“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Negotiating in the Shadow of Wars
In the wake of Pavón, Urquiza recognized that the Argentine Confederation lacked
the economic resources to exist without Buenos Aires and the revenues from its port.
Urquiza had used his substantial prestige and wealth to hold the Confederation together, but
he lacked the resources personally to sustain the demands of state-making. He now
understood the growing limits on the autonomy from Buenos Aires that he had spent the
majority of his life defending. Urquiza recognized that the new national state possessed
sufficient political and economic power to force federalists in the borderlands “to accept
minimal rules of political conduct.” 1 Yet, the question of what those rules would be within
the national structure remained unresolved. By engaging with national authorities in Buenos
Aires when they needed his substantial power and prestige most, Urquiza hoped to shape the
relationship between his province and the larger state to his advantage.
Urquiza’s posture suggested a delicate balance between supporting the traditional
federalists that continued to invoke his name as a rallying cry for autonomy from Buenos
Aires and backing Mitre and the porteño-dominated national government. This meant that
even as Urquiza forged an alliance with Mitre that would form the foundation for the
emerging Argentine state throughout the 1860s, the entrerriano leader continued to guard his
personal control over Entre Ríos zealously. In the aftermath of Pavón, Urquiza succeeded
in keeping national forces outside of the province. Even as his power declined on a national
scale, therefore, Urquiza’s absolute control over the province’s military forces permitted him
to remain an economic and political force. Urquiza then leveraged his local position to
bolster trading relationships beyond provincial boundaries. From San José, Urquiza
dispensed both justice and credit to his personal allies. He continued to use his reputation to
1 Adelman, Republic of Capital, 277.
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