Argentina Breaks Chains: Independence from Spain

Delegates from across the former Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata gathered in a modest house in San Miguel de Tucuman on July 9, 1816, and declared independence from Spain, creating the United Provinces of South America. The declaration came six years after Buenos Aires had expelled the Spanish viceroy and four years into a grinding war for independence that was, at that moment, going badly. The Congress of Tucuman acted less from confidence than from desperation — without a formal declaration, the revolutionary cause risked collapse. The independence movement had begun in May 1810 when a junta replaced the viceroy in Buenos Aires, taking advantage of Spain s weakness during the Napoleonic Wars. But the initial revolution fractured almost immediately. Buenos Aires and the interior provinces disagreed about centralism versus federalism. Paraguay and the Banda Oriental (modern Uruguay) went their own ways. Royalist forces controlled Upper Peru (modern Bolivia), and Spain s fortunes were recovering as Napoleon s power waned in Europe. By 1816, the broader South American revolution was at its lowest point. Simon Bolivar had been defeated and exiled from Venezuela. Chile had fallen back under royalist control. Ferdinand VII was restored to the Spanish throne and was assembling forces to reconquer the colonies. The Congress met in Tucuman partly because Buenos Aires was too dangerous and partly to demonstrate that the revolution represented more than just one city. The declaration was explicit in rejecting Spanish authority and any other foreign domination — a clause aimed at both Spain and Portugal, whose expansion from Brazil threatened the eastern provinces. Jose de San Martin, the military commander who would become Argentina s greatest national hero, had urged the Congress to declare independence quickly so he could pursue his audacious plan to cross the Andes and liberate Chile and Peru, cutting off royalist power at its source. San Martin executed that plan in early 1817, leading 5,000 troops across the Andes in one of the most remarkable military marches in history. His victories at Chacabuco and Maipu secured Chilean independence and opened the route to Lima. The Tucuman declaration gave his campaign the political legitimacy of a sovereign nation rather than a rebel province. Argentina celebrates July 9 as its national day, and the Tucuman house is preserved as a national monument.