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Line 93: The [[May Revolution]] of 1810 marked the early stages that would later lead to the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata's independence from Spain. Rosas, like many landowners in the countryside, were suspicious of a movement advanced primarily by merchants and bureucrats in the city of Buenos Aires. Rosas was specially outraged by the execution of Viceroy Santiago Linier at the hands of the revolutionaries. According to historian John Lynch, "Rosas did not disguise his preference for the colonial order and its guarantee of peace and unity. Rosas, like many of his kind, looked back on the colonial period as a golden age when law ruled and prosperity prevailed."{{sfn|Lynch|2001|p=3}} When the [[Congress of Tucumán]] severed all remaining ties with Spain in July 1816, Rosas and his peers accepted independence as an accomplished fact.{{sfn|Lynch|2001|p=3}} With independence came a breakup of the territories which had formed the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires and the other provinces clashed over the power to be turned over to the central government versus the amount of autonomy to be preserved by provincial governments. A decade of strife over the issue destroyed the ties between capital and provinces, with new republics being declared throughout the country. Efforts by the Buenos Aires government to quash these independent states were met by determined local resistance.{{sfn|Lynch|2001|p=9}}{{sfn|Rock|1987|p=93}} In 1820 Rosas and his gauchos, all dressed in red which gave them the nickname "''Colorados del Monte''" ("Reds of the Mount"), enlisted in the army of Buenos Aires as the Fifth Regiment of Militia. They repulsed At the end of the conflict, Rosas returned to his ''estancias'' and remained there. He acquired prestige, was given the rank of colonel of cavalry and was awarded with further landholdings by the government.{{sfn|Lynch|2001|p=9}}{{sfn|Szuchman|Brown|1994|pp=214–215}} These additions, together with his successful business and fresh property acquisitions, greatly boosted his wealth. By 1830, he was the 10th largest landowner in the [[Buenos Aires Province|province of Buenos Aires]] (in which the city of the same name was located), owning 300,000 head of cattle and {{convert|420,000|acre}} of land.{{sfn|Lynch|2001|pp=26–27}} With his newly gained influence, military background, vast landholdings and a private army of gauchos loyal only to him, Rosas became the quintessential [[caudillo]], as the provincial warlords in the region were known.{{sfn|Lynch|2001|pp=1, 8, 13}} | |||