Frontier: Argentine Pampas

•  Pampas & gauchos of Argentina •  Frontier

– Definition – Comparison with U.S.

•  Frontier & environment –  And national character – Competing interpretations

Who were “gauchos” and what are the Pampas? According to the authors we have read, how have gauchos and the Pampas been important in determining the nature of Argentina?

Don’t forget to include your name.

The Pampas

Overview -plains

ranching

plains

cowboys

plains

Frontier - definition

Geographic zone of interaction between distinct environments and cultures

often “newcomers” moving into new environments claim resources

19C

Argentine Gauchos of the 19th Century

Early20C

19C

gauchos

Gauchos as lazy bums

Darwin; Voyage of the Beagle

Gauchos as lazy bums

“…the territories of the northern and central Mississippi [river valley] were suitable for agriculture and easily accessible from the populated centers, whereas the territories of the valley of the Amazon consisting of tropical forests could not be converted into arable land and access to them from the region of the Andes was most difficult.”

Sarmiento: comparison with U.S.

Juan Manuel de Rosas Rosas

Darwin; Voyage of the Beagle

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

Political implications

“Many philosophers have also thought that plains prepare the way for despotism, just as mountains furnish strongholds for the struggles of liberty. The bound less plain which permits the unobstructed passage of large and weighty wagons … which extend from Buenos Aires and thence to Mendoza, constitutes one of the most notable features of the internal conformation of the Republic…”

Argentine Gauchos of the 19th Century

19C

ranching

Modern painting