Luso-Brazilian Invasion

The Portuguese invasion of the Banda Oriental, also known as the Luso-Brazilian Invasion (in Hispanic countries), 1816 Portuguese Invasion, 1816 Second Portuguese Invasion or War against Artigas (in Brazil) is the armed-conflict that took place between 1816 and 1820 in the Banda Oriental, for control of what today comprises the whole of the Republic of Uruguay, the northern part of the Argentine Mesopotamia and southern Brazil. The four-year armed-conflict resulted in the annexation of the Banda Oriental into the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves as the Province of Cisplatina.

The belligerents were, on one side, the "artiguistas" led by José Gervasio Artigas and some leaders of other provinces that made up the Federal League, like Andrés Guazurary, and on the other, the troops of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarve, directed by Carlos Federico Lecor.

On the naval front, the conflict far exceeded the Rio de la Plata and the Argentine coast to spread globally, as the artiguist privateers harassed Portuguese and Spanish ships in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

The Portuguese invasion was a military conflict that currently has few sources of information compared to other topics. This is mainly due to two causes: the lack of interest in this conflict shown by the founders of Uruguayan historiography (Juan Zorrilla de San Martin, Francisco Bauza, etc.), who wanted to create an apotheosis of the figure of Artigas, and the disinterest of current historians, who prefer to address other issues that seem most relevant of the time, such as the social, political and cultural changes produced and promoted by Artigas.