Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
6
THE LIBERAL AGE
(1880-1916)
The year 1880 marked the beginning of an unprecedented period of
“peace and administration” in Argentina. The accession of General
Julio A. Roca to the presidency that year ended seven decades of politi-
cal turmoil that had prevented national consolidation. Rule by the elit-
ist “Generation of Eighty,” the clique of landowners and politicians
who came to power with Roca, provided the necessary political stabil-
ity to accelerate modern economic development. The nation-state was
firmly under the control of the PAN (Partido Autonomista Nacional, or
National Autonomist Party), a political vehicle of the landowners. The
PAN assured orderly presidential succession until 1916, followed by
a peaceful broadening of political participation up to 1930. Restricted
suffrage and official electoral lists became the rule under the Generation
of Eighty, and promotion of the import-export economy, the policy.
Indeed, the liberal age is known for its economic transition. Argentina
became a modern nation based on exports of agricultural products and
imports of European technology, capital, entrepreneurship, and labor.
The country capitalized on its comparative advantage in producing
beef, wheat, mutton, and wool for international markets. Cities grew,
the land was populated, and railways were built just as Juan Bautista
Alberdi had envisioned. At no other historical period did the country
change so much and experience such a long period of economic devel-
opment, but to the benefit of whom?
The Argentine oligarchs who initiated this national unity chose to limit
the social impact of economic expansion. They never entertained any con-
ception that material improvement was supposed to alter the social and
political values with which they were comfortable, but it did. The immi-
gration they invited to remedy the chronic labor shortage created a ram-
bunctious working class as well as an expectant middle class. Eventually,
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