| rdfs:comment | - After the May Revolution in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, the Primera Junta government invited the other cities and provinces to join the revolution. Any intent of preserving the local governments previous to the revolution were considered hostile; and as a consequence two military campaigns were launched to suppress the resistance, one to Upper Peru and another to Paraguay, whose Spanish governor, Bernardo de Velasco, had refused to recognize the Junta and had received political support from the Cabildo of Asunción.
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| abstract | - After the May Revolution in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, the Primera Junta government invited the other cities and provinces to join the revolution. Any intent of preserving the local governments previous to the revolution were considered hostile; and as a consequence two military campaigns were launched to suppress the resistance, one to Upper Peru and another to Paraguay, whose Spanish governor, Bernardo de Velasco, had refused to recognize the Junta and had received political support from the Cabildo of Asunción. General Manuel Belgrano, a member of the Junta was named commander of the expedition with only 700 men, half of them without military experience. Even though his forces were small, the extreme prudence of Velasco got them to fight first at Paraguarí, near Asunción, were he was defeated with relative ease. Forced to retreat, Belgrano marched to the Tebicuary river, where he was joined by 400 men from the Guaraní militias from Yapeyú and some men from the Fatherland Cavalry Regiment (ex-Blandengues). As noted in his Memoirs, the Paraguayans did not pursue, and he could continue retreating to the town of Santa Rosa. There he received news that the situation was worsening at the Banda Oriental, so the Junta was ordering him to end the Paraguay campaign soon so he could help in the new theater of operations. On his part Belgrano requested reinforcements and decided to stop the retreat at the Tacuarí river and establish a defensive position. He was confident that with reinforcements from Buenos Aires he could maintain the position. The help sent by the Junta consisted of a small naval squadron travelling north on the Paraná River. This flotilla, composed of three small ships under the command of Juan Bautista Azopardo was defeated on March 2, 1811 at San Nicolás de los Arroyos, so Belgrano was left without reinforcements.[citation needed] The Paraguayans advanced after Belgrano, expecting he would retread without combat after the defeat at Paraguarí. The vanguard was under the command of Fulgencio Yegros and the main army under General Manuel Cabañas, with a total of 2,000 men, plus a reinforcement of three pieces of artillery.
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