Las milicias de voluntarios franceses en el Río de la Plata. Tradiciones bélicas, politización y diplomacia informal en tiempos de crisis (1829-1851)

Abstract

The article analyzes the role played in the Rio de la Plata by the militias of foreign residents between 1829 and 1851, stopping especially in the bodies of French volunteers. I argue that these militia and legions in port cities such as Buenos Aires and Montevideo generated a transnational space, where different legal traditions and political cultures were combined, which allowed resident foreigners to exercise an “overseas citizenship”.  This militia experience not only made possible the self-defense of foreigners, but also became a politico-diplomatic channel of representation of their interests, in competition with the official French agents.