Foundation of Buenos Aires
Introduction
It is said that the city was founded twice: first in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza and later in 1580. The first settlement was called Puerto de Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre and was founded on a region inhabited by the Querandíes, later had to abandon himself due to conflicts with these indigenous peoples and famines caused by food shortages. Mendoza fled to Spain but is a detachment of troops that stayed on land undertook the river river to Asunción. During the next forty years, this territory was ignored since the Spanish crown was more concerned with the conquest of the Inca Empire in current Peru.
The 2nd Foundation takes place after an incursion towards lands that were depopulated, carried out by Juan de Garay from Asunción and tries to rebuild Buenos Aires. It reaches the first settlement but discards it and a better location is sought north of this. The Spaniards had improved their settlement techniques since Mendoza’s attempt and also had more support from cities such as Asunción and Santa Fe.
Developing
The Foundation is held on June 11, 1580 and is given the name of Ciudad de la Trinidad in the port of Santa María de los Buenos Aires. According to the writings, the foundation ceremony was held in the future city square (current Plaza de Mayo), where the cross for the future church is planted, along with other rituals the city is founded.
In its origin, this city belonged to the Viceroyalty of Peru and was less important than other colonies, it was a village compared to other Andean colonies and settlements of the center and northwest of the current Argentina (such as Córdoba, La Rioja, Tucumán, etc.).
The first residents of the city passed greater difficulties than other colonies because they were not able to produce the necessary elements to bring the European standard of living and on the other hand they had a more secondary role within the viceroyalty, the Spanish crown benefited the colonies andPacific ports: Buenos Aires only received two permission ships (authorized ships to trade with Great Britain) a year and there were years in which none.
The livestock became the main economic activity of the city with the growing demand for horses and cattle to meet the needs of the Spanish army and the exploitation of the Andes mines by these.
Spain maintained strong commercial restrictions throughout America and only allowed to have commercial ties to some cities. As Buenos Aires was on the periphery of the empire initially and it was difficult to control, it was forbidden to trade with other European countries, despite the fact that its situation at the mouth of the Río de la Plata was an ideal place for the entry and exit of merchandiseto the continent.
The increasingly unhappy locals began to practice smuggling, the city merchants began to smuggled with everything: fabrics, precious metals, weapons and slaves. On the other hand, Portuguese goods flood the city, even reaching interior cities (current Bolivia, Paraguay and even Peru).
The English and pirates also began to trade with Buenos Aires. Much of the initial prosperity of the city was due to smuggling, it could participate in it and it was a possibility of scaing socially;favored the birth of a middle class oriented. The smuggling was paid with the sale of the leather obtained from the slaughter of the vaquerías without owners who were free in the fields.
By the middle of the seventeenth century Buenos Aires has about four thousand inhabitants;It would take a century to double its population. The city continued to thrive and the crown decided to soften commercial restrictions and join the growing liberalism of international trade.
In 1776 with the Bourbon reforms and the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (which included the largest silver mine in the world in Potosí (current Bolivia) and the current countries of Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), the city wasIt becomes the capital of this due to diverse reasons: the progress of the Portuguese and British, smuggling in the region and the strategic location of the place on the Atlantic route: the Spaniards had to ensure the area and guarantee the navigation of the rivers of the rivers of theterritory, with the settlement the possession of the lands were ensured. This area was essential for communication between Peru and the new lands.
After this event, the city began its growth and a time of great prosperity: it began to receive a more open and liberal type of trade (benefited by the Spanish crown) and left political and commercially dependent on the city of Lima;Receive a lot of immigration and merchants and start a progress that continues until the nineteenth century. In many American cities the African slaves. The leather industry also progressed getting an outstanding local production.
From then on it began to be an important commercial city, its activity focused on the port that was connected to the cities of the interior of the viceroyalty. Within this there were fights for trade and political control reasons, however, when the English attacked the city in 1806 and 1807 the town joined to fight the invaders and managed to overcome them, causing them to retreat after two battles (which they currently celebratelike reconquest and defense).
These two battles gave the native confidence and a new vision of their ability to be independent, so it would be a matter of time to break their ties with Spain whose ability to defend their colonies, desired by the rest of the European powers, had remainedEvidence (since its foundation,
These facts attached to other circumstances such as the arrivals of the illustrated ideas, and especially to the occupation of Spain by the Napoleon army, made the independence movements that led to the May Revolution begin in Buenos Aires (the Plaza Mayor is renamedas Plaza de Mayo to commemorate it) in 1810 and the deposition of the power of the Spaniards. Six years later, on July 9, 1816, the peripheral areas also broke with Spain and founded the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires becomes an important port that received manufactured products from Great Britain.
Soon there is a struggle for power between the leaders of the provinces that wanted. This is the disintegration of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata: some of these provinces decided to go on their own and formed the countries of Paraguay (1814), Bolivia (1825) and Uruguay (1828).
In 1829 the “Federalist” leader Juan Manuel de Rosas took control of Buenos Aires, becomes his governor and demands that all international trade can be channeled through the city, so it grew a lot during the 23 that lasted itsgovernment. He was overthrown by Justo José de Urquiza, who tried to transfer power to his native province: Entre Ríos.
As a consequence, Buenos Aires was temporarily split from the Union but was again capital when Bartolomé Miter crushed the Urquiza Army in 1861;From then on it becomes the country’s indisputable power center. The economy prospered (it came to have 90.000 inhabitants in the 1860s) and many immigrants from Spain, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Ireland, Poland, Ukraine, etc. (In a few years its population multiplied by 7 reaching 670.000 inhabitants between 1869 and 1895.
These new inhabitants worked at the port, lived in the houses of neighborhood houses, invented tango and promoted the leftist labor movement. This avalanche of Europeans not only made Buenos Aires an international capital but also contributed a rich multicultural heritage.
By the time the city turned 100 in 1910, it was a real metropolis. In the following years, the British subway and the companies traced the gas, electricity and sewerage systems. At this time Buenos Aires lives its best years, with commerce, art and architecture of the old and new continent and continued to grow thanks to the production of meat;Much of this success was due to the advances in cooling systems that made possible the sending of beef to distant lands. At the beginning of World War I, Argentina was one of the 10 richest countries in the world, ahead of France and Germany.
Later there is an economic crisis, with the fall in the price of exports, salaries stagnate and workers mobilize, this culminates with the tragic week when hundreds of protesters are killed during a strike. This, together with the fall of Wall Street was a definitive blow for markets and the military. This was the first of the different military blows that the country suffered during the rest of the century, delaying its progress.
During World War II, impoverished peasants emigrate in mass towards the country’s capital in search of work. Buenos Aires triples its population and houses a third of the inhabitants of the country. In 1946, Lieutenant General Juan Domingo Perón who increases wages, favors social welfare campaigns and makes drastic changes in the political structure, is elected as president.
The City of Buenos Aires followed the principles stipulated by the laws of the Indies and was raised with the criteria of foundation of Spanish colonies: Damero form with square apples and streets in grid.
conclusion
The cities founded by the Spaniards in America revolved around a main element that was the square. The city were divided into equal elements, normally the grid, one of them was not built giving rise to the Plaza Mayor and around it the political power was established (buildings where the administration is exercised: local governments such as councils and real as real asViceroyal Palacios, General Captainies, etc.) and ecclesiastical as well as homes in the most relevant people of the city.
The square was surrounded by Portales and from it left the main streets (they started from the four angles of the square). It was growing around the Plaza Mayor in the form of a quadrilateral of 16 × 9 apples (16 along the river and 9 to the west).
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