Buenos Aires, a colony city of Spain in South America, ousted the Spanish viceroy in the 1810 May Revolution and began the Argentine War of Independence, sending armies to other areas still loyal to the Spanish monarchy. One of those areas was the Upper Peru (modern Bolivia), but Manuel Belgrano prevented the royalist armies from marching to Buenos Aires with his victories at Tucumán and Salta. However, he was defeated when he tried to counter-attack, at Vilcapugio and Ayohuma.