THE ARGENTINE CIVIL WARS 1819

THE ARGENTINE CIVIL WARS 1819 - 1852=

In 1819 the Congress in Buenos Aires (having earned the enmity of the provinces by migrating from Tucumán) was dominated by the Porteños. They drafted a Unitarian , Centralist constituti= on which was opposed by the caudillos who ruled in the provinces—López in Santa Fé<= /span>; Ramírez in Entre <= span class=3DSpellE>Ríos; Guemes in Salta; and Araóz in Tucum&= aacute;n. José Rondeau, governor of the port of Buenos Aires= , ordered San Martín to return from Chile with the Army of the Andes and rescue the central government from the caudillos; San Martín refused, believing that the defeat of the Royalists was the supreme busines= s at hand. Rondeau also ordered General Belgrano, commanding the Army of the North, to come t= o his aid. However, this army mutinied at Arequito (1= 65 mi WNW of Buenos Aires) and disintegrated. The Provincials duly defeated the P= orteños at the Battle of Cepeda and imposed the Treaty = of Pilar.

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OPPOSING F= ORCES Many participated in the fighting over the next four decades— the Provincials or Federalists, the Porteños= or Unitarians, the opposing Blanco and Colorado parties in Uruguay, and, on occasion, the Bolivians, Paraguayans, Brazilians, British, and French. In t= he 1820s, the population of today’s Argentina was about 600,000 p= eople. 150,000 lived in the province of Buenos Aires It= was stronger than any other province but not equal to their combined weight. Ma= ny lived in the port.

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The southe= rn half of today’s Arg= entina was empty except for nomadic Indians. And this distribution of the Argentine population remained constant over the next few decades; immigration was not encouraged.

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The Provin= cials (Federalists) primarily relied on the gauchos to form their armies. Typical= ly, such armies had three times as many cavalry as infantry. Once Manuel Rosas dominated the Provincials beginning in the late 1820s, he added a new eleme= nt to the Provincial army: the poor from the port of Buenos Aire= s. He maintained an army camp just outside the port.

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The Unitar= ians initially drew their support from the commercial class. Once driven into ex= ile in Montevideo, they were reinforced by European liberal refugees after the 1848 and other revolutions.

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Both the p= oor and the gaucho disdained the more affluent Unitarians, hence the slogan “Death to the filthy, loathsome, savage Unitarians.” Rosas ’ army did not require much logistical sup= port. The gauchos were used to living off the fertile countryside, and the poor, = who made up the infantry, were used to doing without.

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Manuel Ros= as dominated the Río de la Plata from the late 1820s through the early 1850s. To this day, he is characterized as a “saint” by some and a “devil” by others. Those who = laud this caudillo dwell on his opposition to the incursions of European nations= into the region. Those who demonize Rosas focus on his brutality. His armies usu= ally included an individual with the “rank” of executioner. Those executed typically had their throats slit.

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Although a= rmed with muskets and rifles, native weapons were favored due to the scarcity of gunpowder. Much of the cavalry was armed with lances which frequently were the most lethal weapons on the battlefield. Most men carried a knife, a lazo, and a boleadora (also known as “the three Marys”). = A boleadora was three stones or lead balls attached to rawhide thongs about five feet long which were tied together. When throwing, the user held one ball and swung the others to gain momentum before releasi= ng it. Another force at Rosas’ disposal for maintaining internal security was the Mazorca (ear of cor= n , so called because of the cohesion of its members). During Rosas’ brief absence from politics (1832– 35), his wife worked through a society f= or his restoration (La Sociedad Popular Restauradora ) which evolved into the secret support group, the Mazor= ca. The Mazorca created a cult that deified Rosas. = His portraits found their way near the altars of the churches. Even the color blue, associated with the Unitarians, vanished = from view and everyone was required to wear the scarlet of the federation. =

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Scheina, Robert L. (2003-01-31). Latin America's Wars, Volume I: The Age of the Caudillo, 1791-1899 (Kindle Locations 3198-3236). Po= tomac Books. Kindle Edition.

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