Did you know Argentina used to be called “Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata”? (Long name, I know), and before that, it was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru when the Spanish still ruled.
By now you know how this story goes, because most independences in America are similar but let’s take a quick look at the history of Messi’s home country. The Argentine independence movement began in 1806 thanks to the British (in a way), because they attacked Buenos Aires, and you know what Spain did? Nothing, zero, nada. The peninsular ruling at the time actually fled the conflict with the city’s treasury.
The local militia defended the country by themselves and they saw the fleeing Spaniard as a coward. This bothered them and they thought: what do we have a king for if he can’t protect us from other empires?
Funnily enough, they couldn’t even protect themselves, a couple years later Napoleon intervened in Spain, overthrew Ferninand VII and caused a civil war in the country. We’ll go into that conflict in detail later, but long story short Ferninand had to flee the country and couldn’t rule, so the question remained, what happens with the colonies?
Well, the Spanish ancient law said that royal colonies had the right to govern themselves until their lawful king returned, and so they did. Argentina created a viceroyalty in the name of the king pending his return, but soon after it became obvious that would never happen and on July 9th, 1816, the country declared independence.
Plus, it also helped that Criollos and Peninsulares had a rivalry, and the relationship was very tense. Of course, as is the case with most independence processes, there was resistance from those loyal to the crown, so the conflict went on for years and years.
There were many stages during the process and although 1816 is the year officially recognized as independence year, the conflict was not over until 1818.
Have fun learning!
