Diplomats, Settlers and Travellers

Abstract

Covering 1820–1830, the chapter focuses on trade and ties between the British government led by George Canning and Bernardino Rivadavia, the leading figure in Buenos Aires. Commercial contact and migration grew rapidly leading to the treaty of 1825 providing British settlers with special rights and protection. Soon after, war between Buenos Aires and Brazil led to the blockade of Buenos Aires that destroyed trade and good relations. The chapter relates early efforts to set up a British protectorate in the Rio de la Plata, and the experiences of British travellers attempting to develop mines in the Andes. It draws on numerous eye-witness accounts of British attempts to form agrarian colonies and of the economic and political collapse of the late 1820s.