The spark that triggered the fire: The fall of Seville into Napoleon's hands

Vicente Fidel López continues: “And indeed, the influence and power transferred to the men of Cádiz were synonymous, in Buenos Aires, with the influence and power of the reactionary party that had been defeated by the Patricians on the battlefield, and by The Representation of the Landowners, in the realm of science and justice. The Regency of Cádiz was, therefore, as odious and as insulting as could be imagined for the aspirations and rights that exalted our public spirit at that moment.

This coincidence was, for Spain, the last of its misfortunes in the River Plate. In the irritability of the passions stirred by events, everyone remembered that from the first appetites with which the essentially productive and commercial nature of the River Plate provinces had revealed itself: when Buenos Aires and Córdoba only asked for permission for two small ships to enter per year, and two hundred tons of return in agricultural products, the Commerce and the Consulate of Cádiz had been relentless in denying it in the name of the monopoly they enjoyed in the supply of the Two Fleets. Cádiz had not lost a moment or opportunity to oppose with all its influence the franchises that Buenos Aires had claimed, however small they were: and this dark tradition of economic and social tyranny had created deep resentments, which, as the River Plate had gained, through the strength of its territory and geographical position, social vigor and wealth, had intensified the antipathies of the children of the country against that port of Spain, to which they attributed all the responsibilities and injustices of the Colonial Regime.

For the antagonism to be mortal and supreme, Cádiz had, at this moment, a living and acting representative in Buenos Aires, Don Martin de Alzaga and his party. Recognizing the Regency and yielding to it was to renounce the victory of January 1, 1809, and submit to the power of the reaction. Impossible!”

Then, fate wanted the last Spanish government of resistance in the Península to be established precisely in Cádiz, a city then detested in the River Plate. Cádiz was held responsible for the delay and colonial subjugation of centuries. Perhaps, if the Hispanic resistance had concentrated in a different locality, the events of May would not have unfolded with the determination that they did.

Manuel Belgrano, in his Autobiography, recounts: “Many and lively were our efforts to unite spirits and proceed to remove the authorities, which had not only expired with the events of Bayonne but were now expiring, since our recognition of the Central Junta ceased with its dissolution, a recognition the most iniquitous that had begun with the arrival of the wicked Goyeneche, sent by the indecent and ridiculous Junta of Seville. It is not surprising, then, that there was not a Spaniard who did not believe himself to be the Lord of America, and the Americans looked at them then with little less astonishment than the Indians at the beginning of their horrific massacres called conquests.”

Engraving showing the successive abdications to the Spanish throne made in Bayonne, at the behest of Napoleon Bonaparte, who ends up crowning his brother José as king

The stage was set for the upcoming events that would unfold during the Week of May.

Indeed: the French, victorious in the Battle of Despeñaperros, had occupied Andalucía. The people of Seville, driven to madness by this irreparable misfortune, had revolted against the Central Junta. Its members had to flee from the popular fury. In Cádiz, they had been deposed and pursued as traitors. Some had been imprisoned and others deported; while the people created, on their own authority, and as if they were the Sovereign Nation, nothing less than a Regency of Spain and the Indies.

In this context, it should not surprise us that Mariano Moreno emerged as the main opposing voice to the authorities emanating from Cádiz: «The Nation has been left without any power that can represent the sovereignty of the monarch. But the mercantile spirit of the merchants of Cádiz, FECUND IN ARBITRARINESS TO PERPETUATE US IN THE SAD CONDITION OF A FACTORY, has forged this Regency Council, which seeks to impose itself upon us, with the characteristics of sovereignty.»

The Viceroy Don Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros was aware that, since the beginning of 1810, there was a tense and adverse atmosphere in the capital. Anticipating a disastrous outcome in the struggle of Spain against Napoleon, the viceroy ordered the port authorities to intercept any document or publication arriving with unfavorable news from the Península. Cisneros sensed that it could further inflame public sentiment. Nevertheless, he did not take any further action; when the most reasonable or sensible thing would have been to order the deployment of royalist forces to Buenos Aires to contain an insurrection that, by this point, was already unstoppable.

Portrait of Don Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros (Naval Museum of Madrid)

On the evening of May 13, 1810, an English merchant frigate named John Paris arrived in Montevideo, having set sail from Gibraltar, bringing the worst news that the viceroy could expect. Cisneros, in his correspondence, claims that there were two British ships, not one. Following the instructions provided by the Viceroy, the governor of Montevideo, Don Joaquín de Soria, searched the vessel and seized the papers it carried. Among them were proclamations announcing the fall of Seville and the dissolution of the Central Junta, the body that had appointed, precisely, Cisneros himself. It was also announced that a Regency Council was being established in Cádiz.

This was the worst news the sailor, a veteran of Trafalgar, could receive. Cádiz was the most hated port metropolis in Buenos Aires at the beginning of the 19th century.

Joaquín de Soria (Governor of Montevideo)

Soria sent all the seized items to Cisneros. As a southeast wind affected navigation on the River Plate for forty-eight hours, the news did not reach Buenos Aires until noon on May 17.

Given the seriousness of the events that could not be hidden for long, Cisneros decided to announce them “in an orderly manner” after much deliberation. He gave the same instruction to Governor Soria to do so in Montevideo.

Vicente Fidel López confirms these events: “But at the same time that the viceroy received them, they were also circulating publicly on everyone's lips.