The rise of the Argentine Republic was a process that took place in the first half of the 19th century in Argentina. The Republic has its origins on the territory of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a colony of the Spanish Empire. The King of Spain appointed a viceroy to oversee the governance of the colony. The 1810 May Revolution staged a coup d'état and deposed the viceroy and, along with the Argentine war of independence, started a process of rupture with the Spanish monarchy with the formal Declaration of Independence in 1816 creating an independent republican state. All proposals to organize a local monarchy (as in the contemporary Empire of Brazil or the First Mexican Empire) failed, and no local monarch was ever crowned.
The national organization saw disputes about the type of relation that Buenos Aires should maintain with the other provinces, either as a centralised government or as a federation. The supporters of each project clashed in the Argentine Civil Wars in two camps known as the Unitarians and the Federalists. Some provinces of the former viceroyalty (turned first into the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and then into the Argentine Confederation) tried to secede, some of them remained as independent countries up to modern day (Bolivia and Paraguay) and some rejoined Argentina (Republic of Entre Ríos). Two unitarian constitutions were promulgated and then rejected; the definitive one would be the federal Argentine Constitution of 1853, which is still in force.
Background
The first political event that shaped the future country of Argentina was the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. So far, the territories in it were neglected provinces of the Viceroyalty of Peru: as the Río de la Plata Basin did not have any precious metals or organized indigenous populations to exploit, all ships traded with Peru and New Spain instead. The viceroyalty sought to complement the existing trade routes with new ones, entering South America through the Río de la Plata. The new system did not work as expected, as Spain soon diverted most of its resources to the Napoleonic Wars. Trade with the Americas was hampered, and when Britain got a clear naval supremacy after the battle of Trafalgar, it almost ended.
The American and French Revolutions gave room to the Age of Enlightenment, a new era of ideas that rejected the absolute monarchies and favored liberalism instead. Spain sought to prevent the expansion of the new ideas across its territories, but many criollos came into contact with them during their university studies, either at the University of Chuquisaca or at Spain itself. Both in Spain and the Americas, people longed for a new type of government, such as a constitutional monarchy.
The ill-fated British invasions of the Río de la Plata set a precedent in weakening the monarchic authority. The viceroy, Rafael de Sobremonte, fled to Córdoba during the conflict, but could not return to Buenos Aires after the liberation: an open cabildo gave Santiago de Liniers (who led the Spanish forces in the conflict) the military authority over the city, while it prepared for a British counter-attack, and ordered Sobremonte to stay out. Liniers was later appointed viceroy and this appointment was confirmed by the Spanish king afterwards. This was the first time that the viceroy was deposed by local institutions, and not by the Spanish king himself.
Power vacuum The 1808 Peninsular War was triggered by an event of huge political weight: the king of Spain, Ferdinand VII, was captured and imprisoned by the French armies of Napoleon. The Supreme Central and Governing Junta of the Kingdom claimed sovereignty, and waged the war against the French. The viceroyalty was then divided in political factions with different political opinions about the legitimacy of the Junta. Conservatives thought that, in political terms, the Junta should be acknowledged as the king would be, and the remainder of the political organization of the Spanish Empire should stay unchanged. A group influenced by the French ideas instead thought that the Junta lacked the king's authority and each province should be free to appoint their own government Junta.
The first one to take this ideas into action was Francisco Javier de Elío, governor of the Banda Oriental, with an enmity with viceroy Liniers. Elío appointed himself as the head of a Junta in Montevideo, thus acting with autonomy from Liniers. However, he did not declare the independence of the Banda Oriental, nor rejected completely Liniers' authority. He was allied with Martín de Álzaga in Buenos Aires, who organized a mutiny against Liniers. His project was to replace Liniers with a Junta, ruling nominally in the name of Ferdinand VII, and declare independence once Spain was completely invaded by the French forces. The mutiny, however, was defeated by military bodies supporting Liniers, who stayed in power. The failed mutiny increased the power of criollos in the society: the peninsular military bodies, who supported the mutiny, were disbanded, and the only remaining ones were those of criollos.
Carlota Joaquina, the sister of Ferdinand VII and wife of Portuguese prince regent John, who was in Brazil after fleeing the Napoleonic invasion of Portugal, avoided the capture of the Spanish royal family and attempted to take charge of the Spanish viceroyalties as regent. This political project, known as Carlotism, begun in hopes of preventing a French invasion of the Americas. A small secret society of criollos, composed of politicians such as Manuel Belgrano and Juan José Castelli, and military officers such as Antonio Beruti and Hipólito Vieytes, supported this project. They considered it an opportunity to get a local government instead of a European one, or a step towards a possible declaration of independence. The project was resisted by viceroy Liniers, most peninsulars, and some criollos, including Mariano Moreno, Juan José Paso, and Cornelio Saavedra. They suspected that it concealed Portuguese expansionist ambitions over the region. The supporters of Carlota Joaquina intended her to head a constitutional monarchy, whereas she wanted to govern as an absolute monarch; these conflicting goals undermined the project and caused it to fail. Britain, which had a strong influence in the politics of the Portuguese Empire, opposed the project as well: the British wanted to prevent Spain from splitting into many kingdoms, and considered Carlota Joaquina unable to prevent this.The disputes between Álzaga and Liniers were noticed by the Central Junta, which appointed a new viceroy instead of Liniers: Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros. The criollos resisted his appointment, arguing that Liniers had been confirmed as viceroy by the king, whereas Cisneros lacked such legitimacy. Manuel Belgrano urged Liniers to resist against Cisneros, with the support of the loyal military bodies under his command. Liniers, however, rejected the proposal and handed the government to Cisneros without resistance. Javier de Elío accepted the authority of the new viceroy and dissolved the Junta of Montevideo. Cisneros rearmed the disbanded peninsular militias and pardoned those responsible for the mutiny.
The example of Elío and Álzaga, however, was soon followed in Upper Peru. On 25 May 1809, the Chuquisaca Revolution deposed Ramón García de León y Pizarro as Governor of Chuquisaca and replaced him with Juan Antonio Álvarez de Arenales. On July 16 the La Paz revolution, led by Colonel Pedro Domingo Murillo, deposed the governor of La Paz and elected the Junta Tuitiva de los Derechos del Pueblo. La Paz declared itself independent from Spain, but Chiquisaca did not, and did not recognize the Junta Tuitiva. However, both Juntas were immediately defeated by the reactions from Lima and Buenos Aires, and the government returned to its previous state.
Revolution and Freedom May Revolution
The patriots in Buenos Aires finally took action against viceroy Cisneros when a ship from Europe informed that Seville had been conquered and the Junta disestablished, only Cádiz and the island of León were still standing, but their final defeat seemed imminent. Cisneros tried to conceal the news, but they spread anyway. He then proposed to prevent rushed actions, and suggested to establish a government body with the governors of other Spanish territories, such as Abascal or Nieto. Patriots made secret meetings to discuss the alternatives, and organized a joint plan: the military would deny Cisneros support against riots on the grounds that his authority ended with the fall of the Junta that had appointed him, and the politicians would request an open cabildo to discuss how to face the new scenario.
Once securing Cisneros' approval, they organized a demonstration in front of the cabildo, to make sure that Cisneros kept his word, and manipulated the attendance list to the assembly to prevent a similar move by the Cabildo. Thus, the open Cabildo allowed people from lower classes or not recognized as neighbours, contrary to established practices. The open cabildo, celebrated on May 22, discussed the different proposals: to maintain the status quo, to appoint other people to rule with Cisneros, to remove him and appoint a new governor, to appoint a government junta, etc. The dismissal of Cisneros and the appointment of a Junta got the majority of votes. The members of the Junta would be chosen by the Cabildo.
However, the Cabildo attempted to thwart the result of the open cabildo, and appointed Cisneros as head of the new Junta. He made the oath of office, but the appointment was seen as a betrayal of the Cabildo, causing huge demonstrations. By the night of May 24, Cisneros resigned, along with the criollo members of the Junta, Saavedra and Castelli. But the following day the Cabildo did not accept Cisneros' resignation, and ordered the military bodies to suppress the demonstrations by force. The military commanders denied such support, and stated that even if they accepted, their soldiers would mutiny against such orders. The demonstration broke into the Cabildo and overran some of its sections, so the members of the Cabildo finally agreed to accept Cisneros' resignation. The composition of the new Junta came from a document with hundreds of signatures; but who actually proposed the names remains unknown. The Primera Junta was thus the government that replaced Cisneros, ending the authority of the viceroys.
Primera Junta
The Primera Junta was initially resisted by the Cabildo and the Royal Audiencia, still loyal to the absolutist factions, and by other provinces who did not accept its authority. The Royal Audiencia secretly swore allegiance to the Regency Council, a new Junta created in Spain; this was done in defiance to the Primera Junta, who did not accept its authority over the Americas. As a result, the members of the Audiencia were exiled to Spain, along with Cisneros, with the pretext that there was a threat to their lives. Manuel Belgrano led a military campaign against Paraguay, and Juan José Castelli another one to Córdoba and the Upper Peru.
The Junta got divided between factions supporting the president Cornelio Saavedra and the secretary Mariano Moreno, who favored moderated and radical reforms respectively. Saavedra prevailed over Moreno by increasing the members of the Junta with the deputies that came from other provinces, which left him in a minority. Moreno resigned, and died during a diplomatic journey to Britain.
Junta Grande