“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

attle in March of 1870. 29 By the end, almost 200,000 Paraguayans, more than 60% of the
population, had died during the war. The Brazilian losses, included those from disease, were
estimated at nearly 100,000. 30
For their part, Argentine forces in Paraguay never recovered from the defeat at
Curupaity. Mitre largely abandoned military operations. He played only a supporting role
during Caxias’ campaigns. By the end of 1866, fewer than 5,000 troops were in active
service in Mitre’s national army. The vast majority had been secured through brutal
impressments. 31 Resistance to these forced levies became a rallying cry for federalists
throughout the countryside. As Ariel de la Fuente persuasively argued, this recruitment and
the repression accompanying it, transformed the war “into an unprecedented social and
political conflict of national dimensions.” 32 With their involvement in Paraguay winding
down, fighting between the federalists and Mitre now erupted in Argentina’s interior. By the
end of 1866, a number of northern and western provinces rallied around Juan Saá and Felipe
Varela in a renewed federalist campaign against Mitre’s government. Mitre returned from
Paraguay in 1867 to confront the federalist rebels. The porteño general energetically lead a
vicious campaign that devastated the region. Oppressive measures against the local
populations followed the national army’s military victories as Mitre and his allies moved to
extinguish federalist opposition once and for all in the interior. 33
Urquiza had once again managed to steer Entre Ríos away from these political
conflicts. Moreover, unlike in the interior, local elites throughout the Argentine Littoral had
29 Ibid., 168-90, 213-31.
30 Ibid., 236-37.
31 David Rock, State Building and Political Movements in Argentina, 1860-1916 (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 2002), 41.
32 De la Fuente, Children of Facundo, 170.
33 Ibid., 164-76.
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