This chapter explores how the gradual deterioration of monarchical institutions at the local level both intensified and diversified in the early nineteenth century, especially in the wake of the irreparable erosion of viceregal authority caused by the British invasions of Buenos Aires in 1806–1807. I contend that the effect of the fall of the Spanish monarchy that followed the French occupation of Spain in 1808 was to open up an unprecedented array of questions and uncertainties that endowed those medium- and short-term antagonisms with far-reaching resonances: the tutelage of royal sovereignty, the source of the colonial magistrates’ authority, the relationship between capital and subordinate cities, and the proper handling of alternative dynastic claims. Two overarching conclusions emerge from the analysis: first, the imperial crisis was preceded by a crisis of governance that undermined the most basic routines of obedience to superiors; second, the raucous power struggles between high-ranking royal and ecclesiastical officials constituted only one facet, and by no means the most significant, of a politicization that cut across the entire social body. The conflicts leading up to the events of May 1809 involved a variety of actors with a distinct set of interests, values, and repertoires of collective action.