Here, like his famous rival, San Martin, in France, he found hospitality at the hands of a Spaniard.

On December 17, 1830, the Liberator gave up his troubled soul.
While Bolivar's great republic was falling apart, the United Provinces of La Plata had lost practically all semblance of cohesion.

So broad were their notions of liberty that the several provinces maintained a substantial independence of one another, while within each province the caudillos, or partisan chieftains, fought among themselves.
Buenos Aires alone managed to preserve a measure of stability.

This comparative peace was due to the financial and commercial measures devised by Bernardino Rivadavia, one of the most capable statesmen of the time, and to the energetic manner in which disorder was suppressed by Juan Manuel de Rosas, commander of the gaucho, or cowboy, militia.
Thanks also to the former leader, the provinces were induced in 1826 to join in framing a constitution of a unitary character, which vested in the administration at Buenos Aires the power of appointing the local governors and of controlling foreign affairs.

The name of the country was at the same time changed to that of the "Argentine Confederation"(c)-a Latin rendering of "La Plata." No sooner had Rivadavia assumed the presidency under the new order of things than dissension at home and warfare abroad threatened to destroy all that he had accomplished.