“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

CHAPTER 7
CONFLICTS AND COMPROMISES
BY THE MID-1860S, ELITES THROUGHOUT THE RÍO DE LA PLATA PONDERED
questions of the relationship between increasingly assertive national projects and the
continuing resistance to them in the periphery. Even as frictions along the Uruguayan and
Brazilian border over questions of social standing and national sovereignty threatened to
drag the entire region towards war, prominent figures were engaged in a concerted effort to
develop practical solutions that could reconcile local autonomy with national systems.
Urquiza in particular understood the need to resolve the conflicts between national and local
authorities to preserve his own personal power and political position. Urquiza’s vision
rested on two fundamental observations about the evolving relationship with the central
state. First, his experience with the Confederation had made it clear that the Argentine state
could not exist without Buenos Aires. The increasing economic and military ascendancy of
that province had permitted Mitre to establish his own networks of connections throughout
the borderlands and challenge Urquiza’s dominant position over political affairs. With
Urquiza no longer able to hold the Argentine Confederation together through personal
associations, he recognized that he would have to concede to porteño demands for a more
centralized state.
Second, although Buenos Aires would now be the head of the nation, Urquiza
understood that he still possessed sufficient strength to carve out space within this national
framework for his own province and political allies. Urquiza’s solution was to strike a
balance between provincial autonomy and national consolidation by attempting to position
himself as a moderating influence between the more radical sovereign models on either side.
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