May Revolution (1810): Argentina's First Step to Independence

The May Revolution was the week of political events in Buenos Aires, from 18 to 25 May 1810, that removed the Spanish viceroy of the Río de la Plata and replaced him with a locally chosen governing council, the Primera Junta. Although it did not yet declare independence, it is regarded as the starting point of Argentina’s history as a self-governing nation and was one of the first successful moves towards independence in Spanish South America.

Background: crisis in the empire

The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, created in 1776, covered present-day Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, with its capital at Buenos Aires. The city’s merchants grew rich on trade, both legal and contraband, through the estuary of the Río de la Plata.

Two events shook loyalty to Spain. In 1806 and 1807 British forces invaded Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The viceroy, the Marquis of Sobremonte, fled, and it was local militias and a French-born officer, Santiago de Liniers, who drove the British out. The victories gave the people of Buenos Aires confidence in their own strength and gave the new militia regiments, such as the Patricios, real political weight.

Then in 1808 Napoleon invaded Spain and forced King Ferdinand VII to abdicate, starting the Peninsular War. A Supreme Central Junta in Seville governed in the king’s name and in 1809 sent a new viceroy, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, to replace Liniers. Across Spanish America people asked whether authorities appointed by a collapsing Spanish government still had any right to rule.

The news from Spain

In mid-May 1810 British ships brought news that French troops had overrun Andalusia and that the Central Junta had dissolved, replaced by a small Council of Regency on the island of León near Cádiz. To many in Buenos Aires, the authority that had appointed Cisneros no longer existed.

On 18 May Cisneros issued a proclamation admitting the gravity of the news but urging loyalty. Criollo leaders, among them Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli and the lawyer Mariano Moreno, pressed for an open town council. Crucially, Cornelio Saavedra, commander of the Patricios, told the viceroy that the militias would not defend him.

The week of May

The demand for an open council was not new. In January 1809 a group of Spanish-born merchants led by Martín de Álzaga had tried to overthrow Liniers and set up a junta loyal to Spain, but Saavedra’s Patricios had crushed the attempt. The episode showed that the criollo-led militias, not the viceroy, now held the balance of power in the city.

On 21 May a crowd gathered in the main square, now the Plaza de Mayo, demanding a cabildo abierto, an open meeting of the town council. Activists such as Domingo French and Antonio Beruti organised supporters.

The cabildo abierto met on 22 May. About 450 leading residents were invited and roughly 250 attended. The bishop of Buenos Aires, Benito Lué y Riega, argued that as long as any part of Spain remained free, Spaniards should govern the colonies. Castelli replied that with the king captive and the Junta dissolved, sovereignty had returned to the people, who could form their own government. Many votes followed Saavedra’s proposal that power should pass to the cabildo until a junta was formed. The majority voted to remove the viceroy.

On 24 May the cabildo tried a compromise, creating a junta headed by Cisneros himself. The militias and the crowd rejected it, and the members resigned that night. On 25 May, under pressure from the troops and demonstrators gathered outside, the cabildo accepted a new list of members. The Primera Junta took office that afternoon, with Saavedra as president.

The Primera Junta

The Primera Junta had nine members. Alongside Saavedra sat Belgrano, Castelli, Miguel de Azcuénaga, the priest Manuel Alberti and the merchants Domingo Matheu and Juan Larrea, with Mariano Moreno and Juan José Paso as secretaries. The group combined moderates like Saavedra with radicals like Moreno, and tensions between them soon broke out.

The Junta swore loyalty to Ferdinand VII. Historians have long debated whether this was sincere or a “mask” that hid the goal of independence while Britain, Spain’s ally against Napoleon, remained friendly. In practice the Junta acted as an independent government. It sent armies to win over the interior provinces, Upper Peru (Bolivia) and Paraguay, and moved harshly against opponents: Liniers, who organised royalist resistance in Córdoba, was executed in August 1810.

The Junta also changed the political culture of the city. Moreno founded the official newspaper, the Gazeta de Buenos Ayres, in June 1810 to explain and defend the new government, and he published a Spanish translation of Rousseau’s Social Contract. The Junta opened the port more widely to foreign trade, which pleased merchants and won the goodwill of British traders. Cisneros and the members of the royal court of justice, the Audiencia, who refused to recognise the new authority, were sent by ship to the Canary Islands in June 1810.

Key people

• Cornelio Saavedra (1759–1829), militia commander whose support decided the outcome and who presided over the Junta.
• Mariano Moreno (1778–1811), radical lawyer and secretary of the Junta, founder of the Gazeta de Buenos Ayres.
• Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820), economist and member of the Junta, later a general and creator of the Argentine flag.
• Juan José Castelli (1764–1812), lawyer whose arguments at the cabildo abierto justified removing the viceroy.
• Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros (1755–1829), the last viceroy to govern in Buenos Aires.

Consequences

The revolution did not unite the viceroyalty. Montevideo remained a royalist stronghold until 1814, Paraguay defeated Belgrano’s army in 1811 and went its own way, and Upper Peru was fought over for years. In Buenos Aires the Junta was enlarged into the Junta Grande in December 1810, and power passed through a series of triumvirates and directors.

Full independence came later. On 9 July 1816 the Congress of Tucumán declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America. The following year José de San Martín led the crossing of the Andes to free Chile, and the wars against Spain in South America ended at the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824.

Myths and facts

Myth: The May Revolution declared Argentine independence. The Junta governed in the king’s name; the formal declaration came in 1816.

Myth: Patriots handed out blue and white ribbons to the crowd on 25 May. This popular school story is not supported by reliable contemporary evidence. The sky-blue and white colours became established as patriotic symbols over the following years, and Belgrano first raised a flag in those colours in 1812.

Myth: It rained and the crowd sheltered under umbrellas. Images of a rainy plaza full of umbrellas come from later paintings and traditions; contemporary records of the weather are uncertain.

Timeline

• 1806–1807: Local forces defeat two British invasions of the Río de la Plata.
• 1809, July: Viceroy Cisneros arrives in Buenos Aires.
• 1810, 18 May: Cisneros announces the fall of the Central Junta in Spain.
• 1810, 22 May: The cabildo abierto votes to remove the viceroy.
• 1810, 24 May: A junta headed by Cisneros is formed and rejected.
• 1810, 25 May: The Primera Junta takes office under Saavedra.
• 1816, 9 July: The Congress of Tucumán declares independence.

Why it matters

The May Revolution ended Spanish rule in Buenos Aires and created the first government of what became Argentina. Coming in the same year as the Grito de Dolores in Mexico, it was part of the wave of movements that dissolved Spain’s American empire, and 25 May remains one of Argentina’s most important national days.