Comércio trans-imperial e monarquismo no Rio da Prata revolucionário

Montevidéu e a província cisplatina (1808-1822)

Abstract

With the crisis of legitimacy triggered by Napoleon’s invasion
of the Iberian Peninsula in 1808, different reactions and political
projects emerged in the Spanish American colonies. In Rio
de la Plata, while Buenos Aires broke away from Spanish rule,
the port city of Montevideo opted for royalist and monarchical
political projects in opposition to Buenos Aires. This article examines
the relationship between trans-imperial trade and monarchism
in Rio de la Plata. Moreover, this piece contributes to
debates on the multiple and contested meanings of sovereignty
during the age of revolution in Iberian America. Monarchism
in Rio de la Plata was intimately associated with the maintenance
of trans-imperial networks of trade and the maintenance
of the political and economic order of the colonial period.
Monarchism represented the continuity of the old regime’s legal
principles, provided safety and stability for trade trans-imperial
trade, and above all, prevented the economic, political,
and social changes proposed by revolutionary projects.