Invasions of Buenos Aires Trivia Quiz

Answer: Napoleonic Wars

In 1806, Britain was facing an economic crisis. As part of the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon had just launched a massive blockade that shut British ships out of nearly every major port in Europe. Desperate for new markets to sell their manufactured goods, Britain looked toward South America. The Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata consisted of modern day Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia.

It was under Spanish colonial rule and was locked down by a strict monopoly to the Spanish (meaning they could only trade with Spain). Besides being a market for the British goods, the area also offered incredible silver mines and free-roaming cattle (a source of hides and tallow). So Britain decided to invade.

Answer: William Carr Beresford

The idea of an invasion of Buenos Aires started in southern Africa when Commodore Home Riggs Popham, having captured Cape Colony from the Dutch, decided (since he was on a roll) that the British should attack Spanish possessions in South America. He figured the people there would welcome the British with open arms.

He persuaded military leaders at the Cape to provide troops, and William Carr Beresford was chosen to command them. Beresford, an Irish-born officer, led around 1,600 men overseas to Buenos Aires in June of 1806. However, Popham, as it turned out, had acted largely on his own without explicit approval from the government itself. When news reached London, people there were surprised about the attack.

Answer: False

Rafael de Sobremonte was the Viceroy of the Rio de la Plata when the British invaded in 1806. As the Spanish king's representative, he was responsible for defending Buenos Aires. However, he did not have many troops and his defenses were weak. When the British troops were spotted and began to advance, Sobremonte fled the city and went inland to the city of Cordoba.

His reasoning, he recounted, was that the viceroy was supposed to preserve the government and its funds (which is why he had taken part of the colonial treasury) so he was just following protocol. The people of Buenos Aires, however, did not see it that way. They believed he had run away when the citizens needed him the most.

Answer: France

Santiago Antonio Marķa de Liniers y Bremond was born in Niort, France, into a family with a long line of French nobility. He served in the French Navy for years before volunteering to take part in Spanish naval campaigns. He eventually joined the Spanish Navy where he served with distinction. By 1788 he was given command of the naval forces based out of Buenos Aires.

When the British attacked in June of 1806, Liniers stayed in the city. At one point, evading capture by ducking into a church, he vowed at the altar to capture the British flag. He escaped across the river to Uruguay and began gathering volunteers, soldiers, and supplies. The group he assembled was in no way a professional army.

Answer: Britain surrendered and left

On August 4th of 1806, Liniers and a ragtag group of "soldiers" crossed back toward Buenos Aires and began a series of attacks. They took control of two strategic points that held the north and west entries to the city. As the force approached the city proper, residents inside Buenos Aires also rose up against the British.

The fighting took place in the city and the British found themselves attacked from multiple directions. On August 14th of 1806, the British realized they could not hold the area and they surrendered and left. Liniers moved through Buenos Aires a hero, greeted by cheering crowds.

Answer: Sir Samuel Auchmuty

In late August of 1806, several British ship waited in the waters near Buenos Aires for reinforcements. About 2,000 men were sent to them from the newly captured Cape Colony in South Africa. This makeshift force managed to seize the small Spanish outpost of Maldonado (modern-day Uruguay) to create a temporary base.

Back in London, the British government, unaware of any news of the first invasion, dispatched Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty with a fresh reinforcement of roughly 2,000 to 3,000 troops. Auchmuty, a highly capable officer originally born in New York, and his troops arrived in January 1807. This brought the total British strength in the region to around 6,000 men.

Answer: Montevideo

On January 16, 1807, the British landed at Caretas Rocks, about 9 miles east of Montevideo in Uruguay. The Spanish governor attempted to block the British advance outside the city walls and the two armies clashed at the Battle of El Cristo del Cardal. The British outflanked the Spanish forces, inflicting 800 casualties and forcing the defenders to retreat behind the heavy stone walls of Montevideo.

After a siege of the city (and bombardment from naval guns offshore) a breach was opened in the city walls by the British. Soldiers poured into the city with many of them now scaling the outer walls. On February 3, 1807, the Spanish surrendered the city. The capture of it was a bloody success, costing the British around 600 casualties and the Spanish roughly 1,500 but now Montevideo was secured as a large military British base.

Answer: True

Whitelocke's first mistake, upon arriving in 1807, was to assume that the local population would either welcome the British as liberators from Spain or submit quickly to a show of force. He also divided his huge force into small columns and instructed them to keep their muskets unloaded, relying on bayonets.

In early July, he marched his troops through miles of deep swamps south of Beunos Aires, leaving his heavy artillery bogged down in mud and his men exhausted. Then, during the actual assault on July 5, Whitelocke established his headquarters (seen in the photo) far back at a bullring, completely cut off from the columns fighting in Buenos Aires. He had no visual contact with his men and no effective system of runners or signals. These decisions would factor heavily later in an eventual court-martial.

Answer: In the narrow streets

Starting in late 1806, the local population had formed regional, democratic militias. As the British started their attack in 1807, they turned the city into a literal trap. At 6:30 AM on July 5, the signal guns fired, and the British columns advanced into the grid-like, narrow streets of the city. Civilians, including men, women, and children, lined the flat rooftops armed with muskets, bricks, and stones. They also dumped cauldrons of boiling water, oil, and rendered animal fat down onto the invading soldiers.

Because their muskets were unloaded, the British soldiers could not return fire against the enemies shooting from windows and rooftops above them. The columns quickly became fragmented, lost in the maze of identical streets, and pinned down by militia crossfire. By the end of the day, the British had lost over 400 officers and men killed, 2,400 wounded or captured, and their army was shattered into disconnected groups. On July 6, Whitelocke signed a letter of surrender.

Answer: 1816

According to the surrender of the second invasion, the British agreed to cease all hostilities, release all Spanish prisoners, and entirely evacuate both Buenos Aires and their hard won base at Montevideo within two months. When Whitelocke returned to England, the public and the military were furious. He was court-martialed in 1808, found guilty of nearly all charges, and dismissed from the British Army in disgrace.

The local population realized they had twice defeated the army of a major global superpower entirely on their own, without the help of the Spanish crown. This massive surge in local confidence directly paved the way for the May Revolution. This was a week long series of political events in Buenos Aires that took place from May 18 to May 25, 1810. It resulted in the removal of the Spanish viceroy and the establishment of the first local government, the Primera Junta. After six more years of conflict, on July 9, 1816, the Congress voted overwhelmingly to sign the Act of Independence.