British invasions of the River Plate

Overview

The British invasions of the River Plate were two unsuccessful British attempts to seize control of the Spanish colony of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, located around the Río de la Plata in South America – in present-day Argentina and Uruguay. The invasions took place between 1806 and 1807, as part of the Napoleonic Wars, War of the Third Coalition at a time when Spain was an ally of Napoleonic France. In Argentine historiography, the two successive defeats of the British expeditionary forces are known collectively as the Reconquista and the Defensa, respectively.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The British invasions of the River Plate comprised two failed attempts to seize the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata from Spain between 1806 and 1807, during a period when Spain was allied with Napoleonic France. The operations were conducted as part of the broader strategic pressures of the Napoleonic Wars and the War of the Third Coalition, with Britain seeking to disrupt French-aligned colonial holdings in South America. Both expeditions were repulsed, and in Argentine historiography the two defeats are recorded as the Reconquista and the Defensa respectively. The failures demonstrated the limits of British power projection into Spanish South America and left the viceroyalty under Spanish colonial control, though the mobilization of local forces to expel the British had longer-term consequences for the region's political development.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (11)