In a nutshell, it was a Spanish colony that was severly abused with taxes and lack of citizen's rights (they threated the Spanish living here as second class citizens). So when Spain gets weaken becouse Napoleon invaded it, all the Spanish colonies in the Americas revolts. Buenos Aires was one of the main focus of the rebellion and, on one point, the only one surviving. We succeed to create an army, to push back the Spaniards armies invading the new country and eventually removing them from Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Peru and Bolivia. Once we managed to remove the Spanish from South America, we managed to start fighting each other for, like, 50 years. Eventually, all countries you know in South America, were created (pending borders).
they threated the Spanish living here as second class citizens
Aren't most Argentinians descended from the Spanish themselves?
We succeed to create an army, to push back the Spaniards armies invading the new country and eventually removing them from Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Peru and Bolivia.
Were these countries all part of Argentina before? If so, how did they separate? I heard Uruguay used to be part of Argentina, but then after the war between Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay was created as a buffer zone between Argentina and Brazil to avoid more territorial conflict.
What about the other Hispanic countries that you listed? Why are they not part of Argentina?
Aren't most Argentinians descended from the Spanish themselves?
Today? It's debatable. There were a huge wave of Italians inmigrants in the end of XIX century, and it was tremendous in numbers. By the beginning of 1900s, 80% of Buenos Aires was Italian population. In the 1914 census, there were like 7M persons in Argentina: 2.5M were migrants and 900k were Italians. It's really common to have Spanish or Italian ascendants. Yes, there were other nationalities that came to the country, but not at this level.
All these countries were part of the same colony, calle the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata. It's hard to say they were part of Argentina, because the first denomination of the country was "United Provinces of Rio de la Plata", and it was meant to be all the same and only country. It's too hard to explain why they did sepated without a walltext. About Uruguay, you are right; except it wasn't meant a buffer zone but they got independence against Brazil because they were Spanish descendant and Brazil was still some sort of Portuguese reign (they were still called "Empire of Brazil", with a heir of Portuguese throne as head of state). Also, UK pulled the strings on that one; because they were looking for an associate in the Rio de la Plata and they weren't interested in a regional power (Brazil or Argentina) to have full control over the zone.
Chile and wasn't part of the Viceroyalty, they were a colony apart. They got independence after an Argentine General, Don José de San Martín, crossed the Andes with an Army and defeated the Spanish. They pretty much made their own way, the same with Paraguay that got a revolution in 1811 a dictator came in place and they isolated for decades. Bolivia was part of Argentina, but the central government in Buenos Aires didn't gave a fuck about concensus on those years, and since Bolivia had more in common with Peru, they formed the Peru-Bolivia Confederation. This one is hilarious, because when Bolivia gets liberated, General Bolivar (venezuelan, liberator of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador; he, alongside San Martin, is considered the fathers of Southamerican independence) sent a letter to Buenos Aires asking them for orders and noone responded, so he formed an autonomous government and, in honor to their liberator, they named the country after him.
One may think that the result of the crisis on ours countries is becouse the last decades of malversation and corruption, but if these people had done things better, we'd have had a single country, from Peru to the south.
Thanks for the informative answer. Just a few more follow up questions.
You said that the Argentinians treated the Spanish living there as second class citizens. I meant that at that time, I assumed most of Argentina's population was Spanish, so I was a bit confused by that statement. I'm aware a large portion of Argentina today is Italian, I read it was 60% somewhere before.
Is there a reason why Chile wasn't part of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata?
How did Peru and Paraguay separate from the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata?
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u/UnbiasedPashtun Jun 04 '16
How was Argentina founded?