The United Provinces of the Río de la Plata or United Provinces of the River Plate, along with United Provinces in South America, are names used to refer to the emerging state that succeeded the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata after the May Revolution, from 1810 to 1831, encompassing the Argentine War of Independence, the Cisplatine War and the beginning of the Argentine Civil Wars. The aforementioned state is now the Argentine Republic. The name "United Provinces of the Río de la Plata" is recognised as one of the official names of Argentina according to its constitution.
The state that succeeded the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1810 used different names depending on political interests and people's common usage.
Provinces of the Río de la Plata (Spanish: Provincias del Río de la Plata): Following the removal of the Viceroy from office and his replacement by a government junta, it was no longer appropiate to keep referring to the state a viceroyalty. Therefore, in a public edict written on the night of 25 May 1810 by the Primera Junta and proclaimed the next day, the name Provinces of the Río de la Plata made its first appearance.
United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (Spanish: Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata): This name was officially adopted by the First Triumvirate on 22 November 1811, in the 1811 Provisional Statute. It became the most common name during the War of Independence and is recognised as an alternative name of the state according to Article 35 of the Constitution of Argentina, although it is not used in practice.
United Provinces of the South (Spanish: Provincias Unidas del Sud): This was the name used to refer to the state in the Argentine National Anthem ("Marcha patriótica"), composed in 1813. It was not used in official documents.
United Provinces in South America (Spanish: Provincias Unidas en Sud-América): This name appears in the Argentine Declaration of Independence of 1816. It was probably chosen because it was a more encompassing name, and the borders of the new state were not clear yet. The name was also used in the Argentine Constitution of 1819.
United Provinces of South America (Spanish: Provincias Unidas de Sud-América): The use "of" of instead of "in" can be seen in the letter of marque from 1817.
Republic of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (Spanish: República de las Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata): This official name was used in a document written by Buenos Aires Governor Juan Gregorio de las Heras in response to the Empire of Brazil, which had declared war on the United Provinces due to the annexation of the Oriental Province. It was adopted to emphasise republicanism in contrast to Brazil, which was a monarchy.
Argentina: The name comes from argentinus, which means "related to silver" (argentum) in Latin. It first appeared in 1602 in the poem La Argentina written by Martín del Barco Centenera, for referring to the Río de la Plata, which literally translates into English as "River of Silver". It gained popularity during the 1820s following the drafting and approval of the 1826 constitution, although United Provinces of the Río de la Plata continued to be the most common name for the State. After the 1831 Federal Pact, the name Argentina as part of Argentine Confederation gained widespread acceptance.
Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina): This name was officially adopted by the 1826 constitution. However, in 1827, fell into disuse. Currenty, it is the most common official name used by Argentina.
Argentine Federation (Spanish: Federación Argentina): The name appeared in the certificates of military discharge from Buenos Aires during Rosas' administration of the province.
Argentine Confederation (Spanish: Confederación Argentina): This name became a widely used after the Federal Pact, although had been used previously. It is also one of Argentina’s official names according to Article 35 of its constitution.
Río de la Plata can be translated as River Plate. This translation originated when plate could mean silver in English. One of Argentina's two largest football clubs is named after this translation (Club Atlético River Plate). A more accurate English version of Río de la Plata would be "River of Silver", but it is not used. Also, the Río de la Plata is not a river, but an estuary.
The United Provinces of the Río de la Plata were bordered on the south by the sparsely populated territories of the Pampas and Patagonia, home to the Mapuche, Ranquel, and Puelche peoples. To the north, the Gran Chaco was populated by the Guaycuru nations. To the northwest, across Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia), lay the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. Across the Andes, to the west, was the Spanish-controlled Captaincy General of Chile. To the northeast was Colonial Brazil, part of the Portuguese Empire (in 1815, the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves), later the Empire of Brazil in 1822.
However, the territory of the United Provinces changed repeatedly. Since the beginning, the government of Buenos Aires (the juntas, the triumvirates and later the Directory) wanted to control all the intendancies that belonged to the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. Nevertheless, this goal was never achieved due to resistance by royalist governments. The Intendancy of Paraguay (modern-day Paraguay) rejected Buenos Aires’ authority and swore loyalty to the provisional government of Peninsular Spain (the Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies). Buenos Aires launched a military expedition known as the Paraguay campaign, but it was defeated and Paraguay became an independent country a few months later. The intendancies of La Paz, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, Córdoba del Tucumán, Salta del Tucumán and the political and military governments of Moxos and Chiquitos were annexed by the Viceroyalty of Peru after the May Revolution; Córdoba del Tucumán and Salta del Tucumán were fully regained after the Second Upper Peru campaign, commanded by Manuel Belgrano, but the other territories (known as a whole as Upper Peru) were never retaken, and became Bolivia years later.
Montevideo did not acknowledge Buenos Aires’ government either, and was declared the new capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, where that administrative division continued to exist until 1814, when the city was conquered by the United Provinces. However, Montevideo became part of the Oriental Province (the Eastern Bank and Montevideo, modern-day Uruguay) and acted as the capital of the League of the Free Peoples, a federal alternative to the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, which had a unitary government. This alternative state was composed of the provinces of Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, Misiones and the Eastern Bank. In 1820, the Eastern Bank was fully captured by Portuguese Brazil, and the League was abolished; the rest of its provinces came under Argentine control. The Eastern Bank became an independent state (Uruguay) in 1828 after British intervention in the Cisplatine War.
According to historians, the beginning of the state occurred during the May Revolution, often cited on 24 or 25 May 1810, when the viceroy of the Río de la Plata, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, was dismissed by an Open Cabildo. The reason behind this decision was a very complex political context originating after the capture of King Ferdinand VII of Spain by Napoleon: the people of the Iberian Peninsula had organised a provisional government known as the Supreme Central Junta, which had been acknowledged by Spanish America, and had appointed Cisneros as viceroy. However, this junta was dissolved by French forces, so the Viceroy legitimacy was weakened, as he had been elected not by the King, but by a spontaneous junta that no longer existed.
The criollos, people with Iberian Spanish ancestry born in the Americas, were legally considered Spanish, but in practice were excluded from important government offices. Many of them were influenced by enlightenment, popular sovereignty and liberal ideas, and wanted to change their situation and society. Furthermore, Spanish America had a history of indigenous and criollo rebellions, such as the Rebellion of Tupac Amaru II and the Revolutions of La Paz and Chuquisaca. Therefore, when the Iberian provisional government fell, the criollos, along with some Peninsular liberals, demanded the dismissal of Cisneros and the creation of a government junta, sustained by the principle of retroversion of sovereignty to the people, which stated that, in absence of a legitimate sovereign, such as the King, sovereignty had to return to the people, who thus had to choose how to govern themselves. They were supported by Buenos Aires' urban militias such as the Regiment of Patricians, commanded by Cornelio Saavedra. Nevertheless, other criollos oppossed the Revolution, especially those who benefited from the Spanish commercial monopoly and the bureaucratic elite.