provinces of the former Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata to join them under a federal system. In this congress, Artigas rectified the use of the flag created by Manuel Belgrano (which would later become the flag of the Argentine Republic), adding a diagonal festoon in red, the color of federalism in Argentina at that time, and changing the Borbonic light blue for Revolutionary dark blue. Luso Brazilian invasion The continued growth of influence and prestige of the Federal League frightened the governments in Buenos Aires (because of its federalism) and Portugal (because of its republicanism), and in August 1816, Portugal invaded the Eastern Province (with tacit complicity from Buenos Aires), with the intention of destroying Artigas and his revolution. The Portuguese forces, led by Carlos Frederico Lecor, captured Artigas and his deputies and occupied Montevideo on 20 January 1817, but the struggle continued for three years in the countryside. Infuriated by Buenos Aires's passivity, Artigas declared war on Buenos Aires while he was losing to the Portuguese. His subordinates, members of the Federal League -- Francisco Ramírez, governor of Entre Ríos, and Estanislao López, governor of Santa Fe—managed to defeat the centralism of Buenos Aires. But hope for a new nation was short-lived; both commanders entered agreements with Buenos Aires that went against the principles of Artigas. They rebelled against him and left him to be crushed by the Portuguese. Without resources and men, Artigas withdrew to Paraguay in September 1820. In Paraguay, Dr. Francia, the dictator, banished him to Candelaria. He then disappeared from the political life of the region. (B. Nahum). After a long exile, he died in Paraguay in 1850, at age 86. It is said that Artigas, feeling himself to be near death, asked for a horse and died in the saddle, as a gaucho. His remains were buried and then re-interred at the Panteón Nacional in 1855. On 19 June 1977, his remains were transferred to the Artigas Mausoleum in the centre of the Plaza Independencia. Ideals Artigas was a staunch democrat and federalist, opposed to monarchism and centralism. Artiguism has two main sources: the works of American authors such as Thomas Paine (supporters of federalism) and the French authors of the Enlightenment as Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Artigas read books in his teens as "Common Sense" of Paine and "The Social Contract" of Rousseau. The first "Caudillo" or Founding Father of the La Plata