Argentina is a nation of which the historical continuity was very roughly broken, and within the last half-century she had to begin her life over again with less help from the past than is afforded to most peoples by tradition and historical associations. Kept in subjection by the Spaniards as one of the less important corners of their dominions, and regarded with a certain measure of indifference and even suspicion as being a discordant factor in the Colonial system and its great industry of exporting gold and silver, Argentina owed her spiritual and intellectual progress chiefly to the Jesuits and her material progress chiefly to benevolent Governors and spirited Creoles. The first rude shock was the expulsion of the Jesuits, and this was followed by a much ruder breach of historical continuity in the Revolution. Misfortune and incompetence long paralysed her, and in fifty years she lost most of what was good in the old system and gained little good from the new. Then the revival came. It was a revival in material prosperity, and also in courage and self-reliance, strenuously fostered by one or two great men. She has prospered beyond the utmost expectations of the world, but hitherto has experienced the usual fate of new countries in failing to grow in wealth of ideas in proportion to her increase in material riches. One good legacy she had from old days--the Spanish love of liberty. This became perverted as years of anarchy and tyranny ran their demoralising course, and now it is somewhat overgrown by abuses which have been described in the earlier chapters. But it is not extinct, and political theory is certainly better than political practice, and the people themselves are keen and shrewd critics of their system of government. As they gain more political experience and better assimilate their immigrants, they will force reform after reform upon the office-holders. In one respect they have followed Spain too closely. Madrid usurped the rights of the local governments in Spain, Buenos Aires has done the same. As far as political power goes, the preponderance of the Argentine capital is inevitable and probably beneficent, for the various Provinces are small, weak, and thinly populated; they need a strong and intelligent head. But it is unfortunate that the various provincial centres should be neglected, and that Buenos Aires should be the Mecca of every Argentine. The course of trade is tending somewhat towards decentralisation, and Rosario and Bahia Blanca are growing perhaps as rapidly as Buenos Aires. But it would be well if the many picturesque old Spanish towns in remote districts became, instead of seats of somewhat unimportant governments, real centres of light and leading. There is somewhat of a tendency to regard them as mere places of business at which a man must work until he has time or money to spend in the capital.