Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
One of the best-known contemporary accounts of postindependence Argentina is
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's
Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of the Tyrants
(1868). Also superb is his seminal classic,
Facundo, or Civilization and Barbarism
(1845).
The Reign of Rosas
In the first half of the 19th century Juan Manuel de Rosas came to prominence as a cau-
dillo in Buenos Aires province, representing the interests of rural elites and landowners.
He became governor of the province in 1829 and, while he championed the Federalist
cause, he also helped centralize political power in Buenos Aires and proclaimed that all
international trade be funneled through the capital. His reign lasted more than 20 years
(to 1852), and he set ominous precedents in Argentine political life, creating the infam-
ous mazorca (his ruthless political police force) and institutionalizing torture.
Under Rosas, Buenos Aires continued to dominate the new country, but his extremism
turned many against him, including some of his strongest allies. Finally, in 1852 a rival
caudillo named Justo José de Urquiza (once a staunch supporter of Rosas) organized a
powerful army and forced Rosas from power. Urquiza's first task was to draw up a con-
stitution, which was formalized by a convention in Santa Fe on May 1, 1853.
The Fleeting Golden Age
Elected the Republic of Argentina's first official president in 1862, Bartolomé Mitre was
concerned with building the nation and establishing infrastructure. His goals, however,
were subsumed by the War of the Triple Alliance (Paraguayan War), which lasted from
1864 to 1870. Not until Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, an educator and journalist from
San Juan, became president did progress in Argentina really kick in.
Buenos Aires' economy boomed and immigrants poured in from Spain, Italy, Ger-
many and Eastern Europe. The new residents worked in the port area, lived tightly
packed in the tenement buildings and developed Buenos Aires' famous dance - the tango
- in the brothels and smoky nightclubs of the port. Elsewhere in the country, Basque and
Irish refugees became the first shepherds, as both sheep numbers and wool exports in-
creased nearly tenfold between 1850 and 1880.
Still, much of the southern pampas and Patagonia were inaccessible to settlers because
of resistance from indigenous Mapuche and Tehueche. In 1878 General Julio Argentino
Roca carried out an extermination campaign against the indigenous people, in what is
known as the Conquista del Desierto (Conquest of the Desert). This doubled the area un-
der state control and opened Patagonia to settlement and sheep.
