Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (Spanish Virreinato del Río de la Plata) was the southernmost of the Spanish viceroy empires in Latin America. It comprised roughly the present states of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, in which only a part has been effectively controlled.

History

It was separated from the Viceroyalty of Peru on August 1, 1776. Capital and seat of the Viceroy was Buenos Aires. The administration was responsible for the first governor of Buenos Aires, Pedro de Cevallos, who was appointed first viceroy from 15 October 1777. A court for the area was established with the Real Audiencia of Buenos Aires was only in 1785.

From 1810 began gradually the dissolution of the empire. Paraguay seceded during the independence movement in 1811 by La Plata from and Uruguay in 1815. Argentina, whose aspirations for independence in 1810 as the Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata, together with Uruguay (then as Banda Oriental, "eastern strip " ) and the Bolivian department Tarija had begun in 1816 was finally independent from Spain. Bolivia was liberated by Simon Bolivar until 1825 by the Spanish colonial power. Uruguay's independence movement had finally settled under the Portuguese -Brazilian occupation of 1816-1828 and after its cleavage from today's Argentina in 1828 success.