THE AGE OF ROSAS

After independence Argentina was fragmented in regions. Its economy was based on cattle raising.Cattle was slaughtered in saladeros and sold to Europe, Cuba

and Brazil.The country needed workers. It had more cattle than

people.Unconquered nomadic Indians lived in the pampas.

UNITARIANS VERSUS FEDERALISTSThe elite disagreed in the system of government to be implemented.

The opposite views were represented by CENTRALISM (Unitarians) versus FEDERALISM

The conflict between Unitarians and Federalist set the stage for the ascent of caudillos.

Until 1870s, Argentina lived under continuous civil wars. The interior provinces opposed the rule of the Province of

Buenos Aires.

JUAN MANUEL DE ROSAS (1793-1877)

Military hero Federalist commander of Buenos Aires militia during the civil war between Federalist and Unitarians

Political leader On and off governor of Buenos Aires since 1829

Member of the elite Creole estanciero and businessman ruled on behalf of the landowners of his province.

Ruled by force Had a militia of Gauchos and used a secret police (Mazorca). Rosas ruled with strict authority; he treated the state like his estancias.

Charismatic He knew the ways of the countryside well• Had the blind loyalty of a mass of gauchos and urban mulattos.• Claimed to identify with the lower class sense of justice.• Slaves and freemen had a positive image of him. He allowed them to practice African

rituals and financed their celebrations.

THE OPPOSITION Rosas alienated liberal and provincial caudillos who resented the dominance of Buenos Aires.

ROSAS, 1829-1852 THE QUINTAESSENTIAL CAUDILLO 1. ROSAS WAS THE MOST POWERFUL POLITICAL FIGURE IN ARGENTINA BETWEEN 1829 AND 1852 developed an autonomous state and attempted to centralize it. (?) achieved a modicum of national unity and international standing. put down rebellions using violence and mass murder.

Rosas had over 20,000 rebels killed in an attempt to bring social stability.

2. ROSAS WAS THE PIONEER OF A NEW RANCHING ECONOMY

In 1833, he expelled the Mapuche Indians from the Pampas and divided the lands among Buenos Aires ranchers. In payment, he received 400,000 acres of prime land and the support of ranchers. He solidified the domination of ranchers and transformed estancias into economic enterprises. He maintained the economic supremacy of Buenos Aires and its monopoly over port and customs.

HIS DICTATORSHIP CAME TO AN END AT THE BATTLE OF CASEROS IN 1852 through the combined forces of caudillos like Urquiza, Unitarians, and Brazilian support.

GAUCHOS AND CAUDILLOSGauchos, the soldiers of independence, formed Rosas’s militias. Skilled riders and brave warriors who knew the pampas well and rendered

services to cattle raising estancias.During the 1800’s, their lives became increasingly difficult Passport and anti-vagrancy laws round up workers for estancias and soldiers for

the militia. The settlement of the pampas, left little room for gauchos to roam with their

horses and herds. The transformation of ranching economy forced the gaucho into the interior

where they became peons. Some escaped to Indian territory.

ARGENTINA, MODEL OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

MODERNIZATION BROUGHT ECONOMIC CHANGES TO ARGENTINA.

1. Transform the ranching economy Barbed wire and new breeds of cattle and sheep for a wool industry

2. Modernize labor force Gauchos become peons. Imported European skilled labor.

3. Develop and modernize the port of Buenos Aires to ensure trade Frigorificos transformed the meat businesses.

4. Introduce advanced technology: telegraph, railroad5. Colonize the pampas

A massive land concentration accompanied these changes.

SOCIAL CHANGES IN ARGENTINA 1. ARGENTINE ELITE TRANSFORMED ITS WAYS OF LIFE. The colonial patron became a RURAL CAPITALIST. Landowners visited their estates rarely. Their lands were supervised by native-born

peons. The landed elite lived in Buenos Aires. It was more familiar with Europe than with

their lands. Buenos Aires became a European style metropolis

2. NEW SOCIAL SECTORS WERE FORMED a peonage, a middle class and an urban working class were formed. Immigrant sharecroppers produced the country’s wealth. The Indian frontier was expanded with rifles and railroad (Julio Roca). • Urban workers and middle class formed the RADICAL PARTY.

TRANSFORMATIONS, LATE 1800’S

The Industrial Revolution in Europe influenced changes in Latin America.

1. Latin America needed technology and capital to extract and process its resources and markets for its exports.

2. Europe needed food and raw materials for workers and factories.3. Elites patched their feuds and provided the political peace required by the

European investors. 4. New technology transformed the region’s economies.

IMMIGRATION TO ARGENTINA

REASONS TO INVITE EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION Country’s low population density Needs for skilled labor Need to populate the Pampas and Patagonia Racial policies: “white population”

EFFECTS OF EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION Transformation of the economy and the labor force Expansion of rural and urban sectors Colonization of country’s interior Italian immigration changed the culture and sense of identity of Argentina.

IMMIGRATION (1870-1930) Latin America received 7’-9’ immigrants. Argentina was first in the proportion of immigrants.

2’5 million immigrants. 50,000-100,000 seasonal workers. Irish shepherds, Spanish shopkeepers, Jewish

artisans, Arab vendors, but most immigrants came from Italy.

THE ITALIAN IMMIGRANT, 1880s Agents of steamship lines lured Italians to work as indentured workers

in Argentine estancias. Italians transformed Buenos Aires and the rural area.

First, immigrants worked in rural areas as agricultural laborers. There was not land for the immigrants.

Eventually they returned to Buenos Aires to work as unskilled laborers. There they found the fellowship of other Italian immigrants. Their culture transformed the identity of Argentina.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF BUENOS AIRES

Buenos Aires became the first metropolis of Latin America. Population increased tenfold due to immigration. One third of the country’s population lived in Buenos Aires. Migration made Buenos Aires a city of foreigners.

most residents were foreign-born 3 out of 4 workers were immigrants.

x It was overwhelmingly white

In 1810, 4 out 5 people in the city were of African or Indian descent. Now the city looked more Italian than Argentine, i.e. diet.

BUENOS AIRES, 1867

BUENOS AIRES, 1890’s THE PARIS OF SOUTH AMERICA

The elite made Buenos Aires the Paris of South America. Following Haussman’s plan of a city (Paris), Buenos Aires was transformed. They built diagonal boulevards lined with tree, cafes, and restaurants. The city had paved streets, tramway rails, electricity and sewers. Rich and poor lived within blocks of each other around the Plaza de Mayo. Classes had very different lifestyles.

• The elite lived in ostentatious palaces. • French was the language of choice and European fashions the style

Skilled workers left the tenements and moved to the countryside looking for affordable housing.

The new towns became working class neighborhoods, the barriadas of the tango.

THE WORKING CLASS IN BUENOS AIRESPoor people’s lives were very different from the wealthy. A polyglot working class lived in decaying houses subdivided into 7-8

single room apartments, each with a family or a groups of bachelors sharing a patio, a latrine and a grill.

While one family mansion might fill an entire block, few streets away, one thousand Arab immigrants occupied a similar space.

On the south of Plaza de Mayo the streets of Buenos Aires where teemed with stevedores, sailors, and prostitutes.

OTHER ARGENTINAS

MODERNIZATION did not benefit the provinces equally.

Social and economic disparities were more evident in the interior provinces. They received a smaller share of the export boom and its progress. Rural towns remained small and undeveloped, roads were unpaved. The Andes lacked all the targets of investments: a port, the plains or the littoral.

IN THE 1870S, INTERIOR PROVINCES BECAME CENTER OF POLITICAL PROBLEMS. Leaders of the late 1800s came from the interior: Roca, Sarmiento, Juarez Celman. They worked to integrate the region with the nation.

They brought the railroad and developed local industries.

They imposed political order and discouraged rebellion.

THE ARGENTINE LOWER CLASS

CULTURE OF THE 1800s

•GAUCHOS• TANGO

THE IMAGE OF THE GAUCHOA self-sufficient mestizo cowboy who took care of horses

and cattle. A Pampas wanderer, dependent on horses for

transportation, on cattle and wildlife for food and clothing.

Gauchos lived outside urban centers and farming settlements.

He represents the life in the open range, traveling when and where he wanted.

When not working, he spent his time at the pulperia, drinking maté or alcohol, card playing, and fighting.

Macho men with a strong sense of identity and code of conduct, who settled disputes by their own rules.

GAUCHOS The gaucho is a romantic image of the past. He represents freedom from urban encumbrances. Jose Hernandez idealized

the gaucho in his work Martin Fierro. His work depicts the life of a persecuted gaucho and describes the changes in their lives.

TANGO, THE CULTURE OF IMMIGRANTSTANGO was the common language that united people from different cultures.

The tango originated in the tenements where poor immigrants lived together.

The first Tango published in Argentina appeared in 1857. • Music and dance were improvised; musicians played the guitar, the violin, the accordion, the flute.• Different styles - immigrant and Argentine- blended together and slowly created the Tango.

Immigrants introduced new instruments and dances with their shocking new hold (couples facing each other).

• The lyrics of first tangos were comic.• Written in first person, lyrics described the great qualities the character possessed. • In Don Juan, (1900) the character describes himself as such a great dancer that when he dances, everyone

talks about it. He points out how incredibly good-looking and brave he is.

LA MILONGA

TANGO SOCIAL STANDINGS

• AT the beginning, tango lyrics were not acceptable to Argentine elite and middle classes.• Only after tango was popular in Europe, a market for tango music among Argentine

middle and upper classes began. • As the quality of lyrics improved and with the advent of radio, and sound film, great

tango singers emerged.

Today tango, the product of urban immigrants, is the most significant expression of Argentine history and culture.

FOR YOUR EARS AND EYES! Tango dance and music• http://youtu.be/LkfzK_nX-QM La Cumparsita http://youtu.be/22v8hyBSDaY Baile: Milonga, Vieja Milonga• http://youtu.be/dtkWVdVbv78 Gardel, Tomo y Obligo http://youtu.be/JGMOYUZDh2o Reliquias Portenas• http://youtu.be/D6w2IFa9fzU Milonga Todotango.com / la cumparsita el Choclo• https://youtu.be/adBKHIrl2Bw La Cumparsita/ Los Guardiola https://youtu.be/DbsBg-Ek57o Sebastian Arce & Mariana Montes at Palais Ferstel, Vienna

SUMMARY

• Nineteenth century was a difficult time for people and government.• Nonetheless, some progress occurred.• Nations displayed tremendous continuity and cohesion in the face of

regional forces.• There were elements of stability despite the political instability and

civil wars.• One or two figures (caudillos) dominated for a decade or more,

though not continuously occupying the presidency

NEW NATIONS, NEW WORLD ORDER (1870-1930)  

LATIN AMERICAN elites abandoned colonial traditions and embrace European ideas and fashions

Liberal Capitalism promoted PROGRESS Free trade: specialize in producing raw materials Countries exported a few commodities in demand abroad• Argentina: meat, wool, grains• Mexico: minerals, oil• Chile: nitrates and copper• Colombia and Brazil: coffee• Dominican Republic and Cuba: sugar