The Social Evolution of the Argentine RepublicQuesada, Ernesto
History
The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic
Quesada, Ernesto
Argentina -- Civilization; Argentina -- Social conditions
Rosas met this situation and put an end to it. After the dismemberment
of the ephemeral republic of 1825, and the national convention, and
following upon the Brazilian war, the centralist party, deceived in its
principles and in its men, closed its doors to counsel and committed the
error of executing Dorrego at Navarro. The mass of the rural population
resisted the straight jacket proposed by the doctrinaires of the
centralist party and in this they showed themselves unrelenting. Then
Rosas came into power in the government of Buenos Ayres and also secured
control of the situation in the provinces. He succeeded in bringing
about the organization of each province with a view to forming the
Argentine Confederation. He was entrusted by the federation with the
management of foreign relations. He left the interior provinces to
organize themselves after the pattern of the government of Buenos Ayres.
Doubtless, during the long quarter of a century while he was dictator,
real security and peace were never enjoyed, for the centralist party was
ambitious, arrogant and factious, plotting within itself, and when it
was not exciting to rebellion, or leading an invasion it was provoking
foreign intervention. Finally the terrible and merciless war between the
centralists and the federalists developed a state of terror which
culminated in the excesses of the year 1840. The dictator treated his
adversaries without mercy and they in their turn had none for him. To be
strictly truthful, neither party can be absolved from wicked and
culpable action. Nor can I shut my eyes to the fact that the great power
bred pride, and that pride bred hatred of the subject class. But this
prolonged dictatorship saved the country from the anarchy of the petty
republics of 1820, it solidified the country into a sovereign entity and
it gave to the different parts the cohesion of a nation capable of
victoriously resisting the French and Anglo-French interventions. This
much is owed definitely to the centralist party, who in this way solved
the difficulty traditional to our national organization and so guided
along the right road the severest crisis of Argentine history, not only
from a political but also from a sociological point of view. The chasm
that separated the social classes of the capital city from those of the
provincial districts was bridged; the prejudices of blood, of caste and
fortune were destroyed and there was established complete equality,
where every man was the heir of his own labor and depended only upon his
own hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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