viceroyalty was changed to "United Provinces of La Plata River";
a seal, a flag ,and a coat of arms were chosen; and numerous
features of the Spanish regime were abolished, including titles
of nobility, the Inquisition, the slave trade, and restrictions
on the press. But so chaotic were the conditions within and so
disastrous the campaigns without, that eventually commissioners
were sent to Europe, bearing instructions to seek a king for the
distracted country.

When Charcas fell under the control of the viceroy of Peru,
Paraguay set up a regime for itself. At Asuncion, the capital, a
revolutionary outbreak in 1811 replaced the Spanish intendant by
a triumvirate, of which the most prominent member was Dr. Jose
Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia. A lawyer by profession, familiar
with the history of Rome, an admirer of France and Napoleon, a
misanthrope and a recluse, possessing a blind faith in himself
and actuated by a sense of implacable hatred for all who might
venture to thwart his will, this extraordinary personage speedily
made himself master of the country. A population composed chiefly
of Indians, docile in temperament and submissive for many years
to the paternal rule of Jesuit missionaries, could not fail to
become pliant instruments in his hands. At his direction,
therefore, Paraguay declared itself independent of both Spain and
La Plata. This done, an obedient Congress elected Francia consul
of the republic and later invested him with the title of
dictator. In the Banda Oriental two distinct movements appeared.
Montevideo, the capital, long a center of royalist sympathies and
for some years hostile to the revolutionary government in Buenos
Aires, was reunited with La Plata in 1814. Elsewhere the people
of the province followed the fortunes of Jose Gervasio Artigas,