Argentine nationalism is the nationalism of Argentine people and Argentine culture. It surged during the War of Independence and the Civil Wars, and strengthened during the 1880s.
There were waves of renewed interest in nationalism in response to World War II, the National Reorganization Process and the December 2001 riots.
Modern Argentina was once part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, part of the Spanish Empire. The capture of the Spanish king during the Peninsular War began the Argentine War of Independence. It was based on the principle of the retroversion of the sovereignty to the people: with the king absent, the sovereignty returned to its subjects who were then capable to rule themselves.
This led to conflicts among the provinces of the viceroyalty: some factions wanted to maintain the country under the centralist organization used so far, others wanted to use a federalist system, and others wanted to secede their provinces as independent countries. This led to the Argentine Civil Wars. The Supreme Directors of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata were centralists, and José Gervasio Artigas were federalists. Those groups evolved into the Unitarian Party and the Federal Party respectively. [2]
The sense of national unity was increased during the French and Franco-British blockade of the Río de la Plata. Britain and France sought to prevent Juan Manuel de Rosas from interfering in Uruguay with a naval blockade, having the side effect of boosting the popularity of Rosas and increasing national solidarity. [3]
In the 1880s Argentina seized Patagonia with the Conquest of the Desert, and secured its modern national limits. It was feared that the great European immigration wave to Argentina would dilute national identity, so Vicente Quesada and other historians promoted nationalism by establishing the idea of the viceroyalty as the "Grand Argentina", broke into several countries by the meddling of outside powers. This perception was reinforced by the diplomatic conflicts with Brazil of the time. [4]
Nationalism resurfaced during the 1930s. Opposed to Alvear's turnaround, in 1935, young Yrigoyenistas from a nationalist background founded FORJA (Fuerza Orientadora Radical de la Juventud Argentina, Radical Orienting Force of Argentine Youth), which had as leaders the Socialist Arturo Jauretche, Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz and Gabriel del Mazo. FORJA's motto was: "We are a colonial Argentina, we want to be a free Argentina." [10] Among other things, FORJA denounced the silence of the government on many problems such as the creation of the Central Bank, "economic sacrifices imposed in benefices of foreign capitalism", "petroleum politics", "arbitrary military interventions", "restrictions to freedom of opinion", "incorporation to the League of Nations", "suppression of relations with Russia", "parliamentary investigations", "the Senate crime", etc. and specially during World War II. Those nationalists thought that Argentina had an economic dependence of Britain, and that the country should not help Britain in the conflict but stay neutral. This nationalism led to the Revolution of '43, and during it to the emergence of Juan Domingo Perón. Perón reported the meddling of the ambassador of the United States Spruille Braden in the 1946 election, and won by a landslide. He nationalized several key tools of the economy of Argentina, and declared Argentine economic independence. [5]
The analogies between Perón and Rosas became explicit during the Revolución Libertadora , a coup that ousted Perón from power and banned Peronism. Eduardo Lonardi, de facto president, used the quote "ni vencedores ni vencidos" (Spanish: "neither victors nor vanquished"), which was used by Justo José de Urquiza after deposing Rosas in the battle of Caseros. The official perspective was that Perón was "the second tyranny", the first one being Rosas, and that both ones should be equally rejected, and conversely both governments that ousted them should be praised. For this end they draw the line of historical continuity "May – Caseros – Libertadora", matching the coup with the May Revolution and the defeat of Rosas. This approach backfired. Perón was highly popular and the military coup unpopular; so Peronists embraced the comparison established between Rosas and Perón, but viewing him with a positive light instead. [6] Nationalist historians draw then their own line of historical continuity, "San Martín – Rosas – Perón". [1]
The National Reorganization Process promoted nationalist values during the Dirty War and the Falklands War. Both conflicts generated huge controversy. Nationalism declined in the following years as a result, increasing Americanization during the 1990s. [7] Nationalism resurfaced again after the December 2001 riots in Argentina. [7]
The Argentine Confederation was the last predecessor state of modern Argentina; its name is still one of the official names of the country according to the Argentine Constitution, Article 35. It was the name of the country from 1831 to 1852, when the provinces were organized as a confederation without a head of state. The governor of Buenos Aires Province managed foreign relations during this time. Under his rule, the Argentine Confederation engaged in conflicts with Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, France and the United Kingdom, as well as other Argentine factions during the Argentine Civil Wars.
José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras, nicknamed "the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru", was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire who served as the Protector of Peru. Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes, in modern-day Argentina, he left the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata at the early age of seven to study in Málaga, Spain.
Carlos María de Alvear, was an Argentine soldier and statesman, Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1815.
Junta Grande, or Junta Provisional Gubernativa de Buenos Aires, is the most common name for the executive government of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, that followed the incorporation of provincial representatives into the Primera Junta.
Revolución Libertadora as it named itself, was the civic-military dictatorship that ruled the Republic of Argentina after overthrowing President Juan Domingo Perón, shutting down the National Congress, removing members of the Supreme Court, as well as provincial, municipal, and university authorities, and placing the entire Judiciary under commission. This occurred through a coup d'état on 16 September 1955. After two years, it organized conditional elections, which transferred power to a government led by the Radical Arturo Frondizi on 1 May 1958, who would also be overthrown in 1962.
The United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, earlier known as the United Provinces of South America, was a name adopted in 1816 by the Congress of Tucumán for the region of South America that declared independence in 1816, with the Sovereign Congress taking place in 1813, during the Argentine War of Independence (1810–1818) that began with the May Revolution in 1810. It originally comprised rebellious territories of the former Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata dependencies and had Buenos Aires as its capital.
Argentina is ultimately derived from the Latin argentum "silver" and the feminine of the adjectival suffix -inus. The first use of the name Argentina can be traced back to the first voyages made by the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors to the Río de la Plata in the first years of the 16th century.
Manuel Dorrego was an Argentine statesman and soldier. He was governor of Buenos Aires in 1820, and then again from 1827 to 1828.
Arturo Martín Jauretche was an Argentine writer, politician, and philosopher.
The history of Argentina can be divided into four main parts: the pre-Columbian time or early history, the colonial period (1536–1809), the period of nation-building (1810–1880), and the history of modern Argentina.
The Argentine Civil Wars were a series of civil conflicts of varying intensity that took place through the territories of Argentina from 1814 to 1853. Beginning concurrently with the Argentine War of Independence (1810–1818), the conflict prevented the formation of a stable governing body until the signing of the Argentine Constitution of 1853, followed by low-frequency skirmishes that ended with the Federalization of Buenos Aires in 1880.
The 1943 Argentine Revolution was a coup d'état on 4 June 1943 that ended the government of Ramón Castillo, who had been fraudulently elected to the office of vice-president before succeeding to the presidency in 1942 as part of the period known as the Infamous Decade. The coup d'état was launched by the lodge of the "United Officer Groups", a secret military organization of nationalist nature. Although its soldiers shared different views of nationalism: there were Catholic nationalists, Radicals, military with a more pragmatic approach, and even fascists. The military was opposed to Governor Robustiano Patrón Costas, Castillo's hand-picked successor, a major landowner in Salta Province and a primary stockholder in the sugar industry. The only serious resistance to the military coup came from the Argentine Navy, which confronted the advancing army columns at the Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics.
The National Sovereignty Day is a national public holiday of Argentina, celebrated during November 20. It commemorates the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, which took place on 20 November 1845 during the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata. Argentine Confederation forces, led by Juan Manuel de Rosas, were attacked by a combined Anglo-French fleet. Although the attackers broke through Argentine defenses and routed Rosas' forces, the heavy losses they suffered proved that foreign ships could not safely navigate Argentina's internal waters against its government's wishes. The battle also changed political attitudes toward the Argentine Confederation among other South American nations by increasing support for Rosas and his regime. The day was enacted as a national observance in 1974, following a request from the revisionist historian José María Rosa, and promoted into a national holiday in 2010.
The history of Argentina during World War II was a complex period that began in 1939, after the outbreak of the war in Europe, and ended in 1945 with the surrender of the Empire of Japan.
Argentine irredentism refers to the idea that Argentina has suffered large territorial losses early in the 19th century to neighboring countries, and that it must strive to regain control of them, forming "Great Argentina", envisioned with the same borders as the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This idea surged in popularity in the late 19th century, and peaked in influence in the late 1940s and early 1950s. All of these claims have been abandoned by Argentina, except for the Falkland Islands.
The dissolution of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata meant the breakup of the Spanish colony in South America and the creation of new independent countries. Most of the territory of the Spanish viceroyalty is now part of Argentina, and other regions belong to Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The historiography of Juan Manuel de Rosas is highly controversial. Most Argentine historians take an approach either for or against him, a dispute that has influenced much of the entire historiography of Argentina.
Juan Manuel de Rosas was Governor of Buenos Aires Province during the Argentine Civil Wars. Deposed during the battle of Caseros, he spent his later life in exile in Southampton, England, where he died on March 14, 1877. He was buried at the Southampton Old Cemetery, and after a number of failed attempts the body was repatriated to Argentina and taken to La Recoleta Cemetery, where his remains are buried.
John William Cooke was an Argentine lawyer and politician. An early follower of President Juan Perón, Cooke went on to form part and lead the revolutionary leftist wing of the Peronist movement. Following the 1955 coup d'état, an exiled Perón appointed Cooke as his proxy in Argentina.
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