French blockade of the Río de la Plata
Encyclopedia
The French blockade to the Río de la Plata was a two-year long naval blockade imposed by France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 on the Argentine Confederation
Argentine Confederation
The Argentine Confederation is one of the official names of Argentina, according to the Argentine Constitution, Article 35...

 ruled by Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...

. It closed Buenos Aires to naval commerce. It was imposed in 1838 to support the Peru–Bolivian Confederation in the War of the Confederation
War of the Confederation
The War of the Confederation , was a conflict between the Peru-Bolivian Confederation on one side and Chile, Peruvian dissidents and Argentina, on the other, fought mostly in the actual territory of Peru and which ended with a Confederate defeat and the dissolution of the...

, but continued after the end of the war. France didn't land ground forces, but instead took advantage of the Uruguayan Civil War
Uruguayan Civil War
The Uruguayan Civil War, also known as "Guerra Grande", was a series of armed conflicts that took place between the Colorado Party and the National Party in Uruguay from 1839 to 1851...

 and the Argentine Civil War
Argentine Civil War
The Argentine Civil Wars were a series of internecine wars that took place in Argentina from 1814 to 1876. These conflicts were separate from the Argentine War of Independence , though they first arose during this period....

, supporting Fructuoso Rivera and Juan Lavalle against Manuel Oribe
Manuel Oribe
Manuel Ceferino Oribe y Viana was the fourth president of Uruguay.-Biography:Manuel Oribe was the son of Captain Francisco Oribe and María Francisca Viana, a descendant of the first governor of Montevideo, José Joaquín de Viana...

 and Rosas.

After two years without the expected results, France signed the Mackau-Arana treaty with the Argentine Confederation, ending the hostilities.

Start of the blockade

The Peru–Bolivian Confederation declared the War of the Confederation
War of the Confederation
The War of the Confederation , was a conflict between the Peru-Bolivian Confederation on one side and Chile, Peruvian dissidents and Argentina, on the other, fought mostly in the actual territory of Peru and which ended with a Confederate defeat and the dissolution of the...

 over Argentina and Chile. His Supreme Protector Andrés de Santa Cruz
Andrés de Santa Cruz
Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana was President of Peru and Bolivia...

 supported the European interests in South America, as well as the Unitarians, whereas Rosas and the Chilean Diego Portales
Diego Portales
Diego José Pedro Víctor Portales Palazuelos was a Chilean statesman and entrepreneur. As a minister of president José Joaquín Prieto Diego Portales played a pivotal role in shaping the state and government politics in the 19th century, delivering with the Constitution of 1833 the framework of the...

 did not. As a result, France gave full support to Santa Cruz in this war. Britain also supported Santa Cruz, but only by diplomatic meanings. Trusting in the military power at his disposal, Santa Cruz declared war to both countries at the same time. Initially, the Peru-Bolivian forces had the advantage, and captured and executed Portales. The war did not develop favorably for Argentina in the north, and the French consul Aimé Roger moved to Buenos Aires to request the capitulation of Argentina. He demanded that a pair of French citizens were released from prison. Those were César Hipólito Bacle, who had sold Argentine cartography to Bolivia, and Pedro Lavié, who had stolen from a regiment in Dolores. It was also demanded that another pair were exempted from military service, and that France received the condition of "most favored nation". This designation would provide commercial privileges, similar to those granted by Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino de la Trinidad Gónzalez Rivadavia y Rivadavia was the first president of Argentina, from February 8, 1826 to July 7, 1827 . He was a politician of the United Provinces of Río de la Plata, Argentina today...

 to Britain. Although the requests were light, Rosas considered that they would only provide precedent for further French interference in the internal affairs of Argentina, and refused to comply. As a result, France started a naval blockade over Buenos Aires. The French admiral Louis Leblanc started it on March 28, 1838.

Rosas took advantage of the British interests in the zone. The minister Manuel Moreno
Manuel Moreno
Manuel Moreno was an Argentine politician, brother of Mariano Moreno. He was one of the founders of the Federal Party in the province of Buenos Aires.-Biography:...

 pointed to the Foreign Office that the commerce between Argentina and Britain was being harmed by the French blockade, and that it would be a mistake for Britain to support it. France underestimated the chance of having such problems with its European ally, counting on that the blockade would be short and Rosas would be forced to leave the government in a short time. They judged that the people would seize the opportunity to stand against Rosas, but underestimated his popularity. With the nation being threatened by both two European powers and two neighbour countries allied with them, the patriotic loyalty increased to the point that even some notable Unitarians who had fled to Montevideo returned to the country to offer their military help, such as Soler, Lamadrid and Espinosa. José de San Martín
José de San Martín
José Francisco de San Martín, known simply as Don José de San Martín , was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain.Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes , he left his mother country at the...

, who was living in France, wrote a letter to Rosas giving him his full support. San Martín repudiated the Unitarians that allied themselves with a foreign country against their own nation, saying that "such felony, not even the tomb can make it disappear". He also offered his service to Rosas in the war, who rejected it because San Martín was more than sixty years old.

Attempts of secession

Things became more complicated for France as time passed: Andrés Santa Cruz was weakening, the strategy employed by Moreno was bearing fruit, and the French themselves started to doubt about keeping a conflict that they had counted to be quite short. Even more, Britain would not allow the French to deploy troops, as they did not want a European competitor gaining territorial strength in the zone. Domingo Cullen
Domingo Cullen
Domingo Cullen was the governor of province of Santa Fe, Argentina during 1838.Cullen was born in Tenerife, Canary Islands, but moved to Argentina in the 1820s after establishing commercial activities in the area. He met Santa Fe's caudillo Estanislao López when serving as a deputy of the Cabildo...

, governor of Santa Fe replacing the ill López, considered that Rosas had nationalized a conflict that involved just Buenos Aires, and proposed the French to secede Santa Fe, Córdoba, Entre Ríos and Corrientes, making a new country that would obey them, if the naval blockade was spared to this new country. To complete the pincer movement
Pincer movement
The pincer movement or double envelopment is a military maneuver. The flanks of the opponent are attacked simultaneously in a pinching motion after the opponent has advanced towards the center of an army which is responding by moving its outside forces to the enemy's flanks, in order to surround it...

, France would need another army attacking Rosas from the east. For this purpose France aided Fructuoso Rivera
Fructuoso Rivera
José Fructuoso Rivera y Toscana was an Uruguayan general and patriot who assisted in the efforts to force Brazilians out of the Banda Oriental.-Founder of Colorado Party and President of Uruguay:...

 against the Uruguayan president Manuel Oribe
Manuel Oribe
Manuel Ceferino Oribe y Viana was the fourth president of Uruguay.-Biography:Manuel Oribe was the son of Captain Francisco Oribe and María Francisca Viana, a descendant of the first governor of Montevideo, José Joaquín de Viana...

, who was forced to resign. Oribe escaped to Buenos Aires, and Rosas received him as the legitimate president of Uruguay, denying such recognition to Rivera. France also took control of the strategic island Martín García
Isla Martín García
Isla Martín García is an Argentine island off the Río de la Plata coast of Uruguay. The enclave island is within the boundaries of Uruguayan waters; in 1973 both countries reached an agreement establishing Martín García as an Argentine territory and also as a nature reserve.The island of has a...

.

The alliance between Cullen and Rivera did not take place, as Juan Pablo López
Juan Pablo Lopez
Juan Pablo López is an undefeated Mexican professional boxer in the Light Welterweight division.-Professional career:On April 10, 2010, Lopez beat Daniel Eduardo Yocupicio by 2nd round K.O...

, brother of Estanislao López, defeated Cullen and drove him away from the province. Collen escaped to Córdoba and then to Santiago del Estero, but the governor Felipe Ibarra wanted to stay with good relations with Rosas, so he captured Cullen for him. In the north, Andrés Santa Cruz was defeated by the Chilean army at the Battle of Yungay
Battle of Yungay
The Battle of Yungay effectively destroyed the Peru-Bolivian Confederation created by Bolivian Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz in 1836...

, and the Peru–Bolivian Confederation ceased to exist. Now Rosas was free to focus all his attention towards the French blockade and Rivera.

Lavalle joins the war

Rivera was urged by France to take military action against Rosas, but he was reluclant to do so, considering that the French underestimated his strength, even more after Santa Cruz's defeat. In paper, Rivera was supposed to cross the Parana with 600 men, Entre Ríos would immediately join the resistance against Rosas and the army would grow to 6.000 men, the same would happen in Santa Fe and the size of the army would be duplicated, and then it would attack Buenos Aires with support of the French navy, whose population would revolt against Rosas. The French and Unitarians believed in this scenario, but Rivera was aware that the popular support to Rosas was genuine, so sending a small army to Buenos Aires would be doomed to failure.

As Rivera did not take action, they elected Juan Lavalle
Juan Lavalle
Juan Galo de Lavalle was an Argentine military and political figure.-Biography:Lavalle was born in Buenos Aires to María Mercedes González Bordallo and Manuel José de La Vallée y Cortés, general accountant of rents and tobacco for the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.In 1799, the family moved to...

 to lead the attack, who shared the unitariam optimism on the fate of a small army. He requested not to share command with Rivera, and as a result they led both their own armies. His imminent attack was backed up by conspiracies in Buenos Aires, led by former members of the May Association. The most notable member of the conspiration was Ramón Maza, son of the former governor Manuel Vicente Maza
Manuel Vicente Maza
Manuel Vicente Maza was an Argentine lawyer and federal politician. He was governor of Buenos Aires, and was killed after the discovery of a failed plot to kill Juan Manuel de Rosas.-Biography:...

, who got military support. As Lavalle was delaying, they developed a new plan: Pedro Castelli and Nicolás Granada would make a revolt at Tapalqué, while the military in the city killed Rosas, Manuel Maza assumed government and allowed Lavalle to take the city. The plot was discovered by the Mazorca, but Rosas thought that Manuel Maza was innocent and carried to the plots of his son, so he urged him to leave the country. He could not: Martínez Fontes, one of the military talked into the complot, revealed it in public. Popular commotion was high, and the people took the streets demanding the execution of the people involved with the complot. Ramón Maza was executed, and his father was killed in his office by the Mazorca. Nevertheless, Pedro Castelli attempted to make a rebellion in the countryside. The people did not follow him, and he was executed as well.

Ending of the blockade

Stir between Britain and France started to increase. Lord Sandon made critics to France at the British Parliament on March 19, 1839. He said that France was attacking a foreign country just because of not signing a treaty, and that it had toppled Oribe from power without being at war with Uruguay. Mr. Lushington added that the French pretensions were unjustified and would have never been enforced against a country with the means to defend itself.

Rosas did not wait to be attacked, and ordered Pascual Echagüe
Pascual Echagüe
Pascual Echagüe, was an Argentine soldier and politician. He served as Governor of Entre Ríos and Santa Fe provinces and Minister of War and Navy during the governments of Urquiza and Derqui...

 to cross the Parana and extend the war into Uruguay. The Uruguayan armies split: Rivera returns to defend Montevideo, and Lavalle moves to Entre Ríos alone. He called all people to stand against Rosas, despite of colour or political ideas, but he found severe resistance, so he moved to Corrientes to join governor Ferré. Ferré defeated López, and Rivera defeated Echagüe, leaving Lavalle a clear path towards Buenos Aires. However, by that point France had given up the trust on the effectiveness of the blockade, as what was thought to be an easy and short conflict was turning into a long war, without clear security of a final victory. The admiral Leblanc was replaced by Dupotet, with new orders to negotiate peace with the Confederation in an honourable way. Those negotiations would include the British ambassador Mandeville. As part of the peace treaty, France requested again the status of "most favored nation" of the initial request, but allowing a similar status for the Confederation by France.

As a result, France removed financial support to Lavalle. He didn't find help at local towns either, and there was strong desertion in his ranks. Buenos Aires was ready to resist his military attack, but the lack of support forced him to give it up and retire from the battlefield, without starting any battle. His army escaped to the north in disorder, and he died in a confusing episode at San Salvador de Jujuy
San Salvador de Jujuy
San Salvador de Jujuy , commonly known as Jujuy and locally often referred to as San Salvador, is the capital city of Jujuy Province in northwest Argentina. It lies near the southern end of the Humahuaca Canyon where wooded hills meet the lowlands....

.

See also

  • Argentine Civil War
    Argentine Civil War
    The Argentine Civil Wars were a series of internecine wars that took place in Argentina from 1814 to 1876. These conflicts were separate from the Argentine War of Independence , though they first arose during this period....

  • Uruguayan Civil War
    Uruguayan Civil War
    The Uruguayan Civil War, also known as "Guerra Grande", was a series of armed conflicts that took place between the Colorado Party and the National Party in Uruguay from 1839 to 1851...

  • Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata
    Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata
    The Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata was a five-year long naval blockade imposed by France and Britain on the Argentine Confederation ruled by Juan Manuel de Rosas. It was imposed in 1845 to support the Colorado Party in the Uruguayan Civil War and closed Buenos Aires to naval commerce...

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