Argentina

VII

History

Prior to European contact, Argentina’s indigenous peoples were far less numerous and generally had less-developed cultures than indigenous peoples in Mexico and Peru. Most were hunter-gatherers. Some highly developed indigenous peoples lived inland, far away from the coast. The Diaguita of western and northwestern Argentina practiced agriculture. Their societies and cultures bore traces of influence from the Inca Empire. In northeastern Argentina, bordering on contemporary Paraguay, the Guaraní peoples practiced slash-and-burn agriculture, clearing forestland by cutting down and burning the existing vegetation.

A

The Colonial Era

In 1516 the Spanish navigator Juan Díaz de Solís, then searching for a southwest passage to the East Indies, piloted his ship into the great estuary now known as the Río de la Plata. He claimed the surrounding region in the name of Spain. Sebastian Cabot, an Italian navigator in the service of Spain, visited the estuary in 1526. In search of food and supplies, Cabot and his men went up the Paraná River close to the site of the modern city of Rosario. They constructed a fort and explored up the river as far as the region now occupied by Paraguay. Cabot, who remained in the river basin for nearly four years, obtained small quantities of silver from the native peoples. He named the estuary the Río de la Plata, which is Spanish for “silver river.”

In 1536 Pedro de Mendoza, a Spanish soldier appointed as the military governor of all land in South America south of the Río de la Plata, founded Buenos Aires. The members of his expedition encountered hostile indigenous peoples, severe hardships, and great difficulties in obtaining food. They abandoned the site in 1541.

In 1537 Domingo Martínez de Irala, one of Mendoza’s lieutenants, founded Asunción (now the capital of Paraguay), which became the first permanent settlement in the La Plata region. In 1553 Spanish settlers from Peru established the first permanent settlement on Argentine soil at Santiago del Estero in the Andean foothills. The Spanish founded Santa Fe in 1573, and in 1580 they resettled Buenos Aires. Administratively, the La Plata region formed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, based in Lima.

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Throughout the 17th century and most of the 18th century Spain funneled all overseas trade with its colonies through Lima, where the viceroy resided. Despite the advantages of Buenos Aires as a more direct link between Europe and the colonial settlements east of the Andes, the Río de la Plata area was legally closed to all overseas trade. The Spaniards in the area lived on small subsidies from the Spanish government and from an illegal silver trade with Peru. They exploited the enormous herds of wild cattle descended from animals the Spanish brought to the region decades earlier.

In 1776 Spain made Buenos Aires the capital of the newly formed Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a region comprising present-day Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Spain also allowed trade. Free at last from the control of Lima, Buenos Aires began to prosper, not only through legal trade with Spain and other Spanish colonies, but also through a brisk illegal trade. The La Plata region then began exporting Peruvian silver and cattle hides from the wild herds of the Pampas, and Buenos Aires became a major port for importing African slaves. These changes attracted Spanish merchants and a large number of senior Spanish administrators to Buenos Aires.

B

End of Spanish Rule

After about 20 years of economic expansion and stability, the La Plata region attracted the attention of Britain, which was at war with France and Spain. In 1806 a British fleet attacked Buenos Aires. The British took control of the city, but a citizen militia quickly ousted them. The following year the British tried to regain control of the city but failed. The defeat of the British filled the citizens of Buenos Aires with confidence in their fighting ability.

Revolutionary sentiment in La Plata escalated after the French emperor Napoleon overthrew and imprisoned King Ferdinand VII of Spain in 1808. The people of Buenos Aires refused to recognize Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, as Ferdinand’s legitimate successor. On May 25, 1810, they rejected Bonaparte’s rule by overthrowing the government and installed a provisional governing council in the name of Ferdinand VII.

The new government launched a military campaign to win the support of the cities in the interior. The campaigns of 1810 marked the beginning of the wars of independence that continued for more than a decade. Argentina declared independence in 1816, although the revolutionaries did not finally defeat the Spanish in South America until 1824. See also Latin American Independence.

C

The Unitarians and Federalists

In the northern city of Tucumán, on July 9, 1816, a congress of delegates from the Argentine provinces declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America (later called the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata). However, the delegates failed to establish a stable government. A long struggle ensued between the people of Buenos Aires, who wanted to unify the country with Buenos Aires as the capital, and the people of the interior provinces, who did not want to be dominated by Buenos Aires. People in Buenos Aires who mostly favored a centralized system were known as Unitarians, while those in the provinces who wanted a loose confederation with provincial self-government were known as Federalists. Friction between the two factions mounted steadily, culminating in a civil war in 1819 and the so-called year of anarchy in 1820 when provincial forces invaded and occupied Buenos Aires. Peace was restored in 1820 but the central issue, formation of a stable government, remained unresolved.

In the 1820s the Unitarians of Buenos Aires under Bernardino Rivadavia tried to establish a centralized government. A man of liberal views, Rivadavia aspired to modernize Argentina. However, he became distracted when his army challenged Brazil for possession of the east bank of the Río de la Plata. The war between Argentina and Brazil ended in stalemate, and both countries guaranteed the independence of the east bank, which became the independent nation of Uruguay in 1828. Rivadavia was deposed, and Argentina collapsed into bankruptcy and civil unrest.

In 1829 dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas took power in Buenos Aires. A Federalist, Rosas cemented friendly relations with other provinces, winning broad support from fellow caudillos (dictators) and from the small armies of gauchos (cowboys) who dominated the provinces. He established an iron grip over Buenos Aires, demanding rigid obedience of the population and commonly murdering anyone who dared to resist. With few exceptions, his surviving enemies fled abroad. From Chile and Uruguay, and as far away as France and the United States, Rosas’s enemies waged a propaganda war against him. They denounced Rosas for his repressive policies and for failing to promote economic development.

In 1852 General Justo Urquiza, a former governor of Entre Ríos province, led an uprising that toppled Rosas. Urquiza received assistance from exiled Unitarians in Uruguay and from Brazil. In 1853 Argentina adopted a federal constitution, and Urquiza became the first president of the Argentine Confederation. However, Buenos Aires refused to acknowledge Urquiza’s authority and reinstituted self-rule. The main dispute concerned finances. Buenos Aires collected nearly all the country’s revenues from foreign trade, but its leaders refused to hand over the revenues to the Confederation.

D

Formation of the Republic

In 1859 hostility between Buenos Aires and the Confederation flared into civil war. The Confederation initially proved stronger. Following defeat in the Battle of Cepeda in 1859, Buenos Aires agreed to join the Confederation. In 1861 civil war erupted again, and in the Battle of Pavón the forces of Buenos Aires under General Bartolomé Mitre defeated the army of the Confederation under Urquiza. As the Confederation collapsed, Mitre created the Republic of Argentina. In 1862 the provinces elected Mitre president of the republic. He ruled under an amended version of the constitution of 1853 and made Buenos Aires the nation’s capital.

As president, Mitre pledged to develop Argentina economically through railroad construction and European immigration. He faced lingering opposition in the interior to a political system dominated by Buenos Aires, but conflict with Paraguay brought war on a large scale. In 1865 Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay declared war on Paraguay. This conflict, known as the War of the Triple Alliance, continued for almost five years until Paraguay was largely destroyed. Despite almost continual warfare, the Argentine economy grew until an economic depression occurred in the mid-1870s.

In 1879 General Julio A. Roca led an invasion of the southern Pampas, known as the Conquest of the Desert, in which his troops subdued and destroyed the indigenous peoples and opened vast new areas for grazing and farming. This campaign marked the beginning of a decade of unprecedented expansion. In 1880 Roca was elected president. Unlike Mitre, who dominated the country from Buenos Aires, Roca drew his power mainly from the provinces, and his victory provoked his opponents in Buenos Aires into revolt. Backed by the army, Roca’s followers put down the rebellion. To placate the people of Buenos Aires, Roca’s government made the city a federal district. This move effectively separated the city of Buenos Aires from the province of the same name.

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