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Federal League (1815–1820)

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League of the Free Peoples
Liga de los Pueblos Libres
1815–1820
Flag of Liga Federal
Flag
Liga Federal (pink) including present day Argentine Provinces of Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Misiones and Santa Fe, plus the former Eastern Province (modern day Uruguay)
Liga Federal (pink) including present day Argentine Provinces of Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Misiones and Santa Fe, plus the former Eastern Province (modern day Uruguay)
StatusUnrecognized state
CapitalPurificación (provisory), Montevideo
Common languagesSpanish
GovernmentConfederation
Leader 
History 
• Established
1815
February 23, 1820
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
United Provinces of South America
Cisplatina
Republic of Entre Ríos

The Federal League or League of Free Peoples (Spanish: Liga Federal or Liga de los Pueblos Libres) was a confederal state based around Montevideo from 1815 to 1820. It extended over the territories of present-day Uruguay and the Argentine littoral Provinces.

The Federal League was organized after the break up of the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and following the Provinces' rejection of the centralist Supreme Directorship, based in Buenos Aires. The federalist idea that inspired its creation was strongly advocated by José Gervasio Artigas. The league was dissolved after facing attacks from both the invading Brazilian-Portuguese empire and the Buenos Aires centralist governments of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

Although the country was intended to extend throughout Argentina, it was centered around Montevideo and the Eastern Bank of the Uruguay river. Therefore, it is usually considered a predecessor state of modern Uruguay.

History

On May 13, 1810, the arrival of a British frigate in Montevideo confirmed the rumors circulating in Buenos Aires: France, led by Emperor Napoleon, had invaded Spain, capturing and overthrowing Ferdinand VII Bourbon, the Spanish King. The situation was clear: with the authority of the viceregency gone, there was a power vacuum. Leading figures in Buenos Aires quickly arranged a meeting and after much discussion it was decided to replace the Spanish rule with a local Junta.

After the May Revolution, most of the provinces of former Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata got together forming the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, also known as United Provinces of South America in 1810. The four provinces of Upper Peru (current-day Bolivia) were occupied by Spanish Royalist forces and the other ten provinces were under pressure from Royalist forces.

José Gervasio Artigas

In 1810, Spain moved the headquarters for the Viceroyalty of the River Plate to Montevideo after the May Revolution forced them to abandon Buenos Aires. On February 15, 1811 José Gervasio Artigas left his home of Montevideo and moved to Buenos Aires to offer his military services. The people of Spanish America were fighting for their freedom and Artigas wished to defend these ideals in the Eastern Bank. At the beginning of April he returned to his country with approximately 180 men provided by the Government of Buenos Aires; on April 11, he issued the Mercedes Proclamation, assumed control of the revolution and on May 18 defeated the Spanish in the Battle of Las Piedras. He then began the siege of Montevideo and was acclaimed as The First Chief of the "Orientals" (the first names of current Uruguay being Banda Oriental (Eastern Bank) and later Provincia Oriental (Eastern Province), Uruguayans thus refer to themselves as 'Orientales').

He soon turned against the government of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and in 1814 he organized the Unión de los Pueblos Libres (Union of the Free Peoples), of which he was declared Protector. In the following year, as a federalist, he liberated Montevideo from the centralizing control of the "Unitarians" from Buenos Aires, and in 1815 declared the Liga Federal. In this Congress Artigas ratified the use of the flag created by Manuel Belgrano (which would later become the flag of the Argentine Republic), but added a diagonal festoon in red, red being the sign of federalism in Argentina at that time.[1] Original member provinces were the present day Argentinian provinces of:

Downfall

The constant growth of influence and prestige of the Federal League frightened Buenos Aires (due to its federalism) and Portugal (because of its republicanism), and in August, 1816 the latter invaded the Eastern Province (with Buenos Aires's tacit complicity)[2], with the intention of destroying the protector Artigas and his revolution.

The Portuguese forces, led by Carlos Frederico Lecor, thanks to his numerical and material superiority, conquered Artigas and his deputies and occupied Montevideo on January 20, 1817, but the struggle continued for three long years in the countryside. Infuriated by Buenos Aires's passivity, Artigas declared war at the same time that he faced the Portuguese with armies that were decimated by successive defeats. His subordinates, members of the Federal League—Francisco Ramírez, governor of Entre Ríos, and Estanislao López, governor of Santa Fe--managed to end the victorious struggle against the centralism of Buenos Aires. But any hope of a new nation was short-lived; both commanders entered agreements with Buenos Aires which went against the principles of Artigas. They finally rebelled against him and left him to be crushed by the Lusitanians.

Without resources and without suitable men for the struggle the federal nation of Liga Federal dissolved and Artigas withdrew to Paraguay on his own in September, 1820.[2][3] In Paraguay, Dr. Francia, the dictator, banished him to Candelaria. He then disappeared from the political life of the region.

Aftermath

The provinces of the Liga Federal joined the United Provinces after the Unitarian's defeat in the Battle of Cepeda allowed federal elements of the United Provinces government to seize control.

References

  1. ^ antonio martins (2005-01-22). "Flag of the Federal League, a.k.a. Artiga's flag (Eastern Bank of La Plata: Uruguay and northeastern". pub. Retrieved 2008-04-08. The red, blue and white colours were used by Artigas to establish a clear difference between the flag of the Eastern Province. These three colours evoke the colours of the French Tricolor of French Revolution days. At the beginning of the XIX century, red and blue were the colours you could find when looking for cloth for the soldiers' uniforms, in these Spanish colonies. Materials came in two shades of blue. One, the lightest, was celestial or "heavenly" blue and had been chosen by Belgrano for the flag of the May 1810 Revolution. Four or five years later, not wanting his colors to be similar or confused with those of the Buenos Aires government, against whose dominance he would be soon fighting, Artigas chose to design his flag and other provinces which were with him in opposing of Unitarian domination, in colours not existing in the Argentine flag. The shade of blue he adopted therefore was navy blue. Jorge Cajarville, 16 Jun 1999 {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 918 (help)
  2. ^ a b "José Gervasio Artigas". pub. 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-08. A year later,[1816] the Portuguese empire, supported by the centralist Buenos Aires government, invaded from Brazil. He continued fighting against Portugal but was utterly defeated in 1820. He was then exiled to Paraguay, were he died in 1850.
  3. ^ Bonnie Hamre (2007). "José Gervasio Artigas". about.com. Retrieved 2008-04-08.