Read down for an insight into the 19th century in Argentina.
Much of the current rift between Buenos Aires and the rest of Argentina has its roots in a long-standing conflict which emerged in the early 19th century. The achievement of independence brought neither stability nor unity, since the new junta was divided between Federalists and Unitarists, a conflict that was to rage for over 40 years. The Unitarists, found mainly in the city of Buenos Aires, advocated strong central government, free trade, education and white immigration, looking to Europe for their inspiration. The Federalists, backed by the provincial elites and many of the great estancieros of Buenos Aires Province, resisted, defending local autonomy and traditional values. Behind the struggle were also economic interests: Buenos Aires and the coastal areas benefited from trade with Europe; the interior provinces did not. As the conflict raged, the territory, known officially as the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, had none of the features of a modern state: there was neither central government, army, capital city nor constitution.
Order, of a sort, was established after 1829 by Juan Manuel de Rosas. Although there was resistance to the new constitution from some of the western provinces, the institutions of a modern state were created in the two decades after 1861 by Mitre's important period of government: he set up a national bank, bureaucracy, a postal service and an army. And it was the building of railways across the Pampas which did most to create national unity, breaking the power of the caudillos by enabling the federal government to send in troops quickly. The new army was quickly employed to defeat Francisco Solano López of Paraguay in the War of the Triple Alliance (1865-1870). They were used again in President Roca's genocidal Conquest of the Wilderness (1879-1880) which exterminated the indigenous tribes of the Pampas and the south.
In the last quarter of the 19th century Argentina was transformed: the newly acquired stability encouraged foreign investment; the Pampas were fenced, ploughed up and turned over to commercial export agriculture; and railways and port facilities were built. The presidency of Domingo Sarmiento had been keen on widespread immigration from Europe, which transformed the character of Buenos Aires and other cities around the Plata estuary, where the population grew from 200,000 in 1870 to two million in 1920. Sarmiento also sought to Europeanize the country and his impressive educational policy included the importing of teachers from North America. Political power, however, remained in the hands of a small group of large landowners, who had been granted territories after the Conquest of the Desert, and their urban allies. Few Argentines had the vote, and the opposition Unión Cívica Radical, excluded from power, conspired with dissidents in the army in attempts to overthrow the government.
