“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Pedro abdicated the throne in 1831, leaving power to a cadre of advisers around his young
son. 43
Despite their relative military successes, the United Provinces could never score a
decisive victory that could end the borderlands war. Imperial armies continued to menace
the Banda. The ebb and flow of constant military movements again devastated the
borderlands and drained resources away from the combatants. 44 While the Brazilian empire
sagged under the weight of the conflict, the much more fragile national government in the
United Provinces collapsed altogether. Even before the war intensified in 1826, Rivadavia
faced fierce federalist opposition to the new national constitution. The war then strained the
fragile finances sustaining Rivadavia’s government. As the new state faltered, federalists
throughout the countryside rose to demand that the substantial powers accorded to the new
national government under the constitution be rolled back. In 1827, Manuel Dorrego, the
federalist general and governor of Buenos Aires Province, forged a new Federal Pact
designed to unify provincial opposition to the porteño centrists. The final act in the unitarist
tragedy occurred when the lines of credit supporting Rivadavia’s government collapsed on
the London markets. Facing a financial and military disaster, Rivadavia renounced the
presidency and fled the country. The national government imploded with his departure,
leaving behind a fragmented confederation of provinces. Dorrego entered the city and
established provincial authority over the former national capital. Once again, political efforts
to unify the old viceregal territories under a new national government had failed. 45
43 Adelman, Sovereignty and Revolution, 391.
44 Street, Artigas and the Emancipation of Uruguay, 351-66.
45 Adelman, Sovereignty and Revolution, 386-91.
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