Buenos Aires Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Viceregal times=== [[File:Garay2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Juan de Garay]] founding Buenos Aires in 1580. The initial settlement, founded by [[Pedro de Mendoza]], had been abandoned since 1542.]] In 1516, navigator and explorer [[Juan Díaz de Solís]], navigating in the name of Spain, was the first European to reach the [[Río de la Plata]]. His expedition was cut short when he was killed during an attack by the native [[Charrua|Charrúa]] tribe in what is now [[Uruguay]]. The city of Buenos Aires was first established as ''Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre''<ref name="Short history"/> (literally "City of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Fair Winds") after [[Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria|Our Lady of Bonaria]] (Patroness Saint of [[Sardinia]]) on 2 February 1536 by a Spanish expedition led by [[Pedro de Mendoza]]. The settlement founded by Mendoza was located in what is today the [[San Telmo]] district of Buenos Aires, south of the [[Buenos Aires Central Business District|city center]]. More attacks by the indigenous people forced the settlers away, and in 1542, the site was thusly abandoned.<ref>[http://www.laeducacion.com/vinculos/materias/historia/not020107.htm Aborígenes de la Argentina] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140605092500/http://www.laeducacion.com/vinculos/materias/historia/not020107.htm |date=5 June 2014 }}. (Spanish) John D. Torres Barreto. Retrieved 9 February 2012.</ref><ref>[http://www.mendoza.edu.ar/efemerid/p_mendoz.htm Pedro de Mendoza]. (Spanish) Retrieved 8 February 2012. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140711021051/http://www.mendoza.edu.ar/efemerid/p_mendoz.htm |date=11 July 2014 }}</ref> A second (and permanent) settlement was established on 11 June 1580 by [[Juan de Garay]], who arrived by sailing down the [[Paraná River]] from [[Asunción]] (now the capital of Paraguay). He dubbed the settlement "Santísima Trinidad" and its port became "Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires."<ref name="provincia"/> From its earliest days, Buenos Aires depended primarily on trade. During most of the 17th century, Spanish ships were menaced by pirates, so they developed a complex system where ships with military protection were dispatched to Central America in a convoy from Seville (the only port allowed to trade with the American colonies) to [[Lima|Lima, Peru]], and from there to the other cities of the viceroyalty. Because of this, products took a very long time to arrive in Buenos Aires, and the taxes generated by the transport made them prohibitive. This scheme frustrated the traders of Buenos Aires, and a thriving informal, yet tolerated by the authorities, contraband industry developed inside the viceroyalties and with the Portuguese. This also instilled a deep resentment among ''[[porteño]]s'' towards the Spanish authorities.<ref name="Short history"/> [[File:Buenos Aires (Aldus Verthoont, ca 1628).jpg|thumb|''Aldus verthoont hem de stadt Buenos Ayrros geleegen in Rio de la Plata'', painting by a Dutch sailor who anchored at the port around 1628.]] Sensing these feelings, [[Charles III of Spain]] progressively eased the trade restrictions before finally declaring Buenos Aires an open port in the late 18th century. The capture of [[Portobelo, Colón|Portobelo]] in Panama by British forces also fueled the need to foster commerce via the Atlantic route, to the detriment of Lima-based trade. One of his rulings was to split a region from the Viceroyalty of Perú and create instead the [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]], with Buenos Aires as the capital. However, Charles's placating actions did not have the desired effect, and the ''porteños'', some of them versed in the ideology of the [[French Revolution]], instead became even more convinced of the need for independence from Spain. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page