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'A Luminous Constellation Pointing the Way? the Connectivity of Rioplatense & US Union and State-Formation, 1815-1820.'

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'A Luminous Constellation Pointing the Way? the Connectivity of Rioplatense & US Union and State-Formation, 1815-1820.' 1 ‘A Luminous Constellation Pointing the Way? The connectivity of Rioplatense & US union and state-formation, 1815-1820.’ David Meirion Jones, Masters by Research, The University of York, Department of History, September 2013. 2 Abstract 'A Luminous Constellation Pointing the Way?' aims to make sense of the connections between the United States and the River Plate between 1815-1820. Based on a connective and comparative approach, the thesis arrives at a different understanding of the United States in a hemispheric perspective. The picture that emerges is of the United States as a weak and vulnerable power struggling against the effects of its post-colonial inheritance. Both out of necessity, because of the United States' weakness, and out of hemispheric solidarity, US Americans sought out allies and enthusiastically embraced Spanish American independence. Rioplatense Americanos reciprocated in their enthusiasm for the United States, and sought to adapt information on the US Federal model to their own local circumstances. A sense of shared American identity and the similarity of North & South American post-colonial inheritances meant information shared between the hemisphere was particularly useful and readily susceptible to local adaptation. These similarities meant that policy solutions for maintaining independence from Buenos Aires to Baltimore had a shared base, but diverged according to each places own circumstances creating local responses to hemispheric problems. US legislators sought to retool their economy in order to realize an 'American System' that would increase the power of the Americas against Europe and integrate the US into Spanish America, an area US Americans considered more promising than their own country. 3 List of Contents Abstract.....................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................4 Author's Declaration.................................................................................................................5 Introduction..............................................................................................................................6 Chapter One.............................................................................................................................13 Chapter Two............................................................................................................................48 Chapter Three.........................................................................................................................79 Abbreviations........................................................................................................................106 Appendices............................................................................................................................107 Bibliography...........................................................................................................................118 4 Acknowledgements Already in under a year I have accrued more debts during this project than space would allow me to acknowledge. But I owe a special thanks to those without whom the project would never have happened. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the financial assistance of an AHRC Scholarship, and a Santander International Connections travel grant. The History Department at York has been constantly supportive, and I owe thanks to many academics and staff there. Particularly to my supervisor Nicholas Guyatt, whose faith in my abilities, encouragement to wander outside of my original research agenda, and constant sound and cheerful advice and suggestions have been immensely helpful. My Thesis Advisory Panel members Alex Goodall and Helen Cowie offered many keen insights and interesting perspectives. We organised a symposium on federalism in the Americas in June 2013 at the York Centre for the Americas which was incredibly thought provoking, and I wish to thank all the participants whose papers greatly shaped my own understanding for the better. I’ve made many friends on my travels and been offered kind and patient assistance from too many libraries and archives to count across South America and the US. Among many Porteños without whom I would never have learnt Spanish, I must particularly thank Professor Héctor Daniel de Arriba, who agreed to introduce me to the history of the region back into 2011 despite my awful spoken Spanish. Towards the end of the process, I suffered numerous pieces of bad luck that hampered my progress, and I thank everyone for helping me through that. My family and friends have been constantly supportive and I owe them greatly and in many more ways than I appreciate. My parents deserve a long overdue thanks for all the support and various requests for assistance. Finally, to Alice, whose insistence that I must not work so much has forced me to keep one foot in the real world, and without whom I would never have been inspired towards the crazy pursuit of a doctorate. I hope she will enjoy that adventure as much as I will in the coming years. 5 Author's Declaration I declare that all the research presented here is both original and my own work. The word count of the thesis is 33,121 words. 6 Introduction Between 1776 and 1826 large parts of the Americas left European empires to become independent nations. While formal independence from Europe was achieved, the American hemisphere remained deeply influence by a ‘post-colonial’ inheritance. To dissolve political ties with Europe was one thing, but to erode the lingering influence European colonialism had on forms of government, economic output and trade patterns proved much harder to overcome. This thesis considers how two parts of the Americas, the US and the Rio de la Plata (River Plate), faced these problems in a connective manner. Not only did the inhabitants of both polities work together on these problems, but for some the solution to both problems was to create more connections and greater integration between the Americas. Connections exist between Baltimore and Buenos Aires, or Montevideo and Massachusetts, and these connections shaped the development of the state in both regions. In 1776, both thirteen North American colonies and the River Plate began important reorganizations. Both regions had been less exciting parts of the British and Spanish empires, respectively, compared to the British and Spanish cash-crop producing islands such as Jamaica and Cuba, and the parts of the mainland Spanish Empire which exported precious metals, such as Alta Perú and Mexico. Previous to 1776, the North American colonies had existed as separate entities with no other unit of governance connecting them than the metropolitan capital of the Empire in London, while the River Plate region had formed part of the Viceroyalty of Perú, where a significant portion of the King’s power was delegated to his ‘Vice-King’ based in Lima. On July 4 1776, thirteen North American colonies rebelled against the metropole forming the United States. Under a month later, on August 1, the River Plate region was reorganized into a new ‘Vice- Kingdom’ made up of twelve Intendencias and Gobernaciones, units of local government, each equivalent in size, if not bigger, than the individual North American colonies, join by a Viceregal capital in Buenos Aires. While the organization of the River Plate into a new Vice-Kingdom transitioned smoothly within the Spanish imperial framework, becoming an independent nation proved more disruptive for the thirteen States of North America. A lengthy war against the British metropole was overcome with the assistance of a French alliance and Spanish and 7 Dutch aid. Independence was secured by 1783, but the lingering influence of colonialism hindered efforts to form a common government. Colonies had become States, and had only created a weak common government unable to raise taxes to pay international debts or be respected as an independent nation capable of forming treaties. In the River Plate, rapid economic development accompanied the new Viceregal status. Buenos Aires expanded from a small backwater of a town to a major entrepot in the Spanish American empire, exporting silver extracted from Potosí in Alta Perú and hides and other raw materials to Spain in exchange for European produced manufactured goods shipped from Spain within the monopolistic trade framework set up by the metropolitan government. By the end of the 1780s, the failing United States had reformed to create a stronger federal union, and the 1790s saw their fortunes reverse. Economic development began with lucrative cash crops and grains exported to those markets to which the United States were allowed access by other nations. But their fortunes were really stimulated by the onset of the French Revolutionary wars. The US, which had secured its independence in alliance with France, reneged on that alliance and remained neutral throughout the wars, allowing US commercial houses and mercantile vessels to capture a large proportion of the ‘carrying trade’, as the US flag was neutral, their vessels could carry goods between belligerent European states, between Europe and the Americas, and between ports within the Americas. This disruption to traditional imperial patterns of trade began the inter- American connections explored in this thesis. Traditionally, Spanish America had been shut
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