The Week California Belonged to Argentina
In the annals of California's rich history, there's a peculiar chapter that reads more like a swashbuckling adventure than a diplomatic incident. It's the tale of how, for one brief week in 1818, portions of Spanish California found themselves under the unofficial control of a nascent Argentina.
Our story centers on Hippolyte Bouchard, a French sailor turned Argentine privateer. With Argentina's war for independence from Spain raging, Bouchard saw an opportunity to strike at the Spanish Empire's far-flung holdings. Armed with a privateering license from the fledgling United Provinces of Río de la Plata (the precursor to modern Argentina), Bouchard set sail in 1817 on an audacious circumnavigation of the globe.
After a year of raiding Spanish colonies across the Pacific, Bouchard's two ships, La Argentina and Santa Rosa, appeared off the coast of Monterey on November 20, 1818. Monterey, then the capital of Alta California, was ill-prepared for the assault that followed.
The battle was swift and decisive. By midday on November 21, Bouchard's 200 men had overwhelmed the Spanish defenders. In a moment of high drama, the Argentine flag was raised over the Monterey customs house, marking the first and only time a foreign flag would fly over the capital of Spanish California.
For the next six days, Bouchard's men occupied Monterey. They looted, they drank, they burned buildings – including the governor's residence – and they destroyed the town's archives, inadvertently creating a headache for future California historians.
But Bouchard wasn't content with Monterey. His fleet sailed south, briefly occupying Santa Barbara and San Juan Capistrano. In each location, he declared the areas liberated from Spanish rule, creating a tenuous and short-lived Argentine presence along the California coast.
By January 1819, Bouchard had departed California waters, leaving behind burned buildings, depleted wine cellars, and a story that would become local legend. The "year of the insurgents," as it came to be known, exposed the vulnerabilities of Spain's New World empire and foreshadowed the changes that would soon sweep through California.
This bizarre episode serves as a reminder of the interconnected nature of the Americas' struggles for independence. It highlights how the ripples of Argentina's revolution reached the shores of California, creating an unlikely intersection of Latin American and North American history.
While Bouchard's raid had little lasting impact on California's governance – Spain quickly reasserted control, only to lose it to Mexico a few years later – it remains a captivating footnote in the complex tapestry of California's path to statehood. It's a story of opportunism, adventure, and the strange twists of fate that can momentarily bind the destinies of distant lands.
