Motín a bordo. La Legión Anglo-Italiana de Crimea y los proyectos de colonización militar en la Confederación Argentina (1856-1857)

Between the end of 1856 and the beginning of 1857 two contingents of troops that had belonged to the British Italian Legion, a corps created through an agreement between the authorities of England and the Kingdom of Piedmont to fight in the Crimean War, arrived in the Río de la Plata. The transport of these soldiers was intended to form a military colony in the Argentine Confederation, but logistical, political and financial problems scuttled the plan before the enclave was founded.The documents we publish here constitute an observatory to analyze the geopolitics of the Atlantic, the motivations of the militiamen,as well as the logistical difficulties in developinga specific type of “armedcolonization”.