Cisplatina () was a

Brazilian province The provinces of Brazil were the primary subdivisions of the country during the period of the Empire of Brazil (1822 - 1889). On February 28, 1821, the provinces were established in the Kingdom of Brazil (then part of the United Kingdom of Portuga ...

in existence from 1821 to 1828 created by the

Luso-Brazilian invasion The Portuguese conquest of the Banda Oriental was the armed-conflict that took place between 1816 and 1820 in the Banda Oriental, for control of what today comprises the whole of the Republic of Uruguay, the northern part of the Argentine Mes ...

of the

Banda Oriental Banda Oriental, or more fully Banda Oriental del Uruguay (Eastern Bank), was the name of the South American territories east of the Uruguay River and north of Río de la Plata that comprise the modern nation of Uruguay; the modern state of Rio Gra ...

. From 1815 until 1822 Brazil was a constituent kingdom of the

United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was a pluricontinental monarchy formed by the elevation of the Portuguese colony named State of Brazil to the status of a kingdom and by the simultaneous union of that Kingdom of Brazil ...

. After the

independence of Brazil The Independence of Brazil comprised a series of political and military events that led to the independence of the Kingdom of Brazil from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves as the Brazilian Empire. Most of the events occurr ...

and the formation of the

Empire of Brazil The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom ...

the Cisplatina province remained part of it. In 1828, following the Preliminary Peace Convention, the Cisplatina province became independent as

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Name

The name comes from the Latin prefix "cis" meaning "on this side of" and "platina", a reference to the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

. Thus, the name Cisplatina means "province on the same side of the Río de la Plata", alluding to the fact that, from the Brazilian perspective, the region is located on the same side of the river as Brazil, ''cf.'' Cisalpine. The Argentines called the region

, short for Banda Oriental del Río Uruguay ("the strip to the east of the

Uruguay River The Uruguay River ( es, Río Uruguay, ; pt, Rio Uruguai, ) is a major river in South America. It flows from north to south and forms parts of the boundaries of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of La M ...

").

History

The Banda Oriental had always been a sparsely populated contested border-area between the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the ...

s. In the First Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1777 the control of the area was given to Spain. In 1811,

José Gervasio Artigas José Gervasio Artigas Arnal (; June 19, 1764 – September 23, 1850) was a political leader, military general, statesman and national hero of Uruguay and the broader Río de la Plata region. He fought in the Latin American wars of in ...

, who became Uruguay's national hero, launched a successful revolt against Spain, defeating them on 18 May in the

Battle of Las Piedras The Battle of Las Piedras was fought on May 18, 1811 as part of the Uruguayan struggle for independence. Background and development of events In 1810, the May Revolution had forced the Spanish to abandon Buenos Aires, but they held on to the ...

. In 1813, the Banda Oriental was renamed to Provincia Oriental, becoming part of the

United Provinces of the Río de la Plata The United Provinces of the Río de la Plata ( es, link=no, Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata), earlier known as the United Provinces of South America ( es, link=no, Provincias Unidas de Sudamérica), was a name adopted in 1816 by the Co ...

. In 1814, Artigas formed the

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

of which he was declared Protector. The constant growth of influence and prestige of the Federal League frightened the Luso-Brazilian Monarchy (because of its republicanism), and in August 1816 they invaded the Banda Oriental, with the intention of destroying the protector and his revolution. The Luso-Brazilian expeditionary force, thanks to its material superiority, military experience and organization (including in part its European warfare experience), occupied Montevideo on 20 January 1817, and finally, after a three-year struggle in the countryside, defeated the pro-Artigas forces in the Battle of Tacuarembó. In 1821, the Provincia Oriental del Río de la Plata (present-day Uruguay), was annexed as a province into the

Kingdom of Brazil The Kingdom of Brazil ( pt, Reino do Brasil) was a constituent kingdom of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves. Creation The legal entity of the Kingdom of Brazil was created by a law issued by Prince Regent John of Portu ...

under the name of Cisplatina. The annexation of the province was justified through the "general acclamation" of an Assembly of "Oriental notables" on 18 July 1821. The borders of Cisplatina were: on the east the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, on the south the Río de la Plata, on the west the

and on the north the Quaraí river until ''la Cuchilla de Santa Ana''. This means that territories previously belonging to the Provincia Oriental had been annexed to the jurisdiction of

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is border ...

. Brazil became an independent nation in 1822. On 15 September 1823, the envoy of the Argentine president

Bernardino Rivadavia Bernardino de la Trinidad González Rivadavia (May 20, 1780 – September 2, 1845) was the first President of Argentina, then called the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, from February 8, 1826 to June 27, 1827. He was educated at ...

, Valentín Gómez, wrote a memorandum in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

in which he stated that the Banda Oriental had always belonged to the territory of the

, present-day

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

. Gómez received this answer:

"The incorporation of the Cisplatina Province into the Empire is an act of the free will of all its inhabitants, and Brazil, by the sacrifices it has done, is resolute to defend that territory, not allowing that the opinion with respect to the incorporation from that State to the United Provinces is raised again. (…) the Government of H.I.M. is Imperial Majesty(…) cannot enter negotiations with the one of Buenos Aires that have as fundamental base the cession of the Cisplatina, whose inhabitants do not have to leave."

As a reaction, a group of Uruguayan insurgents, the

Thirty-Three Orientals The ''Treinta y Tres Orientales'' (English: Thirty-Three Orientals or Thirty-Three Easterners) was a militant revolutionary group led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja and Manuel Oribe against the Empire of Brazil. Their actions culminated in the foun ...

, led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja, declared independence on 25 August 1825, supported by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, which planned to reannex the region. This led to the

Cisplatine War The Cisplatine War (), also known as the Argentine-Brazilian War () or, in Argentine and Uruguayan historiography, as the Brazil War (''Guerra del Brasil''), the War against the Empire of Brazil (''Guerra contra el Imperio del Brasil'') or t ...

. Despite the Argentine victory in the

battle of Ituzaingó The Battle of Ituzaingó, also known as the Battle of Passo do Rosário, was a pitched battle fought in the vicinity of the Santa Maria River, in a valley of small hills where a stream divided the valley into two. After a two-year series of con ...

, neither side gained the upper hand and, on 27 August 1828, the Preliminary Peace Convention, fostered by the United Kingdom through the mediation of diplomat John Ponsonby, was signed between the Empire of Brazil and the United Provinces, giving independence to the Cisplatina province as the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, and – more importantly to planned British interests – establishing the international status of the Río de la Plata, so that international trade was easier to accomplish.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{coord missing, Uruguay Colonial Uruguay Cisplatine War Provinces of Brazil 1820s in Brazil 1820s in Uruguay 1821 establishments in Brazil 1828 disestablishments in Brazil