Primera Junta

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The First Assembly or Primera Junta was the first government that appeared in Argentina after the May Revolution. The government was located in El Fuerte (Spanish: the fort), which had been used since 1776 as a residence by the viceroys. The Casa Rosada has been erected on this location.

The principles that the May Revolution proclaimed were:

• Popular sovereignty
• Principle of representativeness and federalization
• Division of powers and duration of the mandates
• Publication of the government's actions

Contents 1 Primera Junta Members 2 Duration 3 Actions 4 Junta's End

[edit] Primera Junta Members

President

• Cornelio Saavedra

Secretaries:

• Mariano Moreno
• Juan José Paso

Committee member

• Manuel Alberti
• Miguel de Azcuénaga
• Manuel Belgrano
• Juan José Castelli
• Domingo Matheu
• Juan Larrea

This Junta was allegedly meant to govern in the name of the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, while he was imprisoned by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Juntas were a form of transitional or emergency government that emerged, during the Napoleonic invasion, in those Spanish cities that had not succumbed under French domination, in order to maintain Spanish sovereignty, being the most referential the Junta of Seville. This situation was seen as an unbetterable opportunity by the politically active inhabitants of Buenos Aires who had been influenced by the recent democratic and republican philosophical wave, and who were also concerned about the commercial monopoly exerted by the Spanish crown, which was suffocating the local economy, partially mitigated by the practice of contraband. The local politicians that wanted a change towards self-government and free commerce argued that being the King imprisoned, sovereignty returned to the people, who was to assume the government until the King returned, just like the subjects in Spain had done. The Viceroy and his supporters stated that the colonies belonged to Spain, thus being the legal authority any government established in Spain, namely the Junta of Seville. The meeting celebrated in the Cabildo (a Spanish communal institution of that time) in May 25th 1810, under a strong popular pressure installed in front of it, at the Plaza Mayor (today Plaza de Mayo - May Square), favoured the first stance, creating the Primera Junta, the first form of local government in the territory that would later become Argentina. Spain would never recover its dominion over that territory. From the very beginning of the new government, two factions manifested their differences, a more radical one, whose visible leader was the Junta's Secretary Mariano Moreno, and the conservative wing that supported the Junta's President Cornelio Saavedra.

[edit] Duration

Created on May 25, 1810, it was replaced on December 18 of the same year by the Junta Grande.

[edit] Actions

• Invited the provinces to send deputies to participate in a Congress.
• Created La Gazeta de Buenos Aires by a decree, making it the first newspaper to be used for creole political propaganda.
• Founded the Public Library and fomented primary education.
• Attended native Americans needs and population health care.
• Created the first Navy Squad and the Army.
• Created the Department of Commerce and War. (Spanish: Departamento de Comercio y Guerra)
• Opened the Military School of Mathematics (Spanish: Escuela Militar de Matemática)
• Opened new ports to speed up exportation of products.
• Promoted the selling of lands in border zones, to incite population of the whole territory and take advantage of the natural resources.
• Ordered the detention of the viceroy Cisneros.
• Ordered the arrest of Santiago de Liniers.
• Send Mariano Moreno in a diplomatic mission to London.

[edit] Junta's End

The active secretary of the Junta, Mariano Moreno, was relegating president Cornelio Saveedra to a second plane. Militian authorities, fearing on this lost of power by Saavedra, pressured to relegate Moreno. Moreno, on the other hand, succeeded on the approval of decrees that limited Saavedra and others. On December, 1810, when tension was reaching its peak, Saavedra succeeded in getting the support by the deputies of the provices from the interior of country and gave Moreno a political setback, which forced him to present his resignation on December 18th. With this resignation, the integration of the deputies from the other provinces to the new government became possible. Thus the Primera Junta was dissolved and was replaced by the Junta Grande or "Great Assembly".