THE SPANISH DOMINION
The subsequent history of Argentina during the Spanish dominion does
not present much incident, and indeed it is not an uncommon practice
for historians of Latin-American countries to make a single leap from
the Conquest to the Revolution. But to the real student of history
there is much that is of interest in the record of the attempt of
Spain to govern a mighty empire and the rapid decay of her power. In
the next chapter the Spanish colonial system will be examined; in the
present it will be observed in operation. Much will be said about the
illiberal restrictions which here receive only incidental notice, but
however short-sighted they may have been, at least they could not
prevent Argentina from thriving. A considerable trade sprang up
between Cordoba and the Andine territories now known as Chile and
Bolivia; nor was it only in material well-being that progress was
made. At Cordoba, also, a university was founded in 1613, and the town
became a seat of learning and a centre of Jesuit influence. For some
years peace reigned, but in the second quarter of the seventeenth
century it received two serious disturbances. The first was a
dangerous Indian war with the powerful nation of the Calchaquies.
This people had lived from time immemorial in the valleys of Rioja and
Catamarca, and had been under the suzerainty of the Incas. As the
Spaniards around the River Plate became more powerful they made
aggressions upon the Calchaquies, and by the end of the sixteenth
century had partly subdued them. Many of these Indians were sold into
slavery, and many more were forced to settle about Santa Fé and
Rosario, but the spirit of the remainder was still unsubdued, and they
awaited an opportunity of recovering their independence. It was about
the middle of the century that they made their expiring effort. A
leader named Bohorquez came forward and claimed to be the descendant
and heir of the Inca kings. He is said to have been a mere impostor
of humble Andalusian origin, but it is seldom easy to find out the
exact truth about pretenders. Funes doubts whether he was in his right
mind. "But the light of reason appeared when he took his first steps
in deceit, an art to which he was naturally inclined."[26] He and his
wife were greeted with the honours due to the Inca kings, the revolt
spread, and he caused the Spaniards endless trouble. The Calchaquies,
whom he claimed to represent, were a hardy race, and down to modern
times have shown good fighting qualities, and they were inflamed by
resentment against the intruding Spaniards, who had undoubtedly
oppressed them. Bohorquez first came forward in 1656, and though he
appears to have possessed nothing better than the showy qualities of a
bold charlatan, he brought about a dangerous war. Don Alonso Mercado,
who had been appointed Governor of Tucuman the year before, was
obstinate and overbearing, and, strangely enough, began by patronising
and encouraging the impostor. The Jesuits, who were always anxious to
redress Indian grievances, also supported him, and the revolt assumed
such serious proportions that the Governor soon had to abandon his
former attitude and took up arms against him. The Indians, who, with
simple credulity, accepted all the claims of Bohorquez, made a long
and heroic resistance, but the Spanish power was too great. The
pretender was defeated, and the Spaniards, aware that there could be
no safety for the northern provinces as long as Bohorquez was alive,
spared no effort to track him down, and were eventually successful.
Bohorquez was taken to Lima and put to death, and the Calchaquies were
placed under a military Deputy-Governor, who was subordinate to
Tucuman. Their martial spirit, however, did not die out, and in the
nineteenth century they proved themselves one of the most spirited of
the warlike races of South America.
The other trouble of the seventeenth century was more serious and
involved more bloodshed. We have seen that there was considerable
jealousy between the Spanish and Portuguese in South America. In 1580
Portugal had been united to Spain, but this change did not make the
relations any more harmonious, for there was a standing cause of
quarrel between the two nations. The Portuguese had founded in the
temperate Brazilian uplands the city of São Paulo, and the inhabitants
known as Paulistas, were a turbulent people and had an intense hatred
of the Jesuits. The Jesuits, supported by the Spanish Government,
protected the Indians and devoted themselves to their general welfare,
but the chief business of the Paulistas was to capture Indians and
sell them into slavery. They looked with covetous eyes upon the
Reductions, as the Jesuit settlements were called, for here was the
raw material of their industry in the shape of hundreds of thousands
of submissive Indians. Accordingly, in 1629 they picked a quarrel with
the Jesuits and attacked the Reduction of San Antonio, where they
committed great ravages, killing and capturing multitudes of the
helpless Indians. The Jesuits, who were not loved by the Governor of
Paraguay, were compelled to evacuate Guayra and the scope of their
benevolent labours was largely curtailed. This cruel and devastating
war continued for many years and caused widespread ruin and loss of
life until, in 1638, the Jesuits appealed to the Court of Spain,
requesting that their wrongs might be redressed and that they might
arm their helpless converts against the oppressor. The appeal was
successful. "The King," says Southey,[27] "confirmed all the former
laws in favour of the Indians: he declared the conduct of the
Paulistas, who had carried away more than thirty thousand slaves from
Guayra, and had begun the same work of devastation in the Tapé and on
the Uruguay, to be contrary to all laws, human and divine, and
cognisable by the Holy Office. The enslaved Indians were ordered to be
set at liberty, and directions given to punish those who should commit
these crimes in future, as guilty of high treason. A more important
edict, because more easily carried into effect, provided that all
Indians converted by the Jesuits in the province of Guayra, Tapé,
Parana, and Uruguay, should be considered as immediate vassals of the
Crown, and not on any pretext consigned to any person for personal
service. Their tribute was fixed, but not to commence till the year
1649, by which time, it was presumed, they might be capable of
discharging it. And the King not only granted permission to the
Jesuits to arm their converts, but sent out positive orders to the
Governors of Paraguay and the Plata to exert themselves for the
protection of the Reductions." But in 1640 Portugal regained her
independence and the marauding Paulistas left a lasting mark on the
map of South America. Undoubtedly but for their incursions the whole
valley of the Parana would have been Spanish instead of Portuguese,
but, as it was, the Spaniards had to retire behind the river Iguazu.
Emboldened by this success, the Portuguese ever kept in view the
design of extending their dominions still further southward. In 1680
the Governor of Rio de Janeiro sent an expedition by sea and built a
fort, which he named Nova Colonia, opposite the city of Buenos Aires.
Thus the disputed territory of Uruguay was for the first time
occupied by Europeans. The establishment of this hostile post caused
great annoyance to the Governor of Buenos Aires, and he succeeded in
capturing it upon several occasions, but the Home Government, in view
of European politics, had no wish to offend Portugal, nor did it
consider that the possession of almost uninhabited tracts was worth
the risk of complications. It thus happened that Nova Colonia was
always restored to the Portuguese eventually. It became a most
prosperous port, for it was the seat of the contraband trade, and by
its means the Argentines were able to export hides to Brazil.
Doubtless it was beneficial to them, however much it may have
interfered with the illicit gains of Spanish Governors. It remained in
the possession of the Portuguese until 1777.
The contraband trade was indeed the chief feature of the domestic
history of Argentina in the sixteenth century, and its tendency was to
raise important international questions. The fight against the Spanish
monopoly became every year keener as the various countries of Europe
became more settled and secure and began to devote their energies to
trade. In 1616 the monopoly received a heavy blow by the discovery of
a way into the Pacific without passing through the guarded Straits of
Magellan. This was made by the Dutchman, Schouten,[28] who named Cape
Horn after Hoorn, his birthplace. Immediately numerous Dutch and
English ships took advantage of the new route and a great trade sprang
up. As we have seen, the Governors of Buenos Aires played a prominent
part in this trade, and no earthly power was able to prevent the
economic law from taking effect. The case of Villacorta, a Governor
who was discovered to have sent away three million dollars' worth of
prohibited goods to Flanders, illustrates the helplessness of the
artificial law. He was dismissed at the moment, but not long after he
reappears as Governor of Tucuman. But, however illegally, trade went
on and Argentina flourished. A traveller[29] who visited Buenos Aires
in 1769 says that its chief trade was with Chile and Peru, and that it
sent to them "cotton, mules, some skins, and about 400,000 Spanish
pounds' weight of the Paraguay herb, or South Sea tea, every year." In
fact Argentina, like the other Spanish colonies, advanced steadily in
wealth and population during the eighteenth century, until progress
was abruptly checked by the Revolution. But her history from the
founding of Nova Colonia to the appearance of the English before
Buenos Aires is remarkably barren in incident.
It was, of course, the fate of colonies to be pawns in the wars
between powerful European States. Spain was a principal in the great war
of the Spanish Succession, which was ended in 1713 by the Peace of
Utrecht. Two of the articles were of importance to the Spanish
possessions. By the _Asiento de Negros_ England obtained the right to
send yearly to the Spanish colonies twelve hundred negro slaves, and
Buenos Aires was named as one of the establishments for that traffic,
while by the _Navio de Permiso_ she was permitted to send out yearly to
the South Seas a ship with 650 tons of merchandise. These concessions,
of course, greatly stimulated the contraband trade, for the colonists
were as eager to buy as the English merchants were to sell, nor had the
Spanish officials the will or the power to prevent many interlopers
following in the wake of the privileged ships. Parish[30] remarks that
it was "a trade which supplied the most pressing wants of the colony,
and the profits of which were shared by the native capitalists. If they
(the officials) did occasionally make a show of exercising their right
to visit the ships, it was an empty threat, little heeded by men who
were looked upon with almost as much dread as the buccaneers who had so
long been the terror of all that part of the world."
Under the Bourbons and under the skilful administration of Alberoni,
the fortune of Spain revived, and the colonies benefited in a
corresponding degree.
In 1726 the Spaniards seized and fortified Montevideo which had been
founded by the Portuguese a few years previously; this was an
important step, for it declared that, in spite of Nova Colonia, the
territory now known as Uruguay should be Spanish. The new town rapidly
became wealthy and second only to Buenos Aires.
There can be little doubt that historians have considerably exaggerated
the weakness and decay of Spain during the eighteenth century. Her
comparative strength is proved by the fact that she maintained her trade
regulations which were only contravened surreptitiously. The attempt of
England to overthrow them by force shows how great was the resistive
power of this unenterprising but still formidable empire. The War of
Jenkins's Ear may be considered as a rehearsal of the struggle for the
New World which occupied a great part of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, and which is still unfinished.
Therefore, although the war is in itself trivial and ineffective, its
purport is not so; it was the battle of the new spirit against the
old, of the trader against the official, of the active against the
passive. If here and elsewhere the latter had conquered, we might
have had, in place of our modern hives of industry, vast thinly
populated regions dotted with little, self-sufficient villages, which
possibly were destined to be overrun by a more restless and energetic
yellow race.[31]
Undoubtedly the English had not a shadow of right on their side; they
were encouraging the breaking of treaties and flagrant political
dishonesty. But under the brutal economic codes of the time there was
no law but the law of the stronger; England might take if she had the
power and Spain might keep if she could. The turbulent English mobs,
clamouring for war, were shrewder than Walpole, shrewder than Burke,
for they knew that to an island and trading people outlets for their
commerce were matters of sheer necessity.
The Spaniards strongly disliked the Asiento Treaty, and, as is well
known, English merchants, under cover of the privilege, carried on
extensive smuggling operations against which the Spanish _guarda
costas_ retaliated vigorously. It was in 1731 that they perpetrated
upon Captain Jenkins the outrage which was to make so great a stir
some years later. It may be added that Jenkins did really lose his ear
on the high seas, and that the insinuations that the whole affair was
a fabrication are themselves quite without foundation.[32] However,
not for nearly seven years was there any attempt to make political
capital out of it, although the smuggling question remained a constant
source of irritation between the two countries. It was at the
beginning of 1738 that circumstances were favourable for an outbreak,
for a powerful opposition was longing to bring about the fall of
Walpole, and his position was weakened by the death of Queen Caroline.
No weapon could be more effectual than the accusation of being
insensible to the claims of national honour and of tamely suffering
insults from Spain. On March 30th Carteret, in the House of Commons,
carried an address against the right of search, and Walpole, who was
anxious on all grounds to settle the matter, expedited the negotiations
which had been for some time proceeding with Spain on the subject of
compensation. In January, 1739, the terms of the agreement were
published to the following effect. The Spaniards were willing that
damages against themselves should be assessed to the amount of £200,000,
but, on the other hand, the English Government acknowledged a
counterclaim of £60,000, on account of the destruction of the Spanish
fleet by Byng in 1718. With this and other possible deductions and
abatements, the compensation seemed rather meagre, and the whole
question of right of search being left to a Commission's decision, there
was nothing in the findings that could be agreeable to Englishmen. A
storm at once rose. The Prince of Wales voted against the Government.
Young Pitt thundered against Walpole. The Prime Minister had to give
way. His colleagues were in favour of war, and, as often happened in
such struggles, Admiral Vernon was despatched, long before a declaration
of war, "to destroy the Spanish settlements and to distress their
shipping." The national feeling continued to rise, and great were the
manifestations of popular joy on the occasion of the formal declaration
of war on October 23rd. "They now ring the bells," said Walpole, "they
will soon ring their hands."
Meanwhile Vernon, though his force was small, lost no time, and having
appeared off Porto Bello with six ships on November 20th, he captured
it the next day, and the news of this success (which did not reach
London till March, 1740), was received with extravagant demonstrations
of rejoicing. In the spring Vernon was menacing Cartagena, and on March
24, 1740, captured Chagre. The home authorities appear to have been
extremely dilatory, for it took them a whole year to send effectual
reinforcements, and then their value was seriously discounted by the
fact that General Wentworth had succeeded to the command of the land
forces. This officer was thoroughly incompetent, and no exhortations of
Vernon could rouse him to energy, and owing to his mismanagement the
assault upon Cartagena of April 9th was a complete failure. The armament
departed about a week later, having lost at least eight thousand men,
and in July an attempt upon Santiago in Cuba failed likewise, owing to
Wentworth's incompetence. Little more of note occurred on that side, and
it is here proper to mention that Vernon was in nowise to blame for the
unfortunate results, and that, with an efficient colleague, there seems
no reason to doubt that he would have made a great name for himself in
the annals of the British Navy. Nor should Smollett, because he happens
to be a famous novelist, be accepted as a judge of the strategy of the
expedition. He had, in fact, infinitely less materials for forming a
judgment than a private at Waterloo had for criticising Wellington's
dispositions.
The haphazard general management is well illustrated by the only
brilliant achievement of the war--the Anson circumnavigation. Anson,
with six ships manned by Chelsea pensioners and raw recruits, was
ordered to the Pacific, and set sail on September 18, 1740. Although
his little squadron dwindled to three, he rounded the Horn, and
subsequently burnt Paita in Peru, and played havoc with Spanish
commerce. He crossed the Pacific, captured a great treasure-ship, and
returned by the Cape of Good Hope to England, which he reached June
15, 1744. He brought home treasure amounting to £500,000, and this was
paraded through the streets of London in thirty-two wagons.
It would be difficult to say when the War of Jenkins's Ear ended, or
what were its results. Carlyle[33] says: "What became subsequently of
the Spanish War, we in vain inquire of History-Books. The War did not
die for many years to come, but neither did it publicly live; it
disappears at this point: a River Niger, seen once flowing broad
enough, but issuing--Does it issue nowhere, then? Where does it
issue?... Forgotten by official people; left to the dumb English
Nation." Doubtless it was not forgotten by the people; they soon
showed once more their eagerness to break down the monopoly, and this
curious war is noteworthy both as striking the real keynote of a long
series of vast struggles, and also as showing the great _vis inertiæ_
of Spain. Southey[34] remarks that the history of the War of Jenkins's
Ear proves the strength of Spain in South America, and points out that
an event in the war contributed indirectly to the prosperity of the
River Plate settlement. When it was known that Anson was fitting out
his celebrated squadron, the Spanish Government for its part also
despatched six ships and three thousand five hundred men to protect
the settlement. They delayed a long time there and, it is said,
eventually not more than one hundred of the crews returned home, the
greater part remaining to settle in the country.
Not less important than these hostilities against English and
Portuguese (who from their near neighbourhood were almost equally
dangerous in the contraband trade) was the loss to South America of
that body which had been the conscience of Spanish America, which had
protected the Indians, instructed the ignorant, and turned the
wilderness into fertile fields. For a long time the civil power in
Roman Catholic countries had been jealous of the influence wielded by
the Jesuits. As their object was to suppress everything opposed to the
Roman Catholic system as they understood it, so every element that
felt itself menaced naturally rose in self-defence, and the Jesuits
found themselves friendless in Europe. Their downfall was principally
due to the able and astute Pombal, the Prime Minister of Portugal, who
considered that his country was depressed by a too powerful hierarchy,
and his machinations were greatly assisted by circumstances in the
River Plate settlements.
Colonia had long been a trouble to the Spaniards, diminishing their
trade and insulting them by its propinquity, and in 1750 they made
overtures for an exchange. The offending port was to be surrendered
and the Portuguese were to receive in exchange a large portion of the
Jesuit Missions, _i.e._, the territory called La Guayra and about
20,000 square miles to the east of the Uruguay River. This included
seven Jesuit Reductions, and the Society and the Indians strenuously
resisted the transference. Although the story of the Jesuits belongs
rather to Paraguay than Argentina, it is for many reasons necessary to
refer to that wonderful and benevolent despotism which they exercised
in the Parana settlements, and also to relate the circumstances of
their expulsion from South America--a matter of great importance to
all the colonies.
The Jesuits did not commence effective work in Paraguay earlier than
the beginning of the seventeenth century. In the days of the conquest
attempts had been made by them to convert the natives and to further
general missionary work, but the circumstances had not been favourable.
It was in 1610 that two members of the Order, Cataldino and Mazeta,
founded the settlement of Loreto on the Upper Parana. An unfriendly
critic[35] remarks: "They began by gathering together about one hundred
and fifty wandering families, whom they persuaded to settle, and they
united them into a little township. This was the slight foundation upon
which they have built a superstructure which has amazed the world, and
added so much power at the same time, that it has brought so much envy
and jealousy upon their society. For when they had made this beginning,
they laboured with such indefatigable pains, and with such masterly
policy that, by degrees, they mollified the minds of the most savage
nations,[36] fixed the most rambling, and subdued the most averse to
government. They prevailed upon thousands of various dispersed tribes of
people to embrace their religion, and to submit to their government; and
when they had submitted, the Jesuits left nothing undone that could
conduce to their remaining in this subjection, or that could tend to
increase their number to the degree requisite for a well-ordered and
potent society, and their labours were attended with amazing success."
The Jesuit establishments are one of the many meritorious acts of
Saavedra who, seeing with concern the depression of the Indians and
recognising their value to the Spanish Crown, appealed to the King,
whereupon Phillip III., in 1609, issued royal letters patent to the
Order of Jesuits for the conversion of the Indians. It is true that the
Jesuits drew considerable wealth from their obedient subjects. They
exported hides in large quantities and had a monopoly of the production
of _maté_. Their method of government also would have been unsuitable to
a race of harder fibre,[37] for they jealously excluded their Reductions
from the external world, allowing no European to enter, and the Indians
were kept constantly at work at the agricultural pursuits which the
Jesuits themselves had greatly improved. But in those days it was rare
indeed for any settlers to pay any regard to the welfare of the
uncivilised races whom they encountered, and it must be remembered that
the Jesuits were practically the only Christian missionaries in the
period between the Reformation and the middle of the eighteenth century.
All honour, then, is due to them for their devotion and philanthropy.
When the peaceful Indians heard of the great disaster that had overtaken
them in their abandonment to their old enemies the Portuguese, there was
consternation, but they were remorselessly driven from their homes.
However, the Jesuits protested strongly, and in the end the Spanish
Government was induced to annul the treaty. Nevertheless, the Indians
never recovered their losses and the West of Rio Grande became
permanently Portuguese, in spite of the abrogation of the treaty. The
result would, no doubt, have been different had their powerful
protectors remained in the country.
The officials at Buenos Aires cared much about Colonia and little for
the Reductions or the fate of the Indians, and the Jesuits were
accused of having brought about the recision of the treaty. Any
pretext was now welcome, for their destruction was contemplated. As we
have seen, the able Pombal had resolved to expel them from Portugal,
and in 1759 he trumped up against them a charge of attempting to
assassinate the King, and issued a decree for their deportation from
Portugal. France eventually followed this example, and in 1767 even
the Spanish King was induced to do the same, while in 1773 Pope
Clement XIV. decreed the entire suppression of the Order.
In Argentina the Jesuits were seized and deported. It was expected
that the Indians, who were armed, would make a serious resistance, but
they were as sheep having no shepherd, and rather than remain in their
old abodes to be harried by new masters they migrated to Entre Rios
and Uruguay. But the work of the Jesuits has not perished, for they
and the conventual orders were the first to give an example of
humanity in the treatment of inferior races.
This great change was quickly followed by another. In 1776 the
Vice-royalty of Buenos Aires was created, that is, the four countries
now known as Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, were detached from
the Vice-royalty of Peru, under Don Pedro Cevallos, sometime Governor
of Buenos Aires. This step was a recognition of the importance of
Buenos Aires, to which all observers testify. All the efforts of the
Spaniards to force the trade of Europe over the Isthmus of Panama and
the Andes had failed, and Buenos Aires was now to fulfil its destiny
as the metropolis of Spanish America. The new Governor brought a large
force, for there had been serious trouble with Portugal. As the latter
was too weak to resist, and as the news of peace between the two
countries followed almost immediately, there was no difficulty in
coming to terms, and Colonia was finally made over to Spain. The result
of this important treaty was that Spain was left in undisputed
possession of Uruguay and Portugal of Brazil in its present form, for
she recovered Rio Grande and Santa Catharina. Free trade was established
between Buenos Aires and Spain, and Argentina made wonderful industrial
advances. The rest of the century was uneventfully prosperous, but great
events were in the wind, and they were destined to have a powerful
influence on Spanish America. The easygoing paternal rule was to come to
an end, and a long period of bloodshed and turbulence was to succeed. As
was the case in every other part of the world, the motive power was
supplied by the French Revolution.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] Funes, vol. iii. 73.
[27] "History of Brazil," ii. 322-3.
[28] Drake in 1578 visited the south of Tierra del Fuego, and
discovered that there was a passage round, but he did not himself make
the voyage round Cape Horn.
[29] Bourgainville (See J. H. Moore), "Collection of Voyages and
Travels," 266.
[30] "Buenos Ayres," 59.
[31] Carlyle has an accurate perception of the gravity of the issue.
"The Jenkins's Ear Question, which then looked so mad to everybody,
how sane has it now grown to my Constitutional Friend! In abstruse
ludicrous form there lay immense questions involved in it; which were
serious enough, certain enough, though invisible to everybody. Half
the World lay hidden in embryo under it. Colonial-Empire, whose is it
to be? Shall Half the World be England's, for industrial purposes;
which is innocent, laudable, conformable to the Multiplication-table
at least, and other plain Laws? Or shall it be Spain's for
arrogant-torpid sham-devotional purposes, contradictory to every Law?"
("History of Frederick the Great," xii. 12, § 3).
[32] See Sir J. K. Laughton, _English Historical Review_, October,
1889.
[33] See Sir J. K. Laughton, _English Historical Review_, October,
1889.
[34] "History of Brazil," iii. 300.
[35] "An Account of the Spanish Settlement in America," 340-1.
[36] "They collected them into fixed habitations, gave them laws,
introduced useful and polite arts among them; and, in short, of a
barbarous nation, without civilised manners, and without religious
principles, they made a good-natured and well-governed people, who
strictly observed the Christian ceremonies" (De Bougainville, p. 98).
[37] "These Indians live at present in an entire assurance, that
whatever their priests advise them to is good, and whatever they
reprehend is bad" (Ulloa, ii. 183).