The Cry of Asencio ( es, Grito de Asencio) or Admirable alarm ( es, Admirable alarma) was an 1811 ''

pronunciamiento A ''pronunciamiento'' (, pt, pronunciamento ; "proclamation , announcement or declaration") is a form of military rebellion or ''coup d'état'' particularly associated with Spain, Portugal and Latin America, especially in the 19th century. Typol ...

'' that took place at the

Banda Oriental Banda Oriental, or more fully Banda Oriental del Uruguay (Eastern Bank), was the name of the South American territories east of the Uruguay River and north of Río de la Plata that comprise the modern nation of Uruguay; the modern state of Rio Gra ...

(modern

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 ...

) against the Spanish rule in

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 ...

. Made in support of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, which had already ousted the viceroy and established a local government during the

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 ...

, it is considered the beginning of the Oriental revolution.

History

Antecedents

Montevideo and Buenos Aires were part of 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 ...

, a Spanish colony in South America. The

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spai ...

in Spain generated a political crisis at the Spanish colonies, as the king

Ferdinand VII of Spain , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_p ...

was captured by the Napoleonic forces. Buenos Aires, the capital of the viceroyalty, ousted the viceroy

Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros y de la Torre (6 January 1756 – 9 June 1829) was a Spanish naval officer born in Cartagena. He took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent and the Battle of Trafalgar, and in the Spanish resistance against Napole ...

in 1810 during the

, and established a local government, the

Primera Junta The Primera Junta ( en, First Junta) or ''Junta Provisional Gubernativa de las Provincias del Río de la Plata'' (''Provisional Governing Junta of the Provinces of the Río de la Plata''), is the most common name given to the first government of ...

. Montevideo did not accept the authority of the new Junta, and acknowledged the

Cortes of Cádiz The Cortes of Cádiz was a revival of the traditional '' cortes'' (Spanish parliament), which as an institution had not functioned for many years, but it met as a single body, rather than divided into estates as with previous ones. The Genera ...

as the legitimate Spanish authority. As a result of Buenos Aires's rebellion, Montevideo was appointed the new capital of the Viceroyalty, and governor

Francisco Javier de Elío Francisco Javier de Elío y Olóndriz (Pamplona, 1767 – Valencia, 1822), was a Spanish soldier, governor of Montevideo. He was also instrumental in the Absolutist repression after the restoration of Ferdinand VII as King of Spain. For th ...

was promoted to viceroy. The villages near Montevideo supported Elío, while the villages linked to Buenos Aires supported the Junta. Elío declared war to Buenos Aires on February 12, 1811. He arranged many new taxes to support the war effort, which harmed the local economy, already weakened by the Peninsular War.

The conflict

Many criollo military enlisted in the Spanish forces defected from them and joined the resistance against Montevideo. This is the case of

José Gervasio Artigas José Gervasio Artigas Arnal (; June 19, 1764 – September 23, 1850) was a political leader, military general, statesman and national hero of Uruguay and the broader Río de la Plata region. He fought in the Latin American wars of in ...

, who defected from

Colonia del Sacramento , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = Basilica del Sanctísimo Sacramento.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento , pushpin_map = Uruguay , subdivisio ...

on February 15, asking Buenos Aires support for their rebellion. The rebellion took place on February 28, and it was headed by Venancio Benavídez and Pedro Viera, following instructions from Artigas.Grito de Asencio
Nearly a hundred men met next to the Asencio stream, and rejected the authority of Elío. the villages of San Carlos, Minas, Maldonado, Durazno, Canelones and Pantanoso soon joined the pronouncing against the Spanish rule.Abad de Santillán, p. 475 They captured the village of Mercedes in the morning, and Viera captured Santo Domingo de Soriano in the afternoon, the same day. Artigas joined the fight shortly afterwards.

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous city in the country, and is also the most p ...

and

San José de Mayo San José de Mayo () is the capital city of the San José Department in southern Uruguay. Location and geography The city is located at the centre of the state, on the intersection of Route 3 (Uruguay), Route 3 with Route 11 (Uruguay), Route 11, ...

would be captured in April, followed by the first victory in an open military conflict against the Royalists in the battle of San José.

Legacy

The Cry of Asencio is considered the initial step of the Uruguayan theater of the

Spanish American wars of independence The Spanish American wars of independence (25 September 1808 – 29 September 1833; es, Guerras de independencia hispanoamericanas) were numerous wars in Spanish America with the aim of political independence from Spanish rule during the early ...

. The Uruguay bicentennial was held on February 28, 2011.¿Qué se conmemora?

Bibliography

References

External links

Bicentenario de Uruguay
{{Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Military history of Uruguay Spanish American wars of independence Conflicts in 1811 1811 in Uruguay February 1811 events