The South American Republics, Part 1 of 2 — John Shaqi
The South American Republics, Part 1 of 2Dawson, Thomas Cleland
History
The South American Republics, Part 1 of 2
Dawson, Thomas Cleland
South America -- History
When the governorship of Buenos Aires again became vacant in 1615, by
the death of the Spanish incumbent, Hernandarias entered on his own
third term, and two years later, by his advice, the rapidly growing
province was divided. Paraguay became a separate province, and the new
province of Buenos Aires included all the territory east of Tucuman and
south and east of Paraguay. The three provinces of Paraguay, Buenos
Aires, and Tucuman were administratively separate, and each was directly
dependent upon the Audiencia at Charcas and the Viceroy at Lima. One
immediate purpose of the Spanish government, in erecting Buenos Aires
into an independent province, was the enforcement of the prohibition of
trade. It was thought that a governor always on the ground, and
concentrating his attention on the subject, would be efficient in that
direction. However, the result was the opposite of that expected. No
governor of Buenos Aires could avoid making the interests of his capital
city his own. If honest, he was constantly pressing the home government
to open the doors a little and to make exceptions of particular cases;
if dishonest, he went into partnership with the traders.
Hernandarias's career is the one striking example of success by a Creole
in colonial times. Though the conquest and settlement of South America
was accomplished by individual initiative, the men who had done the
pioneering, who had fought and journeyed and suffered, who had stained
their souls with horrible cruelties, whose adventures and successes
would not be credited if the physical evidences did not prove the truth
of the chronicles, were displaced with scant ceremony to make room for
impoverished Court favourites. If the original conquerors were thus
badly treated, the Creoles, unfortunate to have missed the inestimable
advantage of being born on Castilian soil, could not look for favour, or
equal treatment with the office-holders sent out from Madrid year after
year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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