An ocean of possibilities: The British invasions of the Río de la Plata and the contours of Atlantic imagination

This article analyzes “Atlantic imagination” in the Napoleonic era through a case study: the impact of the British invasions of the Río de la Plata in the United States (1806–1807). The early reports about the first occupation arrived in the USA four months before the British approached Buenos Aires, exhibiting rare and valuable clues about the geography and temporality of information. By analyzing the “false” and “real” British attacks on the Río de la Plata, the state of diplomatic alliances, and the region’s resource endowment, American newspapers saw the invasion not as an isolated event but as a significant transformation that implicated actors across the Atlantic World, including their country. This paper follows the debates on the occupation in the Jeffersonian and Anti-Jeffersonian press to explore how the capture of Buenos Aires and its hinterland was considered relevant for the USA, delineating the wide “contours” of the Atlantic World.