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Colônia do Sacramento

A Portuguese smuggling fortress planted on the north bank of the Río de la Plata directly across the water from Spanish Buenos Aires.

Founded 1680 by Manuel Lobo; changed hands repeatedly for a century and was ceded definitively to Spain by the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1777, absorbed into the Banda Oriental.

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Moments from the Chronicle

• 1680 Colônia do Sacramento Manuel Lobo founds a Portuguese fortress on the Río de la Plata facing Buenos Aires, igniting a century of border war.

Further reading

• A Brief History of Argentina Jonathan C. Brown · 2003

  Covers the Portuguese smuggling fortress on the Plata opposite Buenos Aires and its century of disputed possession (broad context).

• The Cambridge History of Latin America Leslie Bethell · 1984

  Multi-volume reference for the Luso-Spanish border conflict over Sacramento (broad reference).

Sources

• Colonia del Sacramento — Wikipedia