The Cisplatine War (), also known as the Argentine-Brazilian War () or, in Argentine and Uruguayan historiography, as the Brazil War (''Guerra del Brasil''), the War against the Empire of Brazil (''Guerra contra el Imperio del Brasil'') or the Liberating Crusade (''Cruzada Libertadora'') in Uruguay, was an armed conflict in the 1820s between the
United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and the
Empire of Brazil
The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom ...
over Brazil's
Cisplatina province, in the aftermath of the United Provinces' and Brazil's independence from Spain and Portugal. It resulted in the independence of Cisplatina as the
Oriental Republic of Uruguay.
Background
Led by
José Gervasio Artigas, the region known as the
Banda Oriental, in the
Río de la Plata Basin, revolted against Spanish rule in 1811, against the backdrop of the 1810
May Revolution
The May Revolution ( es, Revolución de Mayo) was a week-long series of events that took place from May 18 to 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This Spanish colony included roughly the terri ...
in Buenos Aires as well as the regional rebellions that followed in response to Buenos Aires' pretense of primacy over other regions in the
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata ( es, Virreinato del Río de la Plata or es, Virreinato de las Provincias del Río de la Plata) meaning "River of the Silver", also called " Viceroyalty of the River Plate" in some scholarly writings, i ...
. In the same context, the
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the ...
, then headquartered in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
, took measures to solidify its hold on
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is border ...
and to annex the region of the former
Eastern Jesuit Missions.
From 1814 on, the Provincia Oriental, led by Artigas, joined forces with the provinces of
Santa Fe and
Entre Rios in a loose confederation called the
Federal League
The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...
, which resisted Buenos Aires' authority. After a series of banditry incidents in the territory which was previously claimed by the Portuguese Empire, in what is today the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, the now United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves
invaded the Banda Oriental in 1816.
Artigas was finally defeated by the Luso-Brazilian troops in 1820 at the
Battle of Tacuarembó. The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves then formally annexed the Banda Oriental as a province of the
Kingdom of Brazil
The Kingdom of Brazil ( pt, Reino do Brasil) was a constituent kingdom of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves.
Creation
The legal entity of the Kingdom of Brazil was created by a law issued by Prince Regent John of Portu ...
, under the name Cisplatina, with support from local elites. With the annexation, the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves now enjoyed strategic access to the
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...
and control of the estuary's main port, the city of
Montevideo
Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern co ...
.
After
Brazilian independence, in 1822, Cisplatina remained as a province of the newly formed Empire of Brazil. It sent two delegates to the 1823 Constituent Assembly that was tasked with drafting Brazil's first constitution. The constitution drafted by the Assembly was rejected by Emperor
Pedro I, who
dissolved the Assembly and issued a constitution himself in 1824. Under the
1824 Constitution, the Cisplatina province enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy, more so than other provinces within the Empire.
Conflict
While initially supporting the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves' intervention in the Banda Oriental, the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata later urged the local populace to rise up against Brazilian authority, covertly giving them political and material support aiming to establish sovereignty over the region.
Rebels led by
Fructuoso Rivera
José Fructuoso Rivera y Toscana (17 October 1784 – 13 January 1854) was a Uruguayan general and patriot who fought for the liberation of Banda Oriental from Brazilian rule, twice served as Uruguay's President and was one of the instigators ...
and
Juan Antonio Lavalleja carried on resistance against Brazilian rule. On 25 August 1825, an assembly of delegates from all over the Banda Oriental met in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
and declared its independence from Brazil, while also declaring, at the same time, its allegiance to the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. On 25 October 1825 the congress of the United Provinces declared the annexation of the Banda Oriental. In response, Brazil declared war on the United Provinces on 10 December 1825.
The two navies which confronted each other in the Río de la Plata and the South Atlantic were in many ways opposites. The Empire of Brazil was a major naval power with 96 warships, large and small, an extensive coastal trade and a large international trade carried on mostly in British, French and American ships. The United Provinces had similar international trading links but had few naval pretensions. Its navy consisted of only half a dozen warships and a few gunboats for port defence. Both navies were short of indigenous sailors and relied heavily on British—and, to a lesser extent—American and French officers and sailors, the most notable of which were the Irish born admiral
William Brown, and the commander of the Brazilian inshore squadron, the English commodore
James Norton.
The strategy of the two nations reflected their respective positions. The Brazilians immediately imposed a blockade on the Río de la Plata and the trade of Buenos Aires on 31 December 1825, while the Argentines attempted to defy the blockade using Brown's squadron while unleashing a swarm of privateers to attack Brazilian seaborne commerce in the South Atlantic from their bases at
Ensenada and more distant
Carmen de Patagones. The Argentines gained some notable successes—most notably by defeating the Brazilian flotilla on the
Uruguay River at the
Battle of Juncal and by beating off a
Brazilian attack on Carmen de Patagones. But by 1828, the superior numbers of Brazil's blockading squadrons had effectively destroyed Brown's naval force at the
Monte Santiago and was successfully strangling the trade of Buenos Aires and the government revenue it generated.
On land, the Argentine army initially crossed the Río de la Plata and established its headquarters near the town of
Durazno. General
Carlos María de Alvear invaded Brazilian territory and a series of skirmishes followed. Emperor Pedro I planned a counteroffensive by late 1826, and managed to gather a small army mainly composed of southern Brazilian volunteers and European mercenaries. The recruiting effort was hampered by local rebellions throughout Brazil, which forced the Emperor to relinquish direct command of his Army, return to Rio de Janeiro and bestow command of the troops on
Felisberto Caldeira Brant, Marquis of Barbacena
Felisberto Caldeira Brant Pontes de Oliveira Horta, the Marquis of Barbacena (19 September 1772 – 13 June 1842) was a Brazilian soldier and statesman of both Portugal and the Empire of Brazil.
Life
Brant was born in Mariana, then the Port ...
. The Brazilian counteroffensive was eventually stopped at the
Battle of Ituzaingó
The Battle of Ituzaingó, also known as the Battle of Passo do Rosário, was a pitched battle fought in the vicinity of the Santa Maria River, in a valley of small hills where a stream divided the valley into two.
After a two-year series of con ...
.
Ituzaingó was the only battle of some magnitude in the whole war. A series of smaller clashes ensued, including the
Battle of Sarandí, and the naval Battles of
Juncal and
Monte Santiago. Scarcity of volunteers severely hampered the Brazilian response, and by 1828 the war effort had become extremely burdensome and increasingly unpopular in Brazil. That year, Rivera reconquered the territory of the former Eastern Jesuit Missions.
Aftermath
The stalemate in the Cisplatine War was caused by the inability of the Argentine and Uruguayan land forces to capture major cities in
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
and Brazil, the severe economic consequences imposed by the Brazilian blockade of Buenos Aires, and the lack of manpower for a full-scale Brazilian land offensive against Argentine forces. There was also increasing public pressure in Brazil to end the war. All of this motivated the interest on both sides for a peaceful solution.
Given the high cost of the war for both sides and the threat it posed to trade between the United Provinces and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
, the latter pressed the two belligerent parties to engage in peace negotiations in Rio de Janeiro. Under British and French mediation, the
United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and the
Empire of Brazil
The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom ...
signed the
1828 Treaty of Montevideo
The Preliminary Peace Convention was a bilateral treaty signed on 27 August 1828 between the Empire of Brazil and the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, after British mediation, that put an end to the Cisplatine War and recognized the ind ...
, which acknowledged the independence of the
Cisplatina under the name
Eastern Republic of Uruguay.
The treaty also granted Brazil sovereignty over the eastern section of the former Eastern Jesuit Missions and, most importantly, guaranteed free navigation of the
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...
, a central national security issue for the Brazilians.
In Brazil, the loss of Cisplatina added to growing discontent with Emperor Pedro I. Although it was far from the main reason, it was a factor that led to his
abdication in 1831.
Legacy
Although the war was not a
war of independence
This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence.
List
See also
* Lists of active separatist movements
* List of civil wars
* List of ...
, as none of the belligerents fought to establish an independent nation, it has a similar recognition within Uruguay. The
Thirty-Three Orientals are acknowledged as national heroes, who freed Uruguay from Brazilian rule. The landing of the Thirty-Three Orientals is also known as the "Liberation crusade".
The war has a similar reception within Argentina, considered as a brave fight against an enemy of superior forces. The
Argentine Navy
The Argentine Navy (ARA; es, Armada de la República Argentina). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with th ...
has named many ships after people, events and ships involved in the war. William Brown (known as "Guillermo Brown" in Argentina) is considered the father of the Argentine navy,
[ ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, according to its officia]
website.
URL accessed on October 15, 2006. and is treated akin to an
epic hero for his actions in the war. He is also known as the "
Nelson of the Río de la Plata".
Brazil has had little interest in the war beyond naval warfare buffs. Few Brazilian historians have examined it in detail. The national heroes of Brazil are instead from Brazilian independence, the conflicts with
Rosas (
Platine War) or the
Paraguayan War.
Despite the role of Britain in the war, and the presence of British naval officials on both sides of the conflict, the war is largely unknown in the English-speaking world.
See also
*
Platine Wars
*
Brazil–Uruguay relations
*
Argentina–Brazil relations
The Argentina– Brazil relationship is both close and historical, and encompasses the economy, trade, culture, education, and tourism. From war and rivalry to friendship and alliance, this complex relationship has spanned more than two centuri ...
*
List of wars involving Brazil
*
List of wars involving Argentina
This is a list of wars involving the Argentina, Argentine Republic and its predecessor states from the colonial period to present day.
*
*
*
*
Inca Empire
Colonial Argentina (1536–1810)
United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (1810–1 ...
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
In English
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In Portuguese
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In Spanish
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External links
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{{Authority control
1820s in Argentina
1820s in Brazil
1820s in Uruguay
Colonial Uruguay
Empire of Brazil
History of South America
Maritime history of Argentina
Wars involving Argentina
Wars involving Brazil
Wars involving Uruguay
Invasions by Argentina