The Spanish Armada in the River Plate
The settlement and colonization of Argentina took place basically by sea, with the River Plate as point of entry. Hence the first settlers and conquerors were sailors and the most important cities, ports for communication and trade with Spain. The two main river ports of the Governorship of the River Plate, which until 1776 fell under the authority of the Viceroyship of Peru, with headquarters in Lima, were the Ciudad de la Trinidad en el Puerto de Buenos Aires, founded in 1580, today the capital of Argentina, and the Ciudad de San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo, founded in 1728, today the capital of Uruguay.
As a result of the War of Succession, the Duke of Anjou, grandson of King Louis XIV of France and the first Spanish monarch of the House of Bourbon which still reigns in Spain today, came to the throne with the name of Philip V (rex 1700-1746). This king undertook a far-reaching program to overhaul the navy which, apart from shipbuilding, encompassed the creation and improvement of naval bases and forts in different parts of the world. It was also decided that, in order to be eligible as a navy officer, the aspiring cadets had to undergo both theoretic and practical training at a specialized institute. To this effect, in 1717 in the ancient port of Cadiz, the Royal Company of Members of the Order of Midshipmen was founded and this was where, from 1775 onwards, the first students born in Buenos Aires studied. Several of them, after serving in the Spanish Armada, joined the May Revolution and volunteered for its nascent navy during the War of Independence followed by the War with Brazil.
An offensive and defensive strategic alliance was formed among the Bourbon monarchs (Spain, France, Naples and Parma), known as the Family Compacts, to oppose the interests of the Portuguese and British crowns, especially in America. The kingdom of Spain became a world maritime power as a result of the discoveries of its seamen and the monopoly on trade it imposed on its colonial territories. The Spanish Armada achieved its greatest glory and power during the reign of the last Hapsburgs and until the end of the XVIIth century, although it faded gradually as a result of continuous confrontations with other sea powers. Nevertheless, in 1805, the year of the Battle of Trafalgar, Spain was still, after Britain and France, the third naval power in the world.
In 1776, Charles III (rex 1759-1788) created the Viceroyship of the River Plate, with its capital in Buenos Aires, and named the previous governor, General Pedro de Cevallos, its first viceroy, as per Royal Certificate dated 10 August of that year. One of the tasks of the new viceroy was to expel the Portuguese from Viceroyship lands, since the Portuguese crown was determined to dominate the territory of what is today Uruguay, as far as the eastern shore of the River Plate. The port city of Colonia del Sacramento on the River Plate, almost directly opposite the city of Buenos Aires, had been founded in 1680 as part of this project. Cevallos successfully invaded and took the city, although years later it once again fell into Portuguese hands. This territorial dispute, inherited by Brazil and the United Provinces of the River Plate, as the Argentine Republic was then called, gave rise to the war between the two countries from 1825 to 1828.
As the approaches to the port of Buenos Aires were blocked by extensive sandbanks, deep draft vessels were obliged to anchor far from the shore. Montevideo, on the other hand, with its stony river bed and deeper waters, offered superior natural advantages. The Montevideo Royal Naval Station was created pursuant to another Royal Certificate dated 9 August 1776, as main base for the ships of the Spanish Armada in the Viceroyship. In the coming years, this strategic dichotomy gave rise to multiple situations of competition between the authorities of both cities.
Brief review of the origin and evolution of the Argentine Navy.
A Nautical School was founded in Buenos Aires in 1799, the brainchild of Manuel Belgrano, then a young lawyer and secretary of the Royal Consulate (trade tribunals). Belgrano, later named General of the patriot armies, creator of the Argentine flag and a hero of Argentine independence, was a great driving force in favor of education. The school operated for only 7 years, since it was not sanctioned by the King. Nevertheless, it produced its first group of graduate cadets in 1802 when, after two years of study, they qualified as Pilots. Several of them subsequently enrolled in the officers corps of the newly founded Argentine Navy.
On 25 May 1810 the people of Buenos Aires decided in open council to set up an autonomous government, shortly after having received news from Spain of the dissolution of the Supreme Government Junta, which supervised the viceroyalties on behalf of King Ferdinand VII (rex 1808-1833). This decision, adopted in view of the chaotic situation created by Napoleon’s invasion of Spain, gave rise to the wars of Independence in the Spanish colonies of South America, and led to the end of the power of the mother country after the battle of Ayacucho in 1824 and the fall of the Callao and Chiloé forts in 1826.
At sea, the Argentine War of Independence was waged in two phases. The first included the engagements to gain control of the River Plate and its two great affluents, the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, freed by the patriot squadrons against the Spanish fleet based in Montevideo. After the defeat of the first Argentine small naval squadron, commanded by Juan B. Azopardo, at San Nicolás on the Paraná river on 2 March 1811, the Spanish fleet continued to dominate the waters, laying waste to the costal areas, bombarding Buenos Aires on several occasions and partially blockading the patriot army communications and supply forces besieging Montevideo by land. Buenos Aires then decided to create a squadron capable of opposing the Spaniards. It was made ready by the beginning of 1814 and placed under the orders of William Brown (b. Foxford, Ireland 1777 – d. Buenos Aires, Argentina 1857) with the rank of Navy Lieutenant Colonel. In those early days the Argentine Navy used the same ranks as the Army, with the addition of the word Navy. This practice continued until 1880, when it adopted its own nomenclature. In those early days, one of the few seamen accorded the rank of Admiral, or Almirante (from the Arab Amir-al-Bahr, lord or prince of the seas) was Navy Brigadier General Guillermo Brown.
The naval battles waged between March and May 1814, represented a complete and decisive victory for the patriot army. The waters of the River Plate were opened, thus putting an end to three centuries of Spanish domination and leading to the disappearance of the Montevideo Royal Naval Station.This victory was of capital importance for the subsequent campaign of the Army of the Andes, commanded by General San Martín. His strategy was to take first the fight to Chile by land and then continue by sea to Peru, instead of attacking the Spanish military organization there through the Upper Peru (today Bolivia), as had already been attempted unsuccessfully.
The second phase of the War of Independence by sea was the war of privateering, maritime campaigns waged against enemy trade following the rules of war. In 1815, while the 1814 squadron was being demobilized, the Buenos Aires Government began to license armed private ships against the Spanish flag in accordance with the Spanish Privateering Ordinance of 1801. A privateering campaign was carried out in the Pacific Ocean in 1815 and in 1816 under the orders of Guillermo Brown, by then a Navy Colonel with the title of Admiral.
Following the Declaration of Independence of the United Provinces of the River Plate on 9 July 1816, in 1817, the same year in which the Army of the Andes crossed the Andes, the Buenos Aires Government issued, in both Spanish and English, the Reglamento Provisional de Corso – A Provisional Ordinance to Regulate Privateering with the aim of organizing the activity of the corsairs flying the Argentine flag. Under this ordinance, the frigate La Argentina set sail in mid 1817 under the orders of Hipólito Bouchard on its privateering expedition around the world. Privateering campaigns also took place in the Atlantic Ocean with vessels armed in Buenos Aires and others the property of North American ship owners sailing under the Argentine flag, in particular from the port city of Baltimore, Maryland, which operated in the North Atlantic and Caribbean, extending the war against Spanish trade to all the seas of the world.
The war with the Empire of Brazil was waged from 1825 to 1828, with battles in the River Plate and privateering campaigns against Brazilian trade. Between 1830 and the War with Paraguay (waged from 1865 to 1869 by Argentina in alliance with Brazil and Uruguay), the Navy had limited resources with which to face the needs of the moment, such as when opposing the Anglo-French squadron, which was invading upriver, at Vuelta de Obligado (1845), or upon providing transport and protection for the army during the War with Paraguay.
During the Presidency of Domingo F. Sarmiento (1868-1874), a new cycle opened for the Navy with the purchase of the first modern squadron, the 1872 Iron Squadron, and for the first time it found itself provisioned in accordance with its requirements. This squadron increased Argentine naval power in the River Plate, and naval campaigns were carried out in Patagonia, which led to the foundation of several Coast Guard Stations and, hence, to the birth of some of the most important cities of Patagonia, contributing to the consolidation of Argentine sovereignty over its southern territories.
Between the late XIXth and early XXth century, after solving its border conflicts, the Argentine Navy became one of the most modern and best trained in South America.
Marches and bugle calls.
The music most frequently heard on board warships until well into the XIXth century, were the calls performed with cornet, navy whistle, drum and fife, transmitting orders or paying homage or salutes. Following Spanish tradition, the marches were the same ones played by the Army.
Added to them, the age-old tradition of sea songs and chants, the latter sung by the sailors in rhythm with their work.
Navy marches are relatively modern, since the presence of bands in the larger vessels did not become common until the second half of the XIXth century. The oldest bands in the Navy were the Navy Infantry and Sea Artillery unit bands during the wars of Independence and against Brazil. Navy bands began to have regular existence in the Argentine Navy around 1880, when it began to develop its own repertoire, different to that of the Army.
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