“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
community. Local courts became important arenas in which the practices underpinning borderlands legalities could be reaffirmed. As a result, inherited imperial categories of local citizenship or belonging like vecindad took on renewed significance. Defining their boundaries became an important source of power. The reactivation of these concepts within the new system of borderlands legalities in turn provided a vital source of stability. They began to resolve prickly questions of political and social identities in a region that continued to be beset by intense struggles over sovereignty itself. Local autonomy, borderlands legalities and blurred boundaries all went hand-in-hand. Rosas and the Borderlands Commercial Revolution While the peace brokered by British diplomats creating an independent Uruguayan republic in 1828 produced a short-lived calm in the borderlands, the financial and political toil of the war only deepened conflicts in the centers of the Argentine Confederation and the Brazilian empire. In Argentina, the unitarian government under Bernardino Rivadavia collapsed under the financial strains of the prolonged conflict. When Argentine forces under General Juan Lavalle returned from the battlefield to find a new, federalist government under General Manuel Dorrego, they promptly revolted. Lavalle seized power, assassinating Dorrego in the process. As José Barrán declared, the murder “filled the trench separating the two parties with blood.” 1 Buenos Aires again slipped into chaos. The conflicts in Buenos Aires, however, heralded the rise of a new source of power in the port. Outraged, federalist caudillos outside of Buenos Aires rallied around Juan Manuel de Rosas. Rosas was one of wealthiest landowners in Buenos Aires province. In this sense, he represented a new political force that rooted its power and wealth in ranching activities 1 José Pedro Barrán, Apogeo y Crisis del Uruguay Pastoril y Caudillesco: 1839-1875 (Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1977), 13. 64
and staple exports instead of the old colonial merchant trade. 2 Utilizing his personal wealth and standing within the provincial rancher community, Rosas fashioned a base of support through an astute mixture of republican populism and harsh measures designed to ensure political order in the countryside. 3 Rosas overthrew Lavalle’s unitarists, driving them into exile in the Uruguayan Republic. The provincial assembly proclaimed Rosas the new governor in early December 1829. Under Rosas’ direction, the assembly began enacting draconian measures to tramp down on political opposition and consolidate Rosas’ authority. Rosas became “the Restorer of Laws.” 4 Having secured leadership in the province, Rosas turned to consolidating his political power within the dominant federalist coalition. In 1832 he left the office of Governor and promptly undertook a brutal campaign to pacify the indigenous populations along Buenos Aires’ southern frontier. He then distributed the spoils of war to his political allies. At the same time, he worked behind the scenes to undermine successive provincial governments. Through this combination of military action and political subterfuge, Rosas established himself as the sole source of order in the province. In 1835, Rosas triumphantly returned to the governorship and further consolidated his grip on power. The provincial legislature granted him “the sum of public powers” for five years, accelerating the drift towards authoritarian rule. Rosas quickly suppressed what remained of the political opposition. With his grip on the government secure, he then used periodic plebiscites to extend his 2 Tulio Halperín Donghi famously described this process as the “ruralization of the bases of power.” Halperín Donghi, Rovolución y Guerra, 380-404. Domingo Sarmiento similarly picked up on this invasion of the urban space by the American countryside in his dichotomy of civilization and barbarism. Sarmiento, Facundo. 3 Salvatore, Wandering Paysanos, ———, ed. Caudillismos Rioplatenses. 4 John Lynch, Argentine Dictator: Juan Manuel de Rosas, 1829-1852 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), Adolfo Saldías, Historia de la Confederación Argentina, 3 vols. (Buenos Aires: Ed. Clio, 1975). 65
- Page 23 and 24: local legal norms and practices in
- Page 25 and 26: that has greatly expanded the space
- Page 27 and 28: along rivertine trading corridors.
- Page 29 and 30: strains articulated by men like Art
- Page 31 and 32: Bringing the courts back into the s
- Page 33 and 34: of borderlands leaders to negotiate
- Page 35 and 36: Removing the old colonial order, ho
- Page 37 and 38: the city remained a sparsely popula
- Page 39 and 40: smugglers and other imperial outlaw
- Page 41 and 42: Imperial Collapse and Fragmentation
- Page 43 and 44: ivers, deserts and a few vagrant an
- Page 45 and 46: defend its possessions, peninsular
- Page 47 and 48: They requested that the Junta appoi
- Page 49 and 50: manufactured products for the Andea
- Page 51 and 52: The Paraguayan government proposed
- Page 53 and 54: Montevideo in January of 1811, he i
- Page 55 and 56: Ríos. From there, he continued to
- Page 57 and 58: easoning. 25 They had rejected the
- Page 59 and 60: military headquarters along the ban
- Page 61 and 62: sovereignty rooted in borderlands p
- Page 63 and 64: Artigas’ defeat did not spell the
- Page 65 and 66: economy. By 1822, the powerful merc
- Page 67 and 68: universal laws that would further r
- Page 69 and 70: Pedro abdicated the throne in 1831,
- Page 71 and 72: CHAPTER 2 THE (RE)EMERGENCE OF BORD
- Page 73: operate throughout the borderlands
- Page 77 and 78: Ríos in particular witnessed a dra
- Page 79 and 80: goods as far north as the cities of
- Page 81 and 82: simmering struggles. By 1840, local
- Page 83 and 84: merchants, traders and landowners.
- Page 85 and 86: earning the faction’s colorado ti
- Page 87 and 88: Guarch’s deal with Carvalho revea
- Page 89 and 90: web of reciprocal relationships tha
- Page 91 and 92: the border in Brazil. In this way,
- Page 93 and 94: In short, over the course of a deca
- Page 95 and 96: that he had employed to first arran
- Page 97 and 98: opposite direction from Porto Alegr
- Page 99 and 100: Pinto sought to have the property d
- Page 101 and 102: dealings with Vázquez and the Carv
- Page 103 and 104: Ríos or by ship to Montero’s out
- Page 105 and 106: alliances with the blancos to open
- Page 107 and 108: connections up and down the river t
- Page 109 and 110: With his money now in limbo and his
- Page 111 and 112: honorable merchant. His associates
- Page 113 and 114: meant more than establishing a docu
- Page 115 and 116: Uruguaiana and Salto. 80 Chaves and
- Page 117 and 118: complex laws “that they only unde
- Page 119 and 120: were considered suspect, particular
- Page 121 and 122: status. Public recognition of one
- Page 123 and 124: They reasoned that “one has to re
community. Local courts became important arenas in which the practices underpinning<br />
borderlands legalities could be reaffirmed. As a result, inherited imperial categories of local<br />
citizenship or belonging like vecindad took on renewed significance. Defining their<br />
boundaries became an important source of power. The reactivation of these concepts<br />
within the new system of borderlands legalities in turn provided a vital source of stability.<br />
They began to resolve prickly questions of political and social identities in a region that<br />
continued to be beset by intense struggles over sovereignty itself. Local autonomy,<br />
borderlands legalities and blurred boundaries all went hand-in-hand.<br />
Rosas and the Borderlands Commercial Revolution<br />
While the peace brokered by British diplomats creating an independent Uruguayan<br />
republic in 1828 produced a short-lived calm in the borderlands, the financial and political<br />
toil of the war only deepened conflicts in the centers of the Argentine Confederation and the<br />
Brazilian empire. In Argentina, the unitarian government under Bernardino Rivadavia<br />
collapsed under the financial strains of the prolonged conflict. When Argentine forces under<br />
General Juan Lavalle returned from the battlefield to find a new, federalist government<br />
under General Manuel Dorrego, they promptly revolted. Lavalle seized power, assassinating<br />
Dorrego in the process. As José Barrán declared, the murder “filled the trench separating<br />
the two parties with blood.” 1 Buenos Aires again slipped into chaos.<br />
The conflicts in Buenos Aires, however, heralded the rise of a new source of power<br />
in the port. Outraged, federalist caudillos outside of Buenos Aires rallied around Juan Manuel<br />
de Rosas. Rosas was one of wealthiest landowners in Buenos Aires province. In this sense,<br />
he represented a new political force that rooted its power and wealth in ranching activities<br />
<br />
1 José Pedro Barrán, Apogeo y Crisis del Uruguay Pastoril y Caudillesco: 1839-1875<br />
(Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1977), 13.<br />
64 <br />
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