for the Missions: The Banda Oriental, 1776–1786

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Sarreal
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
La Plata ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Transatlantic Trade ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Material Goods

Upon assuming office in 1784, Viceroy Nicolás del Campo, Marqués de Loreto, observed that ruin threatened the Guaraní missions in the viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. Scholars concur that after the Jesuit expulsion in 1768, the missions fell into disrepair and lost their important role in regional affairs. This change marked a significant shift. Until the late eighteenth century, the Guaraní missions attracted the largest indigenous population of all of Spain's Catholic missions and served an important economic and political role in the Río de la Plata region. During the last third of the century, the Guaraní missions declined as a result of Crown reforms that spurred transatlantic trade and reshaped the missions. Expenses far surpassed revenues, buildings and infrastructure deteriorated, distributions of material goods to the Indians decreased, and fewer Guaraní inhabited the missions.

“Names which he loved, and things well worthy to be known”: Eighteenth-Century Jesuit Natural Histories ofParaquariaand Río de la Plata

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-72
Author(s):  
Miguel de Asúa
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Nature Writing ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Science And Literature ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
La Plata ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
National Tradition ◽  
Natural Histories

ArgumentThe eighteenth-century natural histories ofParaquaria, a Jesuit province in South America ranging from the tropical forest to Río de la Plata (the River Plate), constitute a rich and consistent tradition of nature writing. The way the material is organized, the frequent use of lists of aboriginal names, and the focus on naming, all attest to the missionaries' preoccupation with language, understandable given that they were engaged in writing dictionaries and thesauri of the native tongues. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this body of work went through a series of appropriations, reflecting the various intellectual programs that contributed to the making of the national tradition in Argentina. While these natural histories are still often interpreted in terms of Argentina's national history, science, and literature, I will argue that they should be considered a product of a mixed culture oriented toward the practical and religious goals that are characteristic of most of Jesuit missionary culture, the result of the missionaries' attempt at organizing their experience of the wilderness and their encounter with the aboriginal peoples.

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