La reconquista de Buenos Aires

The English invasion of Buenos Aires in 1806 marked the zenith of colonial Montevideo, the culminating moment of a world that would never be the same again. At the San Pedro Gate, with fife and drums, families, their merchants and neighbors, voluntarily converted into soldiers fired on the invaders. Hundreds of Montevideanos of age to fight were to retake the Buenos Airean capital- this operation of reconquest, organized by the military and military forces of Montevideo, revealed them loyal to a crown that was geographically far to protect them quickly and, at the same time, too decadent to overcome the coming attacks. What was behind the "courageous audacity" of the very faithful Montevideans?