The
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was the last and most shortlived
viceroyalty created by
Spain in 1776. (The
Spanish name,
Virreinato del Río de la Plata, translates literally to
Viceroyalty of the River of Silver, although some sources conventionally call the viceroyalty
Viceroyalty of the River Plate; see the
Encyclopædia Britannica entry.)
Its limits roughly contained the territories of present Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. The Captaincy General of Chile was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. It was mainly created because of security concerns on the increasing interest of other world powers on the area, mainly the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Great Britain.
In 1680, Portuguese governor of Rio de Janeiro Manuel Lobo created the Department of Colonia and founded Colonia, a fort located in present Uruguay's coast and the department's capital. The main objective was to secure the Portuguese expansion of Brazil beyond the Treaty of Tordesillas that was rendered meaningless between 1580 and 1640 while Spain controlled Portugal. José de Garro quickly attacked and seized the fort for Spain, but on May 7, 1681 it was handed back to Portugal due to the Provisional Treaty of Lisbon.
On the other hand, the Viceroyalty of Peru required all commerce to be performed through Lima's port, which restrained the Buenos Aires natural port potential economy, a problem that also caused large contraband activities in the region, especially in Asunción, Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
